Tonight we got to work tidying up the flower beds in the Rose Road car park. A lot of the plants were overgrown in the sensory garden, bindweed had taken over and rubbish had blown in off the street. We carefully pruned, pulled, picked and swept to leave the main flower bed looking much smarter and the parking spaces clear. I don't know about everyone else, but I worked so hard with the secateurs I got a blister!

A lovely session joining Friends of Portswood Rec helping them keep their beautiful garden blooming for all to enjoy, despite the heatwave we are going through. Laura was on watering duties and Stephanie was enjoying her favourite task cutting back the brambles. Amazing how much you can get done in an hour before the sun gets too hot. 😎

Once bug sprayed we headed into the depths (sort of) of the woods to remove more Himalayan balsam. It is deceptive at first as looks like there is not much around and then you realise it’s all balsam! Some of it was even towering above us and starting to flower, but fortunately no seeds popping yet. We had so much to do we didn’t even have time for the litter pick!

The Ludlow Infant School Summer Fayre was great fun, with Wilson on the basketball stall, Sarah helping children fish through slime to find hidden shapes, Leszek running the hunt for the special lollipop, and Joana bringing the excitement at Spin the Wheel.

Joana also managed the sporting moment of the event, casually throwing a basketball backwards and netting it!

I think we were all "relieved" at not being given the "job" of running "Get the Poo in the Loo" game.

Maple joined me to put the tail into tailwalking today, while Steph completed her first parkwalk, speedy Hannah and Orla ran and scanned, Beth joined for her second GG and fastest 5k of the year, and Sarah represented us in the middle of the pack! Afterwards we went to our favourite refill shop where we help litter pick, Lemon and Jinja, for refreshments.

As the grass was very overgrown I got to work trying to strim it down for fear the lawnmower would clog and overheat if used. It was hard work strimming and some of the weeds couldn’t be cut through at all. After a small section was cleared to allow access to the seating area I began to mow over what had been strimmed to try to neaten it up. Some sections of weeds were too tough to get through with the mower or the strimmer, but unfortunately there were no other tools available to help with cutting this down. I managed to get the mower working for long enough to cut more than half of the back garden and cleared the start of the path before it was time to go. Mr M was very appreciative and gave me a can of Diet Coke to refresh.