Veteran Goodgymmers Beth and Steve diverted from the Camden group run (in Frances’ capable hands while Paul is away) and headed to Mrs C’s garden to help her tame it.

Mrs C was lovely, and so organised with the tools and some huge heavy duty bags to put all of the debris into. After a kind offer of refreshments, we got to work stripping away three usual suspects - nettles, brambles and Japanese knotweed.

After plenty of exclamations whenever we got stung / pricked by thorns, we were making some real progress, helping reclaim some of the borders that define the garden which had been swallowed up and clear the walls that were slowly being covered by creepers. Speaking of which, we discovered a huuuuge spider that resembled a fat potato with a smiley face.

Steve practiced his refuse bag dance to squish down all the cuttings to make room for more, and in less than an hour we had two hefty bags full and a happy Mrs C. No doubt there’ll be a return mission to make the shift from clearing to sprucing up!