“Cinéma vérité is a documentary filmmaking style emphasizing realism and immediacy, aiming to capture everyday life with minimal intervention” - well I guess that sums things up but with a Cinnabar moth. This probably won’t make much sense if you are reading this (there was a guy filming us too though, well Ed, but us too)… anyway. Thanks for the added culture Marianne!

Lots of cutting, weeding and snipping was done on a beautiful evening. A Cinnabar moth (see excellent photo by Frances), bees (ditto) and a mullein (needs a fact check) were spotted. Figs anyone? This has been a bit of wild ride of a report but hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves.

Until next time...

A fabulous turnout of four GoodGymmers alongside Jo from the Friends group meant huge progress in a corner of the park that we hadn’t tackled for a while.

Big buddleia chopping, bundles of bindweed and buttercups bagged, discarded sharps boxed and general important conversation including whether insect repellent works on spiders or is it only 6-legged creatures? Probably doesn’t work on octopuses.

Transformation complete, it was time for coffee for those not dashing off to other fun Monday activities - a great start to the week.

Another sunny morning cutting brambles and clearing scrub to maintain access to the orchard and prevent nature completely reclaiming the space. We were led today by Rachel of YourPark, who gave us our instructions and safety briefing.

We used shears and pitchforks, enjoying the sunshine and chatting away as we worked. Afterwards we enjoyed our usual coffee, tea and hot chocolate break courtesy of our hosts Peter and Martin.

It's likely we will be back harvesting the orchard apples in the next month or so, and then sending them off to be juiced.

A visit to Mr R in Hartcliffe this afternoon to cut away some brambles from around his lovely Japanese Maple Acer Trees and to bash those growing under and through an ash tree.

A lovely day greeted us at the farm. Today we had a task to move compost from the heap to an accessible area to be used to bring this haven into even more beauty. Adopting a conveyer wheel barrow system we made a wheely big indent into the pile. A final photo and off to the cafe to contemplate the day. 👏

Some of the residents overlooking Hebron Burial Ground will wake up this morning to find they are actually overlooking the Burial Ground and not just an overgrown hedge blocking out the daylight. Topiary challenge accepted, where the look we were going for was a "hedge".

Giby joined us for the first time and got stuck into the bramble bashing after joining the walking group - welcome!

A few blackberries were eaten before the spiky stalks joined the growing compost pile via the now-slick "rake and tarp" technique, a few graves were tripped over, a lot of puns proposed (I just wish i could remember them) and it was soon time to hide behind the (much lower) hedge for the final photo and the walkers and runners to race back to Queen Square/Workout and on to Las Iguanas for Eats, taking advantage of the Tortilla Tuesday offer and discussing the racism/merits of Speedy Gonzales - its always deep and meaningful at GoodGym Bristol!