You've got the tools but have you got the touch?

With some stiff legs and sore throats from Bristol Half Marathon running and cheering at the weekend, a big group of runners still stumbled together to show Shania Twain what her lyrics should really be. It was great to see lots of new faces tonight - welcome Hannah, Stefano and Nia!

With the dark nights drawing in, the group did me proud with a great array of hi-viz and head torches on show. I am looking forward to seeing much more of this over the coming months! In our red and fluoro-clad group, we hopped off to the south side of the river to help two different tasks.

Dave took a group to Cherry Tree Garden, where they were helping Julie give the garden a big cut-back and weed for the Autumn. With all hands on deck, the 15-strong group made a massive dent in it and left the area neat and ready to be enjoyed by all the Bedminster locals. The group even had time to do a Beatles reenactment on their way home...

What the fork

Meanwhile, the rest of the group went to help Urban Buzz at Gores Marsh Park. Hayley from Urban Buzz explained to us that after a summer with a drought, followed by the recent rainy weather, the meadows in the park have now been left with a thick layer of mulch on them. We needed to remove this and then reseed it. Thirty pairs of hands got a hold of whatever tools they could find, and here started a competition between mulching with a fork, spade, rake, shovel or hoe was the best method. Meanwhile, our expert Mulch Movers skirted back and forth, getting rid of the piles of mulch being dragged up. With a quick reseed under the darkening sky, the group waved goodbye to the meadow and headed home.

Well done to everyone who helped make Bedminster beautiful tonight!

Who would have thought a humble line of railings could have such an impact on the look of a place? Certainly the primary colour sections outside the Filwood community centre make the place look that extra bit more fun and welcoming, so it was great to be able to help out with some of the painting today.

After a (fairly challenging) hill up from Victoria park we were split into teams by our host Tim, with one group for each colour and one for a bit of extra scraping and brushing down.

The bulk of the painting had already been completed during some previous volunteer sessions so our job was to find any bits that had been missed - and make some difficult decisions about which colour to choose on some of the boundary supports between adjoining sections!

There's really nothing as satisfying as a bit of painting so it was fab to spend an hour out in the sunshine helping to support the amazing work of the new administration team at the centre - which even looked in danger of closing down at one stage.

Welcome to our new recruits Andy and Tom - we certainly needed the extra pairs of hands today.