It was time for one of our regular trips to The Albany! Thanks to Paul for leading the run as I got the bus to as close to the task as possible. It turned out to be perfect timing and we all arrived at The Albany within a minute of each other!

The task for this evening was the usual litter picking as the winds blows in the litter from the surrounding streets and then also a bit of weeding between the paving stones.

The unusual task for the evening was if we saw a snail then we needed to pick it up and put it in a bucket and then the snails would be relocated away from the vegetable plants.

We had a couple of marathons to celebrate so we headed for a post group run social to refuel and catch up with friends!

It was the first group run since the clocks changed and we were looking forward to a group run in daylight. And I was mostly looking forward to not taking dark blurry photos!

It was time for one of our regular group runs to The Albany but first we had to take a detour to see the teenage herons. It has been hit and miss recently on the amount of litter in the garden and with the grass getting longer it provided a good hiding place for the litter.

Not to be deterred and without Vic's extending litter picker, we still managed to half fill some gigantic bin bags. If they'd have been normal sized bin bags then I think we would have filled them.

It was time to say our goodbyes and head to The Brookmill for our social.

So much so that we're busy arranging a second group run to move another pile of mulch that is being delivered - keep your eyes peeled!

It was a shorter run to Ladywell Fields and then a bit more of a run to get to the mulch pile. The mulch needed to be 3 inches deep and 1m around the saplings. This is to make sure the ground retains as much water as possible to give the saplings the best chance of survival.

We split into groups, one group tackling the furthest away saplings with the wheelbarrows and the other group ferrying buckets of mulch to the nearer saplings.

We soon got into the groove and soon the pile of mulch was no more but the saplings well mulched.

After much discussion at Glass Mill about layers and waterproof jackets, and agreement that there was only a small chance of rain. We were wrong!!

Before we became aware of that, we happily made our way up to Deptford, and divided into groups. One group headed to the end of Creekside and the other started at the beginning of Creekside with the goal to meet back at the meeting point at 8pm.

Soon enough the rain started pouring but the flats gave us some shelter and I thoroughly enjoying being able to see red t-shirts running around the maze of flats and everyone trying to find eachother on different levels.

We'd started running out of flyers so headed back to the start point to wait for the others and then the downpour started!! And maybe a bit of hail throw in.

Rejoined by the other group and seeing the error of our ways in dividing the flyers way out of proportion, meant we still had a handful to deliver. We made sure these were done on our way back to Glass Mill whilst avoiding giant puddles that had formed in the last 45min.

Great work tonight team, especially in the rain and cold. Next week we're heading to RUSS to help in the garden so wrap up warm!!