We All Wood Chipped In To Mulch Apple-ause

It was super busy in the centre of town this morning with the annual Harbour Festival taking place so the earlier start worked in our favour, particularly with a last minute switch in starting point from Mud Dock to Workout Bristol, to avoid the huge number of people that we encountered later on in Queen Square.

Great to welcome Sarah along for her first GoodGym run today and hope you enjoyed the run and task today Sarah!

With Paul unfortunately injured (hope you're mended soon Paul), Richard and I doubled up to get our gang of fourteen over to the Woodcroft Community Orchard in St Annes, with Richard doing a wonderful job of leading us on the least hilly route possible on our 10k round trip.

The Woodcroft Community Orchard was born out of a project started back in April 2012 . By the Spring of the following year, work was well under way with the planting of over 50 trees; Apple, Pear, Plum, Damson, Gage, Mulberry, Quince, Elder and a range of soft fruit.

Meeting up with our host, Andy, we were handed an array of tasks:

• Richard and Alison got to grips with a patch of brambles and stinging nettles located alongside some bee hives and expertly managed to clear lots whilst avoiding getting stung by bees or nettles!
• Gina and Jane were helping Andy attend to some apple trees, before Jane took on the option of delivering barrowloads of wood chippings to a nearby allotment.
• Alice and Sukhi were doing a marvellous job of watering and feeding a variety of fruit trees, pretty much covering and nurturing the whole of the orchard.
• Zdeni, Claire and Richard were attacking the wood chip pile with pitchforks in true angry mob style in order to cover a large area in the top corner of the orchard with mulch.
• This left Sarah, Caroline, Stu and Art doing barrow shuttle runs delivering loads of woodchip to other areas around the orchard.

The time flew by and before we knew it, it was time to head back to town where we gave ourselves a collective pat on the back and several rounds of apple-ause, before moving on to enjoy a cool drink and a wander round the nearby festivities.

Massive thanks to Richard G for leading the group and to Alison for helping me out with backmarking on the return leg.

And thanks also to Jane and Richard B for the pun inspirations!

Nice one!!