Sprucing up the neighbourhood

Ten tree-mendous runners made fir-ly tree-sy work of clearing the streets of discarded Christmas trees.

A big welcome to Nick who was joining the Bromley group for the first time, and welcome back to Raven.

Our planned task was postponed so the Christmas tree hunt was brought forward a week. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I recall the trees being rather spiky last year, having had a little longer to dry out before being whisked away by our marvelous runners for chipping.

We headed to the park for a warm-up using the trusty stress pig to throw around the group, with the recipient choosing the warm-up exercise. After a round of star jumps, squats, high knees and leg swings, we switched our tree radars on and headed out on our hunt. Sam had spotted a tree on the way into the park, which was the first of many trees gathered.

My initial concerns about finding enough trees were unfounded as shouts of 'tree!' came thick and fast and we were soon laden down. We certainly raised a few eyebrows as our chain of trees made their way over the bridge at Penge East station. The next tree to be collected had tinsel and a bauble still on it, the owner evidently not doing a very thorough job when taking their decorations down! Our ingenious runners had decided to form a chain to carry as many trees as possible, with no fewer than 6 runners and 5 trees forming one long line along the pavement at one point. By the time we had reached the drop-off point at Mayow Park, we had gathered an impressive 9 trees, with some rather sizeable specimens amongst them. The gates to the park were locked so we heaved them over the railings, before splitting into small groups and heading off to search the roads around the park. Each of the groups returned with more trees, with special mention going to Reece and Ian who managed to find not one, not two but FIVE more trees, taking the groups final count to 19, a tree-rific effort.

As the task had worked our upper bodies so hard, I thought it only right to balance things out and give our legs a work-out. After a run back towards our start-point, we diverted to a local park where the speaker came out of my bag, prompting groans from those who knew what it meant.. Moby's 'Bring Sally Up', aka the squat song. I promise not to be so mean next week.

Talking of next week, we can hopefully reschedule our visit to Forest Hill, keep an eye on the task page here for an update and to sign up.