Josie and Patrick joined forces to give Mr S a Happy Independence Day by tackling the thorny brambles and weeds which were preventing him from enjoying his garden

The weather took another dramatic turn, swapping last week's downpours to glorious sunshine.

We had a brief encounter of the, well, brief kind with the main group, exchanged greetings and sweaty smiles then separated as the main group had a long, hot run ahead of them to Stamford Hill. I heard it went well and that they had watermelon! Totes jel.

After bidding farewell to our group runners for their long run we had a very quick jaunt through Josie's childhood streets and found a smiling Mr S, excited to meet and greet us and show us his back garden from a professional distance.

It was a lovely evening and the sun beckoned Mr S to go outside but the thorns said no, they own the place.

All gloved up and thorny

Thankfully we'd brought our own gloves. Mr S gave us some shears and I happened to have my own folding secateurs.

It's good to talk

We chatted about recent races in Eastern Europe and how groups make it so fun, and our connections with Malawi. We also both agreed that parkrun is a wonderful concept and it's great that GoodGym and parkrun are working together. Josie is a doctor and she reckons setting up a parkrun will save more lives than she ever will in her lifetime due to improved physical and mental health. Profound stuff and that really resonated with me.

Anyway, just over an hour passed so we then gingerly bagged up the thorny brambles and gave the patio a quick hand brush. Note to self is to buy a new pair of leather gloves to be able to grab brambles by the thorns.

Happy Independence Day

Mr S gave a quick inspection of the makeover, smiled and was excited about being able to enjoy his outdoor space again.

We disposed of the two bin bags then ran back to the Bakehouse right on time.