Sniffly and snotty from the chilly January air, we arrived after frosty morning cycles and runs to take on the garden for Mr P. We were warmly welcomed inside to meet his friendly and chatty fluffy black cat who has Mr P living with him and has support from a carer to get around. After a recent long hospital stay, Mr P’s outside area had become neglected and he is no longer able to handle the up keep. He took the time to tell us about recent tragic experiences of losing his wife and taking a fall that restricted his mobility. Mr P proudly showed us photos of his wife and his framed plaque of the Queen’s Honour! We were pleased to be able to support such an admirable gentleman! He had kindly showed us the chocolates and sweets that he had ready for us on the way to showing us his garden tools that had been left for us. We needed to do some negotiating with the garden shed as the door had jammed shut in the colder weather but Caroline managed to pry it open.

Once we had assessed the scale of the task we had decided that the priority was to make the outside area safer and easier to access for Mr P. by clearing away the debris that was strewn across the path to the shed and freeing up space on the patio area leading to the overgrown garden. There were many piles of crockery, bins, litter and other unwanted items that had cluttered the area so we set to work gathering all the odd items and tucked them out of the way filling bin bags as we went. I was a little bit overly enthusiastic with a rough bristled broom and only managed to use it briefly before the rusted handle snapped and had to swap tools. Samia and Caroline had a scraping good time as they got hoe-ld of some old garden hoes that worked well for removing weeds from the patio's brickwork. Although we were unable to get to work on the garden properly we did notice a big difference in the outside area once we’d de-cluttered and removed many obstacles for Mr. P and others to access the garden safely. We’d be happy to return for another mission to tackle the garden.