We arrived at Ocean Youth Connexions expecting to work in the back yard. But because of the rain, it was suggested we turn to indoor painting instead. However, we hadn't worn our old painting clothes, and it was only a bit of drizzle, for which we were dressed in preparation, so we worked outside.

On a previous visit, we'd cleared the leaves from a path, but left a tangle of difficult-to-remove, thick green branches, interspersed with dense tufts of earth and twiglets, which had been growing since the start of the first lockdown in March 2020.

This time, armed with shears and secateurs, we got down to cutting from the base, removing the branches and digging up the earth tufts.

The initial mystery was where the branches came from, given that the area we were working on was a stone path. Eventually we worked out that they'd invaded the space from a tree in the premises next door, found a gap under the brick wall, and expanded over the path, drawing in tufts of earth and becoming entangled with them.

After 75 minutes work, the rain had stopped and we'd cleared the entire area: a very satisfying task. Now we just need to go back next Monday evening to do the painting.