I was delighted to return to help out Mr M and Mrs K in their garden, not least because I would get to see their lovely dog again, a cross between an Alsatian and Bernese Mountain Dog - full of energy and super friendly!

Mrs K told me that there was a spot in the garden where three of her previous dogs were buried and it was breaking her heart that the area was overgrown with weeds, so clearing that area was the priority.

Once that was done there was still time to clear another bed of weeds, one less thing for them to worry about and remind them of their limitations, and a bit of time at the end to give their current dog some more fuss! 🥰

A return visit to Southmead Hospital Allotment to continue helping to clear the turf from an area designated for a wildflower meadow, to create a relaxing space for patients and staff within the hospital grounds.

The weather was much kinder than our first visit here and the conditions for removing slices of turf were ideal following the recent rainy days.

We welcomed Ollie who was along for his first GoodGym task in Bristol, having previously been to a session in London, and it was great to see Molly again after a while. Both got really stuck in to the task in hand,

Freya managed to fit in a GoodGym workout ahead of her hockey match this afternoon and we were all left wondering if she'd have any energy left for that, and proved particularly adept at finding rocks buried in the soil.

It was one of those tasks where you couldn't resist getting involved and despite announcing that she would have to take it easy after parkrun, Melanie soon had a spade in hand and was clearing with the rest of the group.

The tools were great, properly getting the job done and Richard kindly forewent use of the shiny new spade, so that Ollie could use it.

We had 90 minutes of marking out, digging out slices of turf, and then barrowing these over to the boundary hedge to be deposited there. By the time we'd finished, we'd managed to clear about half of the area, so hopefully another couple of sessions will get the area finished and ready for planting in March.

Great work again everyone!

Shopping trip for a very grateful Mr O.

Fantastic Friday Farm Frolics

Edges edged, raking raked, chatting chatted.

More January to get through but lucky for us we have GoodGym Bristol to see us through - hopefully the only Group Run of the month with an outside task and the weather was KIND!

We were tasked with beautifying (OK, clearing the litter from) the areas around Redcliffe Nursery School/Children's Centre which gets a lorra litter (in a Cilla Black voice). We were only challenged by one local but mainly he was seeing if we were looking for a cat. No riot Police at all this time.

Working around the school, we also reported the flytip that Bristol Waste have since said is on private land (despite being at the back of the school, an emergency exit from the Council tower block and just off the road), excitingly across the Banana Bridge (sooo yellow (in a Sinita voice)) and tidily along the side of the river, finally finding Frances.

One more pile of flytip reported, we tied up the bags, stashed the litter-picking kit, washed our hands and headed for burgers at Three Brothers, lovely as always with the addition of a game of Mayo Top Trumps and league table of scores from the NHS Healthy Choices quiz which goes to show that 10/10 is achievable!

Fabulous progress in the Battle of the Bramble at Brunswick with Mark joining for his first visit.

Knowing his prowess with a saw at Ashton Court, he set to on a mahonia and buddleia to reduce the height and dragged his “clippings” to the growing pile of green waste for the gardeners to collect.

We also made progress on paths, de-butter cupping and chopping back some of the smaller tall grasses.

2026 is looking good in the cemetery!