You're Not A Patch On Me

We were met by the elders of the church at Thurlstone eager to welcome us back and inform us of what needed attending to around the church.

The first and main item on the agenda was creating a space for the 'Eco Kids' to grow their own vegetables in. This is a group of local children who are interested in sustainably producing their own food in an ecologically friendly and sustainable way. The area designated for this is alongside a wall at the rear of the church. This area had vegetation growing up the wall and from the woods on the other side. It was mostly covered in ivy; this needed clearing. We did this by using secateurs as high as we could reach on the wall, and then further up by scaling the buttress utilizing our incredible climbing skills!

Whilst we were busy with this the elders were getting busy with some tasks inside of the church. I'm not entirely sure what, I think pew polishing and kitchen sorting was mentioned?!

We had a wall!

When we were almost done with this part of the chopping we were called inside for refreshments, and to chat with the other folks who had kindly come out to meet us. We were informed that we would very welcome to return on other dates throughout the year to complete other tasks- eg, making beds at the front of the church, weeding in the grounds behind, creating a pond etc. I'm sure these will be popular activities with the folk at GG! Yay!

When properly refreshed we headed back outside to remove weeds and dig out unwelcome shrubs from the bed. We also weeded down the side of the path behind the church. A 'bonfire' was made out of all the cuttings and pullings, with the 'guy' on top being the large dug out shrubbery (see pics).

A good job well done (tactfully left with more to do!).