After my parkrun, I decided to join a community mission at St Mary’s Church, helping to plant bulbs around the area. Sam, the gardener in charge, explained how deep we needed to plant each size of bulb. I really enjoyed being part of the community group, and at the end, we were treated to some very rewarding refreshments, including two delicious homemade cakes and some savory snacks.

I went to conquer the two hills of the Hilly Fields parkrun as part of my parkrun tourism plan. I was hoping to meet Steve, another GoodGymer, but the Run Director told me he couldn’t make it. After finishing the run, I carried out my usual barcode scanning volunteer task.

The things on Ms Y’s list today didn’t attract any of the member offers in my ‘wallet’ so I had a chat about cheese with her and we added some to her basket. Lots of chatting before and after, it is almost like a ‘coach’ visit.

The lovely Mr J put lavender air freshener on the list of things to buy from ASDA. They didn’t have any so I rang him up to find out about which of the replacement options he would prefer. He asked me to smell them for him , despite me explaining that I really wasn’t the best person for this given that I my nose wasn’t fixed after an incident with a cricket ball when I was 16. I described the ‘aromas’ and Mr J plumped for the ‘Romantic Vanilla Blossom’. (In case you wondered the I was advised by a fellow shopper that ‘Warm Apple Pie’ one smelled ‘nothing like it.’)

The lovely Ms D had made a lot of progress in clearing the clutter since my last visit, her kitchen was almost clear. We focused today on her utility room and getting seeds and bulbs into a mouse proof box, cleaning the surface. She’lll now be able to go through the cupboards below whilst sitting down.

A group that got smaller and smaller as the day went on gathered at Glass Mill ready to tackle the litter at The Albany Theatre.

It was fantastic to be back leading the warm and inching closer to being able to lead the actual run (hopefully on Monday). I'm very grateful to everyone who has stepped up during this ankle saga!

Onto the task, it was perfect timing as we all arrived at The Albany at the same time. We split into 2 groups to tackle the litter inside the garden and also outside surrounding the garden.

The outside team did end up with the fuller bin bag. It wasn't a competition but well done, a Paul sized bin bag looked pretty full of litter, not Paul!

Next week we are visiting Heston Nature Reserve and apparently there'll be non-alcoholic punch as a thank you for our hard work.