Today's session at Braywick Plant Nursery was setting things to rights after the storm. I spent the morning righting pots which had blown over, re-uniting labels with their plants and clearing twigs and branches which had blown down from the oak tree

GoodGymmer Tony Ward became Captain Jack Sparrow for the day as he took the helm for boat rides at Friends of Maidenhead Waterways' Fun Day on Saturday. It was all hands on deck as Friends of Maidenhead Waterways volunteers press ganged more than 100 landlubbers into life jackets for boat rides throughout the day. No pieces of eight were needed as Tony's new shipmates clambered aboard the good ship Yorkie. The public boat rides along York Stream were all free. Luckily thanks to Pirate Tony's boat skipper skills there were no men or women overboard and no-one ended up in Davy Jones' locker. Meanwhile across the choppy waves of Chapel Arches, GoodGymmer Dominic Hurst (a newly qualified canoe and kayak instructor) was busy heaving ho, taking people on free kayak and canoe taster sessions in the shark infested waters of York Stream. More than 40 people said Aye Aye and walked the plank into canoes for Dominic's watery trips, shouting "avast ye" whenever they saw Pirate Tony's boat pass.
At the end of a busy day it was time for GoodGymmers Tony and Dominic to enjoy a good Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum.

It was the annual Sunflower Walk in aid of Thames Hospice. Sheila was in her traditional marshal spot at the end of the Long Walk, down from Windsor Castle. There was huge activity in the area due to the imminent visit of President Trump, including the erection of a huge metal fence. It cerrainly spoilt the usual iconic view of the castle. As I stood there in my high-viz, most passers-by assumed I was Security, so spent most of my time answering questions. Luckily a quick Google enabled me to provide most of the answers. The residents of Windsor left me in no doubt about their opinions on Trump's visit! Eventually the first walkers came through and I was able to congratulate them on reaching half-way on the half marathon route, and direct them back towards the finish. This is a big money-raiser for the Hospice, so it was great to be part of the volunteering team

Sol, Sheila and Angela met the community allotment on a sunny Friday afternoon.

The task was to prepare empty vegetable beds for the winter break. Angela and Sheila started weeding, Sol made several wheelbarrow rides to bring manure to the beds. The last part was to cover them with plastic sheets to suppress weeds over the winter months.

The hour passed quickly while catching up summer trips and upcoming events. We escaped the rain and that was a positive start to the weekend!

Just Karen today at the Baby Bank but she got stuck in bringing multiple bags of donated clothing up the stairs to clear space in the entrance. The rest of the morning was spent checking and sorting school uniform into the appropriate boxes so it can be given out to needy families. There is currently a massive backlog of clothing which needs to be sorted so if anyone fancies giving a hand then please sign up on a Friday!

Sophie, Jess, Amy and Sol met at All Saints church and set off on the 1km journey to Desborough Park. Sophie and Amy walked whilst Jess and Sol ran back and forth between lamposts and us, with high fives and Dad jokes to motivate them! Well done both on extending your distance by nearly double!

When we arrived at the park we met Viv and Helen (our task owner from Wild Maidenhead) who set us to work on digging up grass and weeds from a large wildflower bed ready for them to plant new items and create a bee habitat. Many hands made light work and there was a noticeable difference as shown in our before and after photos courtesy of Jess.

We were careful not to step in any dog muck and avoid tics, though the weather turned about 15 minutes before we finished so we set off back to the meeting location on the 1km (very wet and rainy) walk. Great effort everyone and hope you've all dried off now!