How lovely to meet in the warm Benk&Bo cafe this evening for tonight's task. Lulled into a false sense of security, we shed waterproofs and marvelled at what a great meeting spot this was.

Fast-forward fifteen minutes and we were up on the gorgeous rooftop garden as the heavens opened. "I'm glad this wasn't forecast," I kept saying, to an indifferent audience.

And so to the task...

There was a lot going on. Freya, our task owner at Benk&Bo/Middlesex St Community Garden, had arranged a brilliantly-planned session, but there were still little task bottle-necks with only one industrious task owner.

The team who'd taken on the heavy-lifting for the night, The Compost Crew, were very patient, sheltering under the stairs until their time came for expert instruction.

And so we headed down to the car park, where a huge sack of compost awaited. The task? To shovel into wheelbarrows; wheel into the lift, and back up to the podium level, to be distributed all over the garden.

Meanwhile, in the bamboo garden

A large team was assembled raking leaves to prepare for the newly-fetched compost. No mean feat in wind and rain, nonetheless the ground was cleared, making way for fresh new soil.

Another team headed to the sunken garden (yes, that's its name) to help empty a barrow full of compost into a planter (raising a full wheelbarrow into the air, turning and loading into a planter is a good Monday night lats workout, btw), before planting a new cherry tree.

While yet another team were turning compost in the large bays to the rear of the garden, adding coffee, and turning again. Another great workout.

The time flew, or so it seemed, and before long, we were committing to one last compost-run, and digging out forks and trowels from the dark, muddy undergrowth, before posing for one final picture.

The shout-outs

A huge success all-round: thanks to Freya our brilliant task-owner, who arranged all this, and ran a brilliant task, and a big shout-out to the whole team tonight, including Rob for our fun pun, and to our first time GoodGymers, Paul, Monty, Neil and Daryl. Thanks for a brilliant night and we hope to see you again soon.

Keep an eye out for new Sunday sessions at this gorgeous location coming SOON!

Meanwhile, next Monday sees us returning to the Royal London for a fun-filled evening with the Barts Volunteers.

Until then.