This morning when we arrived at the British Heart Foundation, our task was changed as they had had a delivery so we were assigned to unpack and place these items around the store in position where they would be best to catch the eye of the retailers. But first it was to dismantle a window displays items and put them in their rightful section of the store. Then we got to unpacking, there were different coloured throws, cushions with different animals on, foxes and dogs door stops and daschunds heat excluders or bees ones. The time went quickly as we were kept so busy.

Our steps this morning really added up, what with walking to, between and during our tasks, not counting both of our walks back to our humble abodes.

Emily and Gosia volunteered at Latchmere Rec Junior Parkrun today. The weather was gorgeous which attracted to the park quite an impressive crowd of juniors and their parents 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 .

We were welcomed by Sue, who was today's run director 🎬. She assigned us with a marshal spot, gave a briefing on the route and also instructed what should be done in case of any accident 🚨.

Gosia was on a spot two, close to the start line. She brought a bubble 🫧 machine with her that brought some additional excitement to the race and was a "special" point of interest at each of the three laps.

Emily was assigned a spot closer to the finish line and was bravely handing out the high fives 🙌 to the runners as they passed through her spot.

Our last participant passed the finish line around 9:30 and around ten minutes after we left the park and headed to the Kingston centre for our next mission.

I visited Camden area today to help out with the weeding 🌱 in Mr N's backyard. I arrived around 6 pm and was welcomed by him at the door 🚪. He was very kind and welcoming but he clearly struggled to move and also couldn't hear that well what I was saying. Well a kind smile always gives a clear message even if you can't hear it 🙂 and I relied on that.

He showed me the backyard which was clearly neglected, there were weeds but also a lot of styrofoam flying around, foxes 🦊 poo, waste bags and a general rubbish 🚮.

Mr N said that his neighbour 👨‍🌾 helped him with the weeds in the past but now he is away traveling. He also said that it's probably more than a year since the last tidy up and I could totally believe that 😆.

I started with the weeds that were taking a lot of garden space, but - luckily - most of them were quite easy to take out (nice and clean, together with the roots 👌).

Then - Mr N grabbed a shovel and started to gather a styrofoam from the ground so I helped out with that. The wind 🌬 was quite strong and a bit cheeky 🐒 as whenever we tried to gather the styrofoam in one place it kept sending it back from where it came from 😈. We did progress though and by the end there was much less of it and much safer to walk.

We have collected around five bags of weeds and a couple with the styrofoam. Mr N was thankful, said it's looking much clearer now and asked if we will come back to do the front garden. I didn't take the bags out as he said his daughter will call services to collect them.

I traveled to Kingston upon Thames this evening to help Mr G with a bit of deweeding in his backgarden. I need to say I had second thoughts 💭 on the way there when there was literally a downpour 🌧☔️💦 every 10 mins 😑.

I arrived a bit earlier and knocked on Mr G's door around 18:40. He welcomed me and right away led to the backgarden 🌱.

Need to say - his garden is indeed overgrown (and I added few photos to show that - in case there is a follow up session). As he mentioned right away the most important thing was for him to clear the patio, where currently the chairs 🪑🪑 and umbrella ⛱️ stood. He also mentioned that around a couple of week ago.

I got my 🧤 gloves from the backpack and was ready to go 🚀. I quickly learned that the entire area was covered with a tick layer of a cotton-like fabric which was wet, dirty and... propely stuck to the ground. I didn't have a scraper and the available brooms 🧹 and rake were to weak yo scrap that off. I eventually used just my hands. This was an activity Inhave been doing most of the time.

I couldn't resist and needed to check what tree 🌳 caused this damage - based on a photo it's confirmed as Eastern Cottonwoods. The one from Mr G's garden was huge, very old and majestically 👑 grown right in the middle of the garden.

I have also targeted some of the mulberry plants that were just became a bit too invasive for the patio area 🏴‍☠️. I grabbed shears from Mr G's toolbox 🧰 and cut them down to carve out some extra space.

On a very positive note, there was a little Robin 🐦 who kept visiting me as I progressed through the work. I almost felt it's some sort of a fairytale 🧚‍♂️. Either it was monitoring my efforts or maybe was looking for fresh worms 🪱 to grab for the dinner as they got revealed under the "cotton" sheet.

I worked around 1:30h 🕚 and ended up pretty soaked, but the result was worth it! Mr G was very pleased and insisted I will take money. I declined and wished him a lovely evening (he might as well spent it in his patio now!)

Emily, Tom and Gosia visited Hogsmill Community Garden today to help out with a couple of maintanace tasks requested by our lovely host - Julie.

It has been raining this weekend (almost all the time), so it was hard to expect anything else this morning. Fortunately, the weather was quite merciful and gifted us with a calm cloudy sky and just an occasional light rain 🌧.

Our first task was to cut back overgrown lilac tree 🌳, mulberry bushes 🫐 and some pesky vines which occupied one of garden's fences (one on the left of the entrance). The shed was very well equipped and we got a pair of shears ✂️ for each, which allowed us to tackle the task in around 30-40 mins.

In parallel, we also poured out accumulated water from trays placed near the same fence (which were used for flower pots and planters 🌱). Some extra water from time to time is nice but certainly we didn't want these plants to drown 🏊‍♂️.

After completing our first task we sat down at the table for a tea ☕️ and a great chitchat 💬 with Julie. We learned a bit more about the history of the garden, as well as events already hosted and planned for the future.

After this small break we kicked off the second task which was to take down a garden pavillion 🎪. Completing this task wouldn't be possible wihout a wonderful collab between GG and our host (one person per each corner). All was dismantled and put intro a polytunnel (as instructed) in around 15 mins.

Julie was very happy with the outcome and she invited us again (as there is always plenty to do) 🙂. It was a great productive start of the day and certainly we shall be back