31 people planted 12 plants, bagged 4 sacks of leaves, tidied 3 flower beds of rubbish, spread one small sack of compost and spent an indeterminate amount of time squatting, lunging and hopping about.

It's December. Brilliant. Month of parties, neon, tinsel and general 'downing of tools'. We never really down tools, largely because we don't have any, and because someone is relying on our help.

Locally Sourced

We ran to help our old friend Jon on the Drummond Estate in Somers Town. Jon is a local resident who for the last 3 years, has taken it upon himself to improve the communal areas on the estate. He has started a gardening club and has engaged with us in an effort to spruce up the area. He has made a huge improvement. When we first visited Jon the overgrown hedgerows were filled with a myriad of fizzy drinks cans, crisps wrappers and discarded fag buts. Its now home to thriving plants, rock circles and porcelain gnomes.

Local Pride

We did 3 quick jobs. We potted some new plants, we cleared a courtyard of leaves and we helped spread compost on 3 beds (after we had cleared them of rubbish of course!). It is amazing how people seem to be taking more care of the area under Jon's direction. The amount of rubbish we found was minimal- people are now filling the bins with their fag butts and whacking their cans in the recycling. Jon has a lot to be proud of!

Regents Run

We raced through the jobs, so we decided to do a few rounds of exercises in the court yard. We didn't fancy sitting on the cold concrete so did lots of squats, balances and hops. All of which tired us out for the long run to come. We all ran to Regents Park where we split into 2 groups. Those who just wanted to run home (4k total) and those who fancied something a bit longer. They dashed off round the inner circle led by Paul B, and tried to catch the rest of us up on the way home.

We all got back to the centre safely (nice one Paul), for a quick stretch followed by a pub visit for some to celebrate Lucia's birthday. Wahey! Nice one everyone

19 runners did a fantastic job helping out Castlehaven community centre last  night.

They're run lots of great projects in Camden. Sean is the 'Environmental Project' coordinator, organising a series of gardening clubs, walks and talks.

Here's what we got up.

O'Sean Liner

Sean used to have a pond in the wildlife garden, but the lining was torn by vandals lobbing rocks in the pond. He bought some heavy duty rubber to coat the bottom. We helped him lay it!

Forking Ground

They've been creating a few raised beds around the park. We helped them finish the job, forking, turning and weeding the ground around the perimeter. It's been fairly dry lately.... which means the earth was tougher than a Dundee cake that's been left out in the sun all summer.

Chips with that?

They are also creating a wildlife trial for local children but it needed sprucing up. Sean provided a lovely big pile of fresh woodchip (we've rarely ever seen it when it's still green!), and we spread it all over the pathways. Nice bit of wheelbarrow action.

Pond-ering the next move.

Laying the pond was much more complicated than expected and at 8.15pm we were still getting the main layer of rubber down. We decided to split. Some runners headed back on a swift jog back to Somers Town, while Beth, Rachel, Ben, Tom and Dan stayed later to finish the task. Cheers guys.

A nice evening all round- a short 4k run, but 3 big tasks completed.