We had our second outing to help Jeannette and Alan dismantle the smaller chicken coop at Dorset Road Allotments tonight. Assisted by some power tools (handled by Alan) we made great progress and managed to take off one of the sides and most of the roof, not to mention many wheelbarrows of weeds and brambles that had grown since the last time we visited. Special shout out to Laura who was visiting from Mali and chose to spend her limited time off helping us out!

Once we'd finished the task, we were treated to a selection of allotment-grown fruit and veg as a thank you for our hard work, which was a lovely surprise!

Tonight we had a septet of GoodGymers shifting a whole lotta woodchip for the Blenheim Arpley Residents Association. They've done an awesome job starting a community garden and getting loads of trees planted and asked us for a hand with spreading woodchip around the new trees.

Toilet humour

It was a short run, after a little intro question about fave toilets. Some very amusing stories and some good choices!

When we arrived at the task there were two huge piles of woodchip, some wheelbarrows (in various states of repair...), shovels and a few different areas for us to spread the woodchip to; tyres, shrub beds and 3 patches of trees.

We split up and managed to complete most of the job!

It was great to have Mariah at her first session 🥳 and shout out to everyone else for risking the chance of rain to smash out another task 👍

Poor Millie has broken her toe - so our helpful Linda nipped over to get the toolshed key and we swapped the Cator Park task for one at Alexandra Rec. We started the meetup with a quick chat about 'favourite smells' - inspired by petrichor smell of the earth when the rain starts. Favourites in the group were quite specific and ranged from the New Zealand bush, to painting memories, and nail varnish! We headed off doing just a little loop, and dodging raindrops, and met Merrin and Linda at the park, where we set about mulching the new hedgerow trees that had been weeded just a few weeks back but now needed protecting from the recent hot dry weather. The little bits of rain the last couple of days made it the perfect time to wheelbarrow mulch over to the trees and hold some of that moisture in, to give them a fighting chance this summer. We got quite a few barrows ferried over and added to the rows of trees in between chats about holidays, the weather (of course) and even ChatGPT! Thanks all and see you again soon - another great job :)

We had a NEW TASK tonight helping Mary and Rachel from Barnmead Road Allotments clear a big patch of brambles so that the area can be turned into a community garden. Many hands and some decent tools made light work and we managed to clear a good chunk of the area in just 45 minutes (see photos). After working up a sweat, we were treated to some delicious fruit (and spare strawberry plants!) by our lovely hosts while Catherine made friends with an allotment cat .

Great work team!

A small but mighty gang of two James', two Cats and a Hannah met at St John's Church tonight to help Karen and the Thursday Lunch Club volunteers spruce up the grounds as a thanks to the church for letting the club use its hall. Armed with loppers, rakes and wheelbarrows, the volunteers made great progress clearing back brambles and ivy to make the path to the hall more accessible and the area generally more presentable. Special shout out to newcomer James who got stuck straight in with the chopping and had to be prised from his loppers when it was time to leave!

Great work tonight gang!

You can find out more about the Thursday Lunch Club here. It's a great initiative so please do reach out to Karen if you can help with your time or donations.