It was muggy with the odd spot of rain falling as I cycled over to Ms J in Ealing to help clear her garden.

With the impending rain forecast we made our way around the back of the house and down an alley way into Ms J’s back garden where she showed me what she would like doing.

This was a task of two halves, firstly there were two trees in the neighbouring garden and a rose bush which had grown so tall they were starting to block out the light into the property. As one of the smaller goodgymers on the circuit and with only a small step stool to help me reach the branches today this was the quicker part of the task. I chopped back what I could without falling over the garden fence and taking the rose bush with me, before starting to clear the moss and weeds from the side of Ms J’s house.

We had a good chat about the Midlands after Ms J detected my accent wasn’t local. Much to the amusement of anyone from the south who has ever met me, Ms J is convinced I sound like a northerner … even though we grew up within 20 miles of each other in the midlands.

After finishing bagging up the weeds and scraping the path clear we decided I should pack up before the rain came.