Tonight we returned to St Matthews Church for the first time since 2019!

Hazel, Ben and Laura got to work painting the back room in the church a beautiful shade of light blue.

The high ceilings and arches were an added challenge, but Hazel took the ladders whilst Ben navigated the extendable pole with roller and we transformed the room in no time.

Stefanie (plus Greg) and Ben dropped into the Shakespearean Garden in Platt Fields Park to help set up for their National Open Garden Scheme open day and Fallowfest 🌳🍃🌱

Aided by the garden volunteers, we successfully managed to clean and dust down 49 chairs for the seating in the human sun dial square, where a harpist was playing for part of the day.

We managed to set up some of the plant stall, borrow several tables and benches from MUD for use on the cake 🎂 stall and the sketchbook stall, put up 3 gazebos plus a big marquee along with Gavin from the council, and generally help out to ensure the site was ready for a flurry of visitors at 11am 🎪

There was also a mobile piano 🎹 shed that needed moving into place that was played throughout the day.

At the end of the day, while England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 were playing in the Euro final against Spain 🇪🇸, there was also some clear up to put gazebos away, benches and tables folded and stored, and the chairs put back under cover for another day.

Sounded like a popular and successful event from Kattie with the cake stall sold out and a busy event. Happy to help out for a local, community-run group 😀

Divya and Ben joined Gordon, Dan, and Colleen (sp) for the monthly weekend volunteering session with Ardwick Climate Action 🌳

Today, we were clearing the site near the Mancunian Way of weeds, rubbish, and clearing the planters in preparation for their Britain in Bloom 🌱🍃 judging in early August.

Divya and Ben both weeded the area leaving the site clearer and topped up some of the raised beds, while others litter picked and cleared areas nearby. Juno also helped out by keeping watch and raising morale throughout the 2.5 hr session 🐕🐶🐾

Good clearing session and we'll certainly be back.