Last night we had an epic trip to Beckenham Park Care Home. It's a pretty big site and they had lots of space for Christmas decorations!

Me and David met at the Bridge House, we met Cat, Clare and Kelsey en route, spotted the David Bowie ⚡️ before meeting everyone else at the care home.

We'd been assigned three trees to decorate...

LBDouble-Yule

One room was in the cricket-themed bistro. In no time, a classy red and silver themed tree was created. David also added a few select decorations to the rest of the room...

In the second room, Kat did an incredible job, using her knitting skills to untangle a load of fairy lights. Some white feather boas gave the tree a snowy-vibe.

And the final tree was a bit mismatch... with all the leftover decorations.

The care home team provided a few glasses of baileys, very greatful for our help.

We also discovered a Kelsey Way sign. 🙌

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Nice job everyone! 🎄

Carpet laying Part-Deux

Great start to the task - I was complemented on my woolly hat by a fellow West Ham fan who is one of Living Well shop volunteers.

Great day for an indoor task whilst Storm Bert was outside!

Myself, Phil and Jane other arrived when Living Well were closing up after busy day trading.

We were carrying on from last weeks first part of the task. The first half of the shops new carpet had been laid. It was time to move, and prep for the carpet fitters arriving on Monday morning.

Half a dozen crates packed with stock, 4 shelving units unscrewed from the wall and moved to the front of the shop.

The big task of the day was now at hand move the tri part till/payment desk.

After all the furniture was moved, it was time for a quick sweep up and our work was done.

We then send goodbye to Living Well and went of to brave the wind and rain to make our journeys home.

It's the time of year when some of us look forward to putting up the Xmas decorations, and we were all set, Louise even brought her Santa hat to partake in the festive task. The 4 of us helped out at the hub with a variety of different tasks, including moving furniture and general bits and bobs in order to prepare the space for the Christmas fair at the weekend. We managed to get in a lovely festive photo in (not so Santa's grotto) once we were finished.

This week, myself and Mark joined Viv, Lumen, and a team of hardworking local volunteers to tackle some seasonal gardening tasks—it’s officially the season for cutting back!

We focused on clearing and tidying to keep the area looking its best. One key job was cutting back the hedge that was overhanging the path, making sure it’s clear and accessible for all pedestrians.

Lumen also shared another brilliant tip. To identify whether a plant is truly dead and in need of a cut back, cut a small section away and look for green inside. Or gently scrape the stem. If you see green, the plant is alive and kicking! 🌱

We also spent time deadheading flowers and collecting their seeds for next year 🌺.

The planters are looking neat and ready for the months ahead. We’ll be back soon to keep up the good work—come join us! 🌱✨

The sun was just starting to poke through as Stephen and I met the lovely Friends of Kelsey Park at 9.30 this morning. We got given a quick first task - to help the team scavenge for bark and bricks in the undergrowth and then wheelbarrow it over to the in-progress community garden. They've got an amazing space in development there, including an old boat that we started filling with bricks (it's going to be used as a planter and the bricks will create drainage - it's always a school day with our community partners!) We also used the bark to stuff the new bug hotel. We then got going with the big job - cutting back brambles from the trees and bushes at the side of the path. This is an annual job as the brambles are so relentless - some of them were over 2 metres long and once you start spotting them, they never seem to end! We trimmed and pulled out the brambles for a good hour and make great progress along with the team. It had turned into a gorgeous morning by the end of the session and there were lots of people out enjoying the park (including some very sociable squirrels...perhaps they heard about last Monday's bulb planting?)

Big thanks Stephen for the great work and the pun assistance :)

Laura, Ed and I all arrived on a lovely sunny day to help plant bulbs along the path and edge of the recreation ground. Plenty of community members wanted to get involved too! No actual tribulations were encountered. We managed to plant out a lot of bulbs and are looking forward to go back and see the results of work in spring!