It was a re-leaf it wasn’t raining for a favourite GoodGym task - leaf clearing at the Environmental Centre.

With great be-leaf in our abilities we swept the area in front of the centre of all the wet leaves and to our disbe-leaf we had finished in no time.

For our next task the garden and along the side of the building were in need of some leaf re-leaf. After some more clearing the garden, dome and plants were ready and leaf free.

Welcome to Russel on his first mission.

Here are some before and after pics from our mission to clear the green spaces along the Hogsmill River. Graham and I met Alison from the Conservation Organisation (Kingston Biodiversity Network) at 10am, in the rain! She set us to work on saving the Wicks Saplings that they planted in spring, from the mass of weeds that had taken over. As we worked the sun came out to join us, along with a few extra volunteers. Together we cut back and cleared the brambles from along the river path.

It was the first trip to Kingston's Edible Community Forest for Susi, Graham and Matt so they were guided into this magical plot of land so tucked away behind the A3 and allotments.

It is also deceiving larger than meets the eye, a bit like a tardis.

Brian the task owner gave us a wonderful demo and lesson in the art of grafting. It most definitely is an art - a form of propagating new fruit trees using buds or twigs – the ‘scion wood’ from an existing tree using a very sharp knife (yikes we thought) and fusing it onto a branch or stem of another tree.

We split into two pairs - Susi and Matt - the 'grafters' - who did an awesome job grafting about 10 almond and plum trees that should hopefully in a year's time be a 'GG tree' and given to primary schools.

The other pair of Jane and Graham did some hard grafting of a different kind - lopping a bay tree and hawthorn tree that were blocking the light of recently grown grafted apple trees.

We finished with an absolute treat after this thirsty work - a quick forage to find juicy mulberries. And left with a top tip from Brian of where to find a public mulberry tree in Kingston Town Centre that remains a hidden secret!

Thank you to Brian for a top time.

We are back at the Edible Forest in a couple of weeks, and for any GGers with kids on school holidays, they are welcome to come along with you.

After a last minute request for help with a foodbank collection, I zipped over to collect their voucher and list of requests. As advised I took my bike and all the bags I could find to ferry the foodbank parcel back to their home. It's was only as I sailed down Upper Brighton Rd into Surbiton that it dawned on me that I would have to cycle back up that hill, luggage and all!! Arriving at the foodbank we packed up what they had from the list including oodles of noodles, chocolate mini eggs, biscuits and an assortment of other goodies. We then arranged for the missing items to be drop off by home delivery tomorrow, to make sure the family will be well stocked for supply. Mrs O was delighted to receive the delivery and even more so to hear that more would be on its way to them tomorrow. Thank you Foodbank Team for a job well done.