After a summer hiatus we were back to quizzing at the old favourite, The Rickety Press. 6 of us tackled celebrity autographs, hidden connections, a worrying number of Geography questions, and the inevitable music round. There was only half a point between us and one other team right from the beginning, but we managed to pip them to the post.

As mentioned before, I am stepping back from organising these quizzes now, so anyone else who wants a go - feel free!

In a race against the sunset we headed to Aston's Eyot for a last evening scything session of the year.

The Friends of Aston's Eyot are creating a new meadow area, so the task this evening was to continue to prepare the area for wild flower seeds. We scythed and raked nettles from the perimeter, bashed in 3 fence posts (it needs fencing so the deer don't eat everything), hoed away unwanted seedlings which were popping up, and collected up a vast amount of broken glass. Aston's Eyot used to be a rubbish dump, so there is a huge amount of Victorian glass just below the surface.

Well done on reaching 50 Good Deeds Laura!

This evening we returned to St. Nicholas' Primary School to continue the sprucing up of their garden and Forest School area.

Weeds have started to poke their way through some of the weed matting and brambles are creeping over the fence line. Bramble prickles and primary school children are not a good combination!

Armed with loppers, choppers and sturdy gloves we set to work, with one eye on the light - the evenings really are getting darker as autumn plods along.

After an hour and a bit the space was looking a lot neater and we all trotted off for our evening exercise!

Welcome to Goodgym Laura, so lovely to meet you!

MY GOODNESS WHAT WAS THAT WEATHER?!?!?!?

Extra kudos, pats on the back and gold stars to all who came to Hogacre this evening.

This evening moved boxes of manure over that railway bridge, spread the aforementioned manure in various fruit and veg beds, ferried hay from the recently mown meadow, picked apples, and tackled brambles. ALL IN THE HAMMERING RAIN.

No one drowned.....

Well done everyone, and welcome to Goodgym Alice and Jen!! We hope the next session you come to will be a tad drier.....

We've been doing a regular monthly session at Marston Forest Garden, and with a slight autumnal nip to the air we're anticipating perhaps one more evening session for this year.

This time we collected compost and woodchip, watered the squash plants, topped up the pond, moved some weed suppression mats, and sickled away a good quantity of bramble and nettle.

Same place next month?!