An earlier start today, on a chilly wet morning, yet with a shorter and later start group run option also on the table, a hardy 17 runners still turned out to spread a little Saturday morning goodness! Very impressive!

Maybe it was the prospect of visiting a new task, a Goat Palace no less and the prospect of meeting some new furry friends or maybe we just liked the idea of a long and wet run with the prospect of getting stuck into some hard work and getting very muddy in the process.

Whatever the reason, it was great to have everyone along and after a warm up and a welcome to our newcomer Catt we set off for the 5k predominantly uphill run to Troopers Hill, stopping to regroup regularly so that we all arrived together at our destination and met up with our lovely host Amy and her group of volunteers at StreetGoat on the farm allotments.

StreetGoat is a community project that aims to keep dairy goats on unused urban land around Bristol and there is a lot of work to do at this particular site.

WIth the earlier start we had a good hour or so to provide a bit a muscle and we soon had a group digging a trench with spades, mattocks and pickaxes so that a water pipe can be laid so that they can get water for the goats easily and for hand and utensil washing.

We then had a second group bashing large wooden stakes into the ground, enthusiastically using post drivers to get the job done and doing a fabulous job given the deceptively stoney ground.

Meanwhile, group three had perhaps the least glamorous job of clearing rubbish from a patch of ground adjacent to the goat pen, trying to shift all kinds of debris from carpets, glass and buckets to steel pipes and plastic matting pinned down by a bed of brambles.

We certainly made some headway in the time available to us and were rewarded with some tea and fabulous flapjack and a wander down to "coo" over the rather contented goats and a very lovely fluffy dog.

This will be an ongoing project so we can hopefully look forward to a return visit in the not too distant future!

Another 5k home this time largely downhill for some stretches and a few announcements and then off for some well earned grub.

Thanks to Paddy for backmarking today and to Lisa and Matt for the additional photos.