This was an extra (January challenge booster) group session. The aim was to deep clean the kitchen at the Martin Way Methodist Church, home to the Open Table and soon to become a night shelter. Gloves at the ready, six of us faithfuls set about cleaning behind the fridge, wiping down surfaces, sorting drawers and cupboards, hoovering, mopping and anything else that could be completed within the hour. The sparkling results spoke for themselves! As the clock struck the hour we departed into the night, excited to catch the next episode of The Traitors...

For tonight's group session we got sew busy helping Little ARK in their new makers' space. It was a perfect night to be indoors, especially as the rain poured down outside!

We split the team across three different rooms, to diligently sift through boxes and bags of fabric and haberdashery. Not only did we sort, wrap, and fold the materials into colour groups, but we also got busy cutting fabrics in preparation for making essential draught excluders.

Making good progress in the alloted hour, we then headed out into the rain for the soggy return run/walk/cycle but will no doubt be back soon as there's plenty more to do. 

Well done team - we did sew good!

This community centre in Pollards Hill was a new location for our group session and we'd picked a chilly night for it! The aim was to help clear a large flower bed of soil but a slight change of plan meant we were tasked with collecting up the large piles of leaves along the front walkway and in the car park and putting them in hessian sacks. This was to help prepare the centre for a community event on Saturday. As it was, we whizzed through both jobs at tree-mendous speed and didn't throw in the trowel until the site was transformed. Congratulations to Rachael for completing her 50th task, Williams for his 25th and it was great to welcome Sonia to her first session.

On such a chilly night, it was good to have an indoor task to keep us warm for our group session. Abby set us to work sanding, taping, wiping and painting some of the church skirting boards, to match the newly painted walls. Although we were a small group, we whizzed through the task in record time and Jon even managed a bit of a lie down. We had to admit the results were simply brush-taking (although we didn't want to get too emulsion-al).

Last night we tackled a mission at South Mitcham Community Association, to clear a large garden bed and prepare it for planting. With spotlights and all the right tools for the job we were in for a real treat as the rain held off and we got busy unearthing lots of weeds and roots, filling many bags, and salvaging a few potatoes! 🥔

With the bed cleared in just 30 minutes, the team took the initiative and set about tackling the rest of the garden area, then tidied up and went on our way. 

Most of us joined the group run back to base via the beautiful River Wandle. While it will undoubtedly be a stunning path in the spring and summer daylight, running it as a group at night provided an excellent fitness boost.

A big welcome to Ivo, on your first Merton task, and we hope to see you again soon. Well done team, we totally aced those spuds!