Ten brilliant volunteers turned up at Aldermoor this evening ready to tackle nature head-on—and tackle they did! Finn, Laura, and Derek gave the entrance hedge a sharp new look, while Sarah, Amanda, Beck, and Ronna took on the wild willow by the pond, cutting it back and hauling the branches to the chipper like absolute pros. Meanwhile, Ellie and Anna (with a cameo from Wilson) took on the compost bay transfer— never did we think the whole bay could be done, but Ellie and co were determined and they powered through until the task was complete! Laura and Amanda also got stuck into tearing cardboard for future composting. It was fantastic to see Anna, Beck, and Ronna back for round two, and even better to wrap up with a sliver of daylight—possibly our last light-filled task of the season! Great job everyone!

Dave and Jen arrived early to help direct the runners to the red-istration tent and the toilets, as we all know the pre race wee is a time honoured tradition!

Ellie and the aptly named Blue rocked up and learnt the course before they were to get a mauve on and lead everyone around.

Dave and Jen were then sent to Paint Station 2 to assist the Rotary Club in covering people in Canary Yellow powder.

Soon enough Ellie and Blue appeared through the trees ready to be doused and continue on their way somewhere iver the rainbow. Or in it by the looks of all the finishers! Everyone that came through were feeling grey-t and asking for more!

Once the last participant had gone through with the sweepers ensuring noone got maroon-d. Dave and Jen wandered along the route to ensure that Jen got some extra colouring!!

We were very fortunate that the weather stayed blue-tiful for the event!

It was awesome to meet Billy at his first task. Hope to see you at more soon!

Today we started with a lovely tour around Rose Road to find out more about what they do to support disabled children and adults. It was great to hear all about the invaluable services they provide particularly as next month we have a brave team of GGers who will be taking on the Spinnaker Tower abseil to raise funds for Rose Road! After our tour it was time for some speed weeding in the Acorn respite garden. We had to decide the weeds from the plants but fortunately didn't have to make too many choices as it was mostly just weeds left and some slightly sad looking mint after a very dry summer. Not content with just weeding the team also tried to adjust the slightly saggy “sail” shades as they are hanging a bit low down following rain fall weighing them down. With many hands, minds and possible solutions it was decided it didn’t have quite enough stretch so alas it will have to sag another day!

A merry band of 3 set off to help Rose Road at the Shirley Fringe Festival where they were the named charity for the event. It didn’t just involve bucket shaking, but also our best raffle ticket sales pitches! It wasn’t long before we were in the swing of things, with the help of the many musicians playing up and down the high street in the different bars we had to visit. We soon realised the map wasn’t quite to scale, but it definitely helped us get our steps in. We hope we helped Rose Road to smash last year’s efforts!

A very exciting evening field trip for history lessons and working out. Tonight we joined the New Forest History and Archeology group to backfill “New Copse” Roman excavation site that they have been digging at annually since 2017. In this time they have discovered an early Roman round-house, an oven, and objects such as bracelets. They have uncovered half a tonne of Roman tiles also! The site is thought to have been a farmstead or agricultural settlement. We were wowed with lots of historical knowledge from the group. We were told the trees in this location were planted for timber for ship building, but by the time they had matured the type of timber was no longer being used! There was plenty of fun as we filled and compacted the trench in by putting layers of soil back in wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow and then covering with leaf litter. By the end with our leaf spreading shimmy technique we think it definitely looked like no one had been there! We hope next year we might even get involved in some of the excavating. Welcome to Anna who joined us for her first task. It was great to meet you and you win the award for most wheelbarrows filled! We hope you had fun and will join us again soon.

My second GG event, and glad to be back in the fold

Met some really lovely volunteers, who were so easy to get on with, and was also supported by the indomitable host and manager Dani. Thank you everyone for a great time feeding the animals, and doing a bit of clear-up around the farm as well

Stock photo used as I didn't take any pictures then :)