I always look forward to community missions with Friends of Maidenhead Waterways (FoMW), and this morning's did not disappoint. Here are all the things that made me ex-streamly happy this morning:

• A sociable bike ride to the task with Sheila and Georgeta
• The ridiculous yet liberating feeling of putting on a pair of waders
• The lovely setting of Battlemead Common
• Great company from dream stream team Anita, Georgeta, Nivi, Sheila, Paul and our brilliant leader Tony
• Introducing (still miraculously Dry) Paul to the joy of wading
• An array of long tools for us all to play with
• Plenty of comedy moments where people nearly went swimming
• Some admirable displays of balance and strength - especially from Georgeta when she was working on the henceforth named Georgeta Island
• Seeing how much Sheila, Georgeta, Nivi and Anita all enjoyed their first FoMW session
• All the talk about titivating and/or titillating the weeds. Incidentally the dictionary definitions are quite different! Titivate means to make minor adjustments to, whilst titillate means to cause to feel pleasantly excited...
• Hot coffee supplied by Ian, who was leading another group nearby - thank you Ian!
• Anita's heavenly home made sesame chikki and her offer of seconds (and thirds and fourths)
  
• Being immersed in nature and all the squelchy mud
• The fact that the weeds we were tackling today were particularly stubborn, but we defeated them anyway
• Seeing the water starting to move as we cleared weeds and debris, and knowing that it was on it's way to fill up the town centre streams
• Another lovely bike ride back home, clocking up a few more kms for the January Challenge
• The hot shower and roast dinner, which felt sublime after a January morning spent outside

We've said it before and we'll say it again... Waterway to spend a Saturday morning!