To the bench!

We set our sights high and long. Last time we tasked ourselves with finding the path to get to the lawn, this time we would venture through the bramble-filled lawn, with our aim of reaching The Bench.

It was comparable to a jungle, a forest of brambles, and three intrepid explorers waded through, returning with giant trees for Caroline to cut down into the prickliest of heaps.

Be careful not to fall onto this prickly mountain

Caroline sensibly advised. A leading figure in Mission Fashion, Caroline today was seen sporting a new trend: “the shears and secateurs tucked into wellies” look. You could say it’s a well(y) good idea.

Some brambles were “three Samia’s high”, some were uncuttable, even by Kate Sheerhands, and some pierced through the hardiest of hardcore gardening gloves.

Now where do you end?

Then there were those that some took Samia and Kate on a tour of the garden, buried under the carpet of lawn and leading us around the garden, in circles, under the bench, around the corner, twisting and turning and requiring Nicky to a) identify an end or b) cut us free. We continued to discover and uncover various hidden statues, birdbaths and furniture in Mr P’s garden, adding a menagerie of creatures to the lonely stone cat that we found last week.

What ARE we going to do with this heap?

We scratched our heads, pondered for some time - and then opted to fill the bed with nothing but brambles growing in it with the victims of the dethornification. Time for Project Bramble Relocation. Loading up the bed, Samia was ecstatic to find a new form of cross training in the form of bramble-ining. This proved much more fun than regular stamping down on the cuttings and also enabled her to see Over The Fence, in a land far away where gardens are not forests of brambles and she reported back eagerly with her findings.

And we started a new form of cross training: bramble-ining. All in an afternoon’s mission 🤸‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/ZqRrGw4BRr

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) February 10, 2019

At one point Nicky, Caroline and Kate were adding to the bramble heap at a rate that Samia couldn’t keep up with (she had found more brambles to hack in bramble land) - and she did become brambled in. But the joy of bramble-ining meant that she could boing her way back to thorn-free ground with Nicky on stand-by to catch.

After reaching The Bench (a good benchmarker of our progress...), Caroline found another hidden path and restarted the Great GoodGym Kingston Hoe Down.

The Great @GoodGymKingston Hoe Down continues pic.twitter.com/DoHjAhDrwy

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) February 10, 2019

With the path clear and goal achieved, we popped in to show Mr P our before and after shots, and had a catch up with him.

“To the bench!”: and so the mission of all mission continues, round 3 was a debrambling spectacular pic.twitter.com/YCY3pFAr62

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) February 10, 2019

We then headed off to dry off and warm up with a cuppa and personalised Happy Tarts with our good deeds numbered on them - Nicky, you’re a legend, thank you!

To sum up today: We brambled through the rain of the vines and came out victorious. Bring on the next round: to the summerhouse (and more path discovery)!