We were very excited today to be invited to help the big man himself spreading cheer and giving out gifts to children and young people visiting the Rose Road Christmas Fair. We welcomed Barbara for their first task. Great to meet you Barbara - we can't promise we'll have such great outfits next time we see you! Derek was our lead money maker manning the grotto entrance while the rest of us were on greeting and present passing duties. It was lovely to see everyone having such a great time. Lucy was also tasked with keeping Santa jolly with cake and coffee. Next year we know we've got to get him the cake quicker! We all managed to have a wander round the stalls too and got quite lucky on the bottle tombola, but no luck on the raffle!

We were feeling very festive this evening as we got to help decorate Santa’s grotto. Some of the team counted out presents that Santa has had delivered early (well you know what the post is like come Christmas!). Others started off by assembling one of the Christmas trees which took a lot of fluffing! Abby was in charge of making sure we all kept to the aesthetic which was apparently red and gold. In the final moments though someone decided a purple bauble must also adorn the tree! We can’t wait for all the visitors to see the finished grotto soon. It’s Chrissssssssstmasssss!!

This evening we gave the hedge a good trim, sifted soil ready for seedlings and turned one of the compost bays 😊

Back to our friends at Southampton city farm tonight where they had an inside task for us. We were tasked with filling bags of hay to feed the goats ready for their open day this weekend and folding and stapling leaflets. We got to welcome Hannah back on a Monday night after her maternity leave, great to have you back!

Everyone dug into filling bags with hay and Chris and Helen were on crate cleaning duty to store the bags. We soon worked out that hay gets quite dusty and Wilson won the crown for most sneezes of the evening. Special mention to Ellie for most sneezes in a row. Some of us then moved onto leaflets while the rest continued with hay bagging.

After an hour of hay bagging, leaflet folding and stapling and crate cleaning and packing we were all grateful for a break for some maths where Hannah worked out we had packed 240 bags! A massive accomplishment.