Jonathon, who regularly walks his dog on Baille Hill was concerned by the amount of litter there so knew exactly who to ask to sort it. Whilst someone had got there before us to clear some of it there was much more left than was initially obvious. Dom brought two bags for recyclables as he lived close by. Within 45 minutes we managed to fill 2 bags full if rubbish including several pairs of underwear and two bags of recyclables. Jonathan's dog came to help out. We had cleared everything we could get to safely and all that was left was to find a council litter bin to leave them at for collection.

12 GG Yorkies assembled at Millennium Fields to help St Nicks on one of their first eco-active days since pre-lockdown 2. Jonathan was there to meet us with an array of tasks to keep us warm on a relatively chilly day: scything the islands of grass which we had left last time, cutting back dead tansy to encourage new growth and turning over grass to sow seeds.

Jonathan started by demonstrating a new technique for exposing soil, and there was swiftly a scramble for spades. A very excited Nikki was thrilled by the new method, which she described as very pleasing, and it was not long until Nikki, Leanne, Ben, Jonathan and Paul Kelly had dug out the marked out area. So they just made it larger. Once finished, a slightly skewiff area of bare earth was ready for seed sowing. Fingers crossed that no-one confuses it for a random allotment plot.

Meanwhile, Ed, Michael, Debs and Max scythed and raked and Ellie and Cara cut back (and later just ripped out with bare hands) dead tansy - the home of the local rare tansy beetle.

Before long, the cold had Ed whinging that he wanted to finish, and once Hero Jonathan had flipped the last patch of grass, it was time for a slightly-out-of-focus/all about Ed group picture. After realising that tier rules meant no trip to the coffee shop to warm up, everyone headed home (some of us via a 15km muddy run).

It was a mild evening when 6 keen GG'ers rocked up to Park Grove School, one perhaps their usual 2mins late, by which time the lopping was well underway and a pun already in place! What a cracker.

In a task slightly reminiscent of St Nicks' job creation, Park Grove needed to fill their skip, the willow could do with reducing in height, and GG tasks were filling up like nobody's business. It was this happy combination that lead to us arming ourselves with saws, mini saws, and one good pair of loppers, and setting to.

Pete has bagsied said loppers and was making swift work of the little and not-so-little bits, whilst John had an extra-good mini saw to speed through willows of all sizes. Cara meanwhile was valiantly wrestling with a bigger saw of questionable sharpness, and a width that made it tricky to get into small spaces. Katie did an excellent job of filing the offcuts by suitability for willow sculpture, with the rejects being transported to the skip by herself and Vicky, inbetween her locking up the school.

Initially the job seemed far too big for 6 people in one hour, but the minutes ticked by, and the willows fell, and it became apparent that we were going to smash it. It was very satisfying to see them all brought down to one level, although there were some bits that were almost too tall for tall-Pete-with-loppers, so we'll have to watch out in future. The last annoying bits trimmed, we scoured the ground for every skinny whippy twig that could become a weapon in a small child's hand, and transported the last bits round to the skip. Job done.

All credit for top-notch-punnage and report writing reminders (sorry) goes to Katie.

It waa finally time for our very delayed bonfire night task at Chapmans Pond, hurrah!

There were several jobs which needed doing, but first up, Pete and Nick J baggsied going in the boat to collect debris from the other side of the pond.

The rest of us started by hauling out heavy, stinky bags of water lillies and reeds and relocating them to different pondy areas.

Laura was chief banksman and has the important job of keeping eyes on the boat and ensuring nobody fell in the pond whilst extracting heavy bags.

Other jobs included moving some big logs, piling up dead wood ready for chipping, raking up debris from the near shore and helping Pete and Nick every time they came back will a boat full of branches and rubbish.

We found gin, and cucumber! No tinic though..

Finding ourselves ahead of schedule, we started (and finished) a bonus task to top up the forest trail with fresh woodchip, using the boat cover as a tarp to add capacity to our two wheelbarrows.

Lastly we cheered Leanne and Katie as they kicked off the 24 hour Santa Relay (after removing their wellies) whilst the rest of us hung around for baked potatoes and mince pies!

Pun Credit - Katie Fairless