After our names and numbers and a quick brief about the task, we'd already caught up on everyone's mission sign ups and mission cancellations (which was a shame, hopefully it can be rearranged!) whilst we sat in the beer garden/meeting point waiting for everyone to arrive, without a drink I'll add, we then popped into Crystal Palace Park for our warm up.

The run to St John's Church was quicker than I expected which meant more time for the task and upon arrival, everyone who hadn't been there before, marveled at the size of the church and I can see why they needed such a big Christmas tree last year - everyone was keen for that to be a task again this year! We weren't going to be inside the church today, but instead in the gardens.

Helen was there to brief us and divide the tools between the group. The main objective was the clear the weeds, nettles and thistles. Everyone got stuck in and carefully divided themselves by those wearing shorts avoiding the huge nettles/thistles!!

We had an excellent team clearing the large nettles and weeds, with occasional ouch being heard when they came across a particularly spiky plant and the rest of the group clearing the beds to allow the volunteers to have a clear space to carry out some planting.

Towards the end of the task, Tim had dug up a rather large root in one of the beds, unfortunately and despite much perseverance the root couldn't be removed and that'll be a job for the volunteers in the coming weeks.

Two trips to the compost pile later and retrieval of a trowel from the compost heap, we began to clear the paths, tidy up and put the tools away.

Before we left, Helen quickly told us the history of the garden and that it is completely maintained by volunteers, if anyone fancies joining the volunteers to help maintain the garden then they meet on a Wednesday afternoon and I'm sure they'd be grateful of any help!

Group photo taken, we were on our way back to the start point and back in the park was did a quick plank circuit - great effort everyone! And after we decided to stretch in the park rather than next to the busy road!

Thanks for having me and it was lovely to pop over to another borough. The next group run is at Forest Hill Station - sign up here.

Kim x

A super seven sped up the big hill to help out at the orchard in Crystal Palace Park, covering around 4km of running along the way.

We had a new runner joining us this evening - let's all give Katie a very big cheer!

We had a great weekend of volunteering and running again, with a whole crowd of us turning up at South Norwood parkrun on Saturday morning, for our volunteer takeover. We had volunteers on timers, tokens, scanning, marshalling and pacing. Really well done to everyone who came along, it was great fun and the core team and runners definitely appreciated our enthusiasm!

We have another chance to help out at a community mission with the Crystal Palace Festival, on June 16th or 17th. Details for the Sunday are here and for the Monday here - sign up and make a difference!

As we spoke in the garden before setting off, the clouds grew grey and the rain came down. Thankfully this had stopped by the time we reached the park and our warm-up shook off any moisture and the sun came back out. Thank you to Louise for leading up front this evening and to Ian for being back-marker, keeping us together. It's a fair old slog up to the Crystal Palace Museum, where we met Mehul and took a few moments to admire the now finished garden, which we helped with recently. It looks stunning and you can see the hard work that has gone into this over the years - well done to everyone involved!

At this point, Tim was itching to get in there and prune the grapevines, which are flourishing right now, so we gave him permission to fly solo. The rest of us gathered spades, forks, gloves and wheelbarrows and got ready to go back towards the train station, mulched up and ready to work. The orchard is on the grassy area next to Crystal Palace Station, with the trees needing some TLC, as the grass has grown long around the base, sapping all the water. While Katie got stuck in, pulling up the grass, Hannah and Reece went into the station to fill up the water carriers - a seemingly simple-sounding task, but really quite a challenge, since the sinks weren't made for filling a spout.

Meanwhile, Ian and Louise were back off up the hill to collect more mulch, giving themselves even more of a workout en route. With all this back and forth, we hadn't realised the time and had to give it one last push to the finish line. The water had appeared, so we were able to mulch and Mehul and Louise had a go at straightening and refixing the wooden supports, making the trees that little bit more secure. One more uphill drive, to return the tools and it was time for a very quick fitness session, a lucky dip in pairs. It turns out Katie is pretty speedy and we think Tim may have met his match :)

As we stretched, we talked about next week, when we are due to head over to Anerley Town Hall, details are here, so sign up and put it in your diary.

Have a great week!