A bright sunny Saturday morning greeted us on the Ham Lands as we gathered for our regular second-Saturday meet up to help develop the Ham Lands natural habitat. Sufiyo and Sharon were there to greet us and explain the work which needed to be done - which was to clear and uproot the invasive brambles and small trees which were causing problems for other plant life.

A big bunch of Richmond regulars was joined by several new and nearly-new joiners - welcome to Alice and Gemma for whom this was their first task, and Freya who joined in Kingston this month - as well as visitors from Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow and a very welcome extra pair of hands in Adam, who was visiting for the weekend.

After the briefing we all grabbed tools and set to work. Some of the brambles proved to be pretty resistant to our efforts, and those with spades found it tough going but fought valiantly on. Elsewhere those armed with forks and mattocks were making faster headway. The sheer number of us meant that soon enough we were winning the fight and the yellow canvas bags started to fill up with the piles of brambles and weeds we had pulled up.

Much of the discussion as we worked was on the impact the government's new social gathering restrictions might have on community missions, but as work and volunteering appear to be exemptions we expect to be able to carry on. Fingers crossed...

The next session helping the Friends of Ham Lands is already listed, so go ahead and sign up and we look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday 10th October: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/helping-the-friends-of-ham-lands-d1be2023-19fc-42d6-b4b1-05a48ab715f3