After a rather soggy run down, Barbara soon set us to work up in the Lady's Gallery. Memories of first jobs and childhood chores were brought back with the scents of Brasso and Barkeeper's Friend. It took us a little while to master our pole-polishing technique, interestingly the men-folk seemed to get the hang of it quicker! 😆

Interesting Facts: 50% of the team this evening are left handed. 66% share their name with another attendee. 100% of these facts may not actually be interesting.

Never has a task prompted so much innuendo, so if you're up to the challenge of coming up with more, we'll be back next week to finish off! 😉

It felt very sad to be heading home from tonight's task in the dark - winter evenings are coming! We made the most of the fading light with a stupendous effort clearing the pathways at the back of the Synagogue - check out Laura's before and after photos!

There were lots of cries of "OW!" as brambles fought back, and "OH NO"s as unwitting snails met unfortunate ends whilst we were working hard.

Maëlys joined us for her first Group Run this evening after a visit to Baffins Pond last weekend. Maëlys is just visiting Portsmouth for a holiday, so we are super grateful she chose to spend some of her break helping out!

Our main topic of conversation this evening was cricket. We found out that Ranjitha's husband plays for Portsmouth and that several of us have been enjoying The Hundred over the last couple of weeks. We were even joined by a cricket (or perhaps a grasshopper) whilst we worked, who was particularly fond of Judy!

I'm quite gutted we didn't get a "before" photo, because the difference we made to the weedy and leafy paths was huge! Lots of effort was put in to pulling weeds, sweeping brickwork and even sawing down an ivy and bramble infested stump. Barbara was once again very please with our work - well done, everyone!

We arrived at the task this evening after a warm run in good time - unfortunately our host had forgotten we were coming.

Whilst Barbara whizzed down to let us in, we made the most of our wait by weeding the forecourt outside. Lucy educated us on some of the plants names. My favourite was Herby Robert!!

Despite only 25 minutes of actual task time, we got an incredible amount of work done, weeding, loading wheelbarrows and spreading woodchips.

Incredible work this evening everyone, well done!

The rain couldn't quite hold off for tonight's Group Run, but our intrepid crew battled the elements and the weeds regardless.

Laura joined us for her first Group Run and got well stuck in the weeding the flower beds alongside Andy and Lucy. The rest of the team took on the jungle ahead of the back wall, filling an entire large garden waste bin and five bin bags! We finished up by spreading some wood chip to help stop some of the weeds coming back.

We made such a massive difference in a short space of time - well done everyone! A rainbow even made an appearance to send us on our way.

What a lovely way to spend a balmy spring evening! The Portsmouth and Southsea Syngogue's garden is a beautiful, calm and quiet space, despite being in the midst of a busy residential area.

We were shown around by Barbara, a volunteer gardener, before being put to work weeding the flower beds and laying down bark from some former garden trees. We relied on Richard and Sinéad's horticultural knowledge to distinguish between some very pretty weeds and actual garden plants.

Whilst digging weeds out of the cracks in the path, Laura uncovered a key - I'm not sure we established who it belonged to though!

We have also had a lesson in the dangers of sycamore seeds, with plants popping up in-between cracks, in drains and just about everywhere else in the grounds! Hopefully we caught some of the little saplings early enough that they haven't completely taken route.