Once the last tardy goodgymmer had arrived (nonchalent whistling), Helen from the Archbishop Holgate School Allotment Club lead us through the bustling maze of activity and out into the dark and cold.

Our task was to help weeding the beds and paths in preparation for winter, so we got stuck in with assorted forks (no tool pretence here) to attack the particularly stringy roots and grasses that were barring the way to bare soil.

The paths were historically bark-covered membrane, but the pesky weeds were winning the battle and needed to be tackled with care to avoid shredding what was left of the membrane. Meanwhile the beds were more fruitful and bore the gift of potatoes. This lead to a game of pass-the-potato which is tricky to say the least by headtorch. A tuber was tossed which then immediately disappeared into the gloom and landed with a thump as it hit something or someone... Fortunately 90% were gathered up and saved specially for my tea.

After our hour was up we had made the area significantly less weedy than it started off and retained circulation to all but our extremities. That counts as a success by our standards so good effort team!