It was a Great Moon, but was it really a Super Moon?

Our regular corner of Queen Square was a bit congested with filming happening nearby AGAIN (Young Sherlock?) and we even had our own security guards who were Very Chatty Indeed. Not convinced it was just the caffeine from the Monster can talking...

We set off for a lovely sunny walk or run to Dame Emily Park with lots of other people out and about enjoying the warm evening. Melanie found a phone before we'd even left the square, and that will shortly be posted off to it's owner who'd been on a visit day to Bristol from Swindon. Obviously the phone preferred Bristol, who wouldn't?

The next find was a highland cow badge, but like Jason by the M Shed, it set my camera focus to "obscure" to avoid publicity.

At the park, the runners had just beaten the walkers and Ursula was explaining the wildlife work of the evening - cutting back an overgrown hedge that was also home to a tall sycamore trying to take over, finding the bulbs and rescuing the pollen-y plants that had been trampled, clearing the tarmac waster, salvaging the wood and digging over another trampled flower bed and having loads of fun in the process.

• The hedge was soon looking smaller (I'm not sure about tidier...), with some high wielding of long-handed shears and loppers by Caroline, Vaguely Northern Darren, Ed and Jason
• Ciaran took the saw to sort out the sycamore and was joined by Marianne who relinquished her colour-matched secateurs to make sure the big branches weren't falling too far from the tree
• A few bulbs and some salvaged plants were set aside by Azzurra and Kim and the soil sieved to remove errant rocks
• A big pile of wood emerged from the tarmac and rocks and neither Richard nor Roddy fell in the small pond - the wood will be great for making the bug and hedehog hotels

And we created a new job of transforming the fallen sycamore into whips that can be used to weave a low level wildlife-friendly hedge around the pond (which, I stress, no one fell into).

As the lovely sunlight faded, the moon was looking HUGE and we later discovered it was a Super Moon - but we liked it before we knew it had a posh name. We loved the lemon and ginger tea and biscuits Ursula had carried over with her, and offered to help put away all the tools but we think Ursula may have wanted some peaceful time to enjoy the Super Moon herself, and probably wanted everything put away in the right places...

Off we trotted, walking and running back to Queen Square and saw the security guards had moved a bit and it was different guards on duty so we snuck past them and headed on to Workout where we avoided being dragged into the Speed Dating and the Liverpool supporters were sad when AC Milan scored in the third minute. But all came good in the end.

The rain dictated the deed today and we ventured into the greenhouse and to share this lovely space with the tomato plants, ginger plants all the pots. We tidied the pots and brushed around leaving it nice and clean. We left dry and a little less potty 👍

There's been lots of construction at Dame Emily Park where the Community Garden now has concreted raised beds instead of rotting planters and they've taken the opportunity to sift soil to remove the big- and medium-size stones. With mushroom boxes over buckets to keep it real.

With a team on the main stone-removing, a second team on the in-planter stone removing and a third team weeding, boarding and mulching the berry plants, it was all systems go in the fading sunshine with everyone trying to keep warm.

Discussions included whether slo-mo would make the soul-sifting more action-packed and what music was appropriate for a speeded-up version and whether the Benny Hill theme tune was a saxophone. Full marks to Frances for knowing Yackety Sax.

Azzurra and Janka had made short work of the berry-mulching and, with full protection gloves, set about feeding the nettle soup with more lovely chopped nettles.

The soil-sifters had soon worked through enough soil to have topped up the first planter, with Vaguely Northern Darren and Caroline from the running group working in situ whilst Robin raked and taught them both some German, or Italian, or both.

The soil was then covered in cardboard weighted down with bricks and, because we're super-resourceful, the big stones from the soil sifting. Meanwhile, the medium-sized stones were making a path to the resources shed under the careful eyes of Bruce and Jason with Roddy and Marianne maximising the sifting-per-second speed.

With the work (almost) done, we enjoyed Ursula's refreshments - Blackberry juice and biscuits - and the empty wheelbarrow that had worked hard.

As Vaguely Northern Darren had hurt his back during the task, everyone decided to walk and talk back to Queen Square and onwards to sitting outside at Workout as there was speed dating going on, which we tried not to disrupt - honest!

See you all at the next one - Wednesday lunchtime, Wednesday evening, Friday morning,Bank Holiday Monday or next Tuesday.

The sun came out to dry those puddles from the night before and we took on the pebble pit task today. Collecting those child slung pebbles with brooms, rakes and shovels back to their home in the toy pit. The team did a fantastic job with brushing up leaves and debris making it look gorgeous. Until the next pebble encounter🌄. Great job everyone. 💪

A democratic vote for the destination of choice this evening and the recently renovated Chocolate Path was the winner with the six runners running around the harbour to start at the furthest point and the five walkers staying closer to home and working our way towards the runners.

Anastasia joined us for her very first good deed and wowed us with her news of Lativian successes at the Olympics* (Latvia didn't quite make it onto the medal table). Welcome!

With one pair of secateurs per group and a set of litter pickers or two, we were soon tidying the path in a classic pincer movement, trying to keep put of the way of fellow runners, walkers and cyclists revelling in the glorious summer weather**

We were soon creating new Olympic sports of lobbing stick-like weeds into the gorge to either reach the water (javelin-inspired at a very low tide), pseudo planting said spiky weeds root down on landing in the very thick mud and artistic-depositing-of-litter, mastered by Nick. We hope Ed takes all these ideas with him whilst he's volunteering at the Paralympics (we look forward to seeing all his new kit) and Frances can decide which sport she's going to concentrate on for selection to Los Angeles 2028.

Richard B had joined the walking group for a change, having earned a new 100mile-plus run at the weekend to join up three local ultra routes all in one go, with no sleep. He was chief secateur master if the walking crew. Paul was also with the walking group but that was more to do with the runners having already left when he arrived...

The rain started to get a bit heavier and we barely recognised Danica with her coat covering most of her face as the runners met up with the walkers and we all cheered through another 30-or-so runners (and one cyclist) who came past our group and thanked us for our plogging.

More chatting on the way back, discovering Caroline is probably working with Anastasia this week, and watching some of the goings on a Workout's ClubHaus for our post-run cup of tea/hot chocolate/pint of cider/glass of water where Ed didn't order any food - weird!

Latvia didn't quite make it onto the medal table *it might have rained a bit