Please leave us a comment 👇 if you read the title and felt like you had to click to read the report 😁

It was certainly a dirty old evening up at Wymering Manor. If you accidentally heard half of most conversations you would be forgiven for thinking the worst of our group!!

Our mission, which we chose to accept, was to move a big pile of dirt away from one area onto the compost heap. We hadn't realised quite how compacted the earth had got so forks, spades and a pick axe were used (Jen was living the dream!).

3 wheelbarrows were in constant rotation between the gradually shrinking pile of dirt and the compost heap where Judy was doing sterling work distributing it around the area (the wellies were a genius footwear choice tonight).

Thanks to Wilson for the photos tonight, some great action shots.

Well done everyone, an amazing team effort tonight. 💪

We met at Hilsea Lido car park foer a team walk or run/walk or run to Wymering Manor.

The runners arrived first and Judy took on the roll of instruction receiver and then foreperson, putting us to work. The task was in 2 parts. One, levelling off the compost and two moving all the wood from the site of the new greenhouse to the compost heap to flatten it down.

Jen, Judy and Sam made a start on the digging and were later joined by Tony, reliving his years on the building site.

Wilson had decided to add a loop onto the walk route but the walkers all arrived safely, just after we'd started to wonder what was keeping them! Catherine and Val joined in with the wood moving, trying to avoid spiders.

We also met the house cat tonight who came round to inspect what we were doing.

Next week's task is to move the earth from the greenhouse site onto the newly flattened compost area complete with its ramp for the wheelbarrows.

We were due to head to Wymering Manor but due to covid this was postponed, so once again we had to implement a backup plan and bring our litter pickers. We all met at Hilsea Lido and had a walk around the foreshore and moat to stretch our legs. We headed over the small bridge and started clearing the rubbish from the grass and borders near the cycle track. Wilson and Katie got off to a great start and found a cap, pair of shorts and 2 socks. Val closely followed by picking up another pair of socks and we were soon wondering whether we will collect enough clothing to dress a person. Judy headed onto the empty cycle track and picked up discarded cans and bottles from there. We tried to retrieve some rubbish from the water but as the tide was in it wasn’t that easy and we also needed to be careful that we didn’t slip on the grass and end up in the water. We looped back round and filled our bags with what we could reach through some railings and gathered an impressive 50p in lost coins for our efforts.

We’re booked in at Wymering Manor on 7th Sept so hopefully we’ll be back then.

Things we learned tonight:

• woad is a yellow-flowered European plant of the cabbage family. It was formerly widely grown in Britain as a source of blue dye, which was extracted from the leaves after they had been dried, powdered, and fermented,
• foam and form sound the same when Jo says them,
• Lucy was eating a hot cross bun when she realised it was time to meet us,
• Ellie will be running a marathon at the weekend in brand new shoes.... which are arriving by first class post on Friday (keep everything crossed for her),
• Sycamore saplings really don't like to be pulled up,
• there are far too many fork puns.

Tonight's mission was to clear lots of the comfrey from one of the flower beds and to completely clear one other area ready for a water feature / toad home.

There were plenty of wheelbarrows filled this evening and the new planter/compost heap definitely had a lot more in it than when we started. If you look at the before and after you can see that we did clear a lot even though it felt like there were still a few weeds that wanted to stay put. We also managed to fill a whole bag full of dandelions for Bleachy's rabbits / tortoises.

An hour of good physical labour and we all headed homewards for some nice warming dinners.... and probably a cup of tea or two!

Good work and more little projects at Wymering Manor coming soon. Watch this space.

Thanks to Jo for the run report title!

We had to speed it up to get up to the Manor in time to meet the walking group. Then we had to slow it down on our way back as we all walked back together!

Enough of the Bucks Fizz reference, although we did have 2 people in the group tonight who have 0 birthdays this year so there will be celebrations to come, maybe with some bubbles!

Val used her big voice to get us into the Manor and we got to work helping to bag up the many fallen leaves. Jo, Lucy, Sinéad, Judy and Maxine raked and Val got the giant hands to pick up everyone's piles (a close contender for the run report title!!).

Judy completed good deed number 300 tonight and is aiming to get to 400 by the end of the year. 👏 Excellent work Judy!

Annmarie told us about her plans for the Manor so hopefully we will be up there a few more times this year to plant trees and clear out the kitchen so it can be made into a workspace. Watch this space!

We met in the Lido car park, accidentally in middle of a Mini meet up. To escape all the cars and car chat, we headed down the foreshore to stretch our legs before getting on with the evening's good deed.

It was almost Wind in the Willows tonight although the couple of rats we spotted weren't wearing waistcoats! They were impressive swimmers though. We were kept in check by the swans and cygnets who were supervising our litter pick of their nesting area. A field mouse and a few slugs were other animals that joined us. No sign of Badger or Toad of Toad Hall sadly.

Armed with torches and bat lights, we managed to pick a lot of bottle lids, wrappers, stinking bags and cigarette ends out of the swan's nest as well as other rubbish from around the water's edge.

Nothing too scary or frightening for Halloween as yet but plenty of talk of costumes and pillow cases full of sweets. 🦇 🎃