G-room for a different task?

Due to some pretty severe flooding at Ockwells, our planting acorns task had to be canceled, but luckily the staff at Norden Farm had a great replacement task for us! Their hedges in the car park were suffering with a touch of "lockdown hair" and were in need of a good trim (and in some cases, compete removal)!

Amy Secateur-ned right into Norden Farm

Amy arrived with a running buggy full of tools to meet with Raymond, Jess, Tara, Sophie, Claire, Jess from GoodGym Slough (who was joining us for her first Windsor and Maidenhead task) and Charlotte from GoodGym Ealing. As we were celebrating a particularly epic milestone; our 100th community mission (Whooooop! Go team!), Sophie wanted to mark the occasion and made a special banner for Amy to wear around her neck for the entire task! We also had "Goodie" the team mascot, lovingly crocheted by Claire, joining us for her first task. Goodie managed to weed-le her way into quite a few of the photos!

A clean sweep

We spread out across the back wall and got to work on cutting back the hedges, weeding, sweeping and filling the huge green waste bags to the very top. We even climbed in the bags to give them a good stomping down to make sure all of the space was being used. As the darkness set in and the floodlights came on, we swept the area, collected up all the remaining leaves and said our goodbyes, some setting off for a short run home as the rain started to creep in.

As you will see from the photos, we did a pretty cr-hacking job of well...hacking!

3 runners met to help out at the Maidenhead Community allotment

The rain could not keep Raymond, Rekha and Jess away from the allotment tonight.

A few tasks were awaiting the team and they dug in straight away.

Raymond and Jess got the hose set up and left the infamous water butts to fill (although just taking the lids off would have done the job tonight!!). They then moved to the the sunflower bed and started weeding the area.

Meanwhile Rekha wielded the litter picker and set about tidying the car park. Not satisfied with her haul there she ended up in the park as well!

Litter cleared, Rekha joined Raymond and Jess in the sunflower bed and they cleared an area. They finished this up by laying empty bags on top to prevent any re-growth and prepare the area for spring planting (yes - well ahead of the game there!).

No one could quite 'fig'ure out how to prune the Fig tree so any budding tree surgeons out there.....your skills are required!!!

So with litter cleared, butts filled, weeds cleared and tools stashed the, now very soggy, 3 left for home.

This evening we were helping the relationship support charity Relate to tidy up the paths and garden around their office, as they prepare to offer more 'in person' support from there again.

Task owner Emma is such a sweet person she started removing weeds before us and she stayed during the next hour working with us💪🏼👏🏻👏🏻

Welcome to Louisa who travelled from Ruislip and loved cutting the bushes so much that she couldn't stop doing it.

Rehka and Raymond are such a perfectionists they swept the broom again and again until there wasn't sign of weed or dust.

Tara came back with more strength than ever cutting but especially pulling the weed and bushes like super woman 💪🏼.

We filled 15 bags and we came home running, by bike and by car (to London of course).

Meggie wasn't there this evening but she is normally the star of our Monday evening community missions and a Monday wouldn't be a Monday without us thinking of her. Meggie is going to Italy until December. Meggie we will miss you and the kale and weeds at the allotment will miss you too!

Report by Ana. Edited by Amy to add... Ana stepped in to lead this mission at the last minute after Amy double booked herself. Thank you Ana, you're a life saver! Some brilliant before and after photos there. Great job! ⭐

Sara, Ray, Charlotte and Amy joined Alisdair from the Maidenhead Waterways project to help clear weeds from the old flood defence streams that feed Maidenhead town centre.

The aim was to continue the good work of the Maidenhead Volunteers and clear the weeds and debris, thereby allowing the river water to flow freely into Maidenhead town centre. The longer term aim is that eventually the water levels will be high enough in the town centre to allow for water sports to take place!

We met at Cookham Rise first thing on Saturday morning and were kitted out in waders, elbow length gloves and high vis vests. Looking like a very motley crew, with all our kit and tools, we walked to the stream, crossing the beautiful Cookham countryside.

The work was done in two shifts, with those brave enough, sliding down the ditch into the waist height water, pulling out the weeds from the very silty stream and sling them up onto the bank, whilst the other half of our group raked them up. Mud flew everywhere and the time flew by.

Seeing that we cleared approximately 50 meters of waterway made us think that we made a real difference. By the time we left at we could visibly see the water flowing easily through the newly cleared path.