We had to change the task this evening from a group run to a community mission as the allotments have no lighting and with it getting darker earlier (what's up with that!!!!! So not ready for the darker nights)... we needed the extra day time hours to do the task safely...

So we all made our own way to Cherry Orchard Allotments and got to work on plot 5 bed 4. Thankfully the soil was soft this time (last month is was rock hard!).

It was great to see the progress the task owner Home Start Slough have made on the plots..

We spent an hour chatting, digging, pulling the weeds and just catching up on life.

As the light faded we stopped and got ready to leave.

Next week we have a new task owner (Food Cycle Slough) who would like their new food service promotion so we will be delivering their flyers for them around Salt hill and Baylis area.

This evening we helped Raggy Rd allotments.

Sandy and I met at our central meet up point of Salt Hill park whilst Agni and Peter met us directly at the task.

Anita our task owner was on hand to give us the task brief. She needed a basil tree cut back as it was creating too much shade for the plot underneath it; a rosemary bush needed digging out and two planters needed filling with new top soil.

Sandy and I got to work on the basil tree. We were quite surprised at how easy it was the cut back.

Peter got to work on the planters and filling them up whilst Agni helped in all three areas.

This is a great task which we all enjoy doing.

Each time we visit we see such amazing progress to the plots.

Nice to have a few goodgymers out on a bank holiday Monday for a bit of doing good and getting fit.

It all started as a nice evening task. Our run part today was actually a strength based fitness session which we did at the end of our session.

The park itself was pretty eventuful this evening. The play areas were full of children enjoying themselves, the main park was full of people playing football and cricket, the families were out having picnics and then there was us... litter picking up behind everyone.

Tonights hoard found us a ready salted crisp packet with a use by date of 2019! It was hidden away in the deep dark depths of the bushes.

Cutting hedge technology?

Speaking of bushes... Abdul found a kitchen knife in the ones adjacent to Bath Rd. Luckily no signs of blood! We reported it to the police but were told to just dispose of it!

So we did our best to cover up the sharp end with cardboard then double wrap it in bags before 'safely' disposing of it.

As we continued our litter pick we found a gun!!!!

But don't worry... the only thing shooting out of this one was water...

We disposed of that safely too! Some serious trouble shooting going on tonight!

On a lighter note, there was a lovely wedding ceremony taking place on the green outside the Karahi restaurant.

Cant resist a good slam

After collecting 5 bags of rubbish we ended the session with some resistance band exercises followed by kettlebell and slam ball sets.

Thank you to everyone for coming along this evening.

Next Monday we will be helping Raggy Rd Allotments. Hope to see you there.

4 volunteers helped Jillian this evening at Global Education Trust Book Store.

We tidied up a section to allow some shelving to be positioned at the back. Abdul, Jen and myself moved trays of books to the opposite side of the room whilst Peter was arranging shelving.

Jillian front area if the book shop looked more spacious and brighter, event Aero light cant through into the room straight into Abdul pocket to eat later!

Abdul represented us taking charge of the chocolate.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

There seems to be a link with extreme weather and the allotments task. Last month we had the heaviest downpour and this evening we had the hottest day of the year!

Sandy and I met at Salt Hill park at 18:15 ready to run out by 18:30 to meet Jen and Peter directly at the task.

On arrival we could see the lovely progress made to plot 5 by the Home Start Slough team.

The plot we were working on tonight was solid as a rock! The dry weather had certainly taken its toll on the ground.

That said Jen and Peter in particular did an outstanding job of clearing half the plot.