Get off our turf!

An exciting wheelbarrow-based task was always going to bring Paul B to a group run and this time we were joined by fellow Paul, newcomer PaulC who had the good grace to stand next to Paul B as we went round the circle to "count in" with our names. We have a thing about trying to break the numbering thing and having name twins is a sure fire way to break it.

We were also glad to be re-joined by Laura (let me know if the T-shirt still doesn't arrive) and Valè who cant remember yet why she stopped coming over three years ago but really enjoyed being back. So that's OK then. Nik is now officially a pro as he has a handful of good deeds under his belt.

The running group set of on a harbour loop, led by Vaguely Northern Darren and backmarked by birthday boy Richard B who celebrated on his actual birthday by running the very muddy Ironwood Challenge 10K.

Meanwhile, the dependable walkers headed directly to Faithspace to join Sarah and Marky to gather tools into a shiny new trolley (no more trolley-dollying for us!) and the two all-important wheelbarrows as we had a task to tackle!

The aim was to extend the gravel paths around the planters we'd filled last year, and top up the planters with some fresh compost. So, out with the turf, in with the gravel - the runners arrived and the team split into compost loaders (into the dumpy bag in the trolley), gravel loaders into wheelbarrows and turf edgers and lifters to make space for the gravel. Top Tip 1 - we finally realised there aren't any pedestrian crossings on the harbour loop so no friendly red man to enable a catching of breath/squat and lunge practice Top Tip 2 - white spray paint doesn't show up well on wet grass in the dark - specialist edger Richard G had the genius idea to turn on the Big Lights we'd carried over

We were lucky that the excess turf could be dumped, sorry, carefully piled, into mounds to become grass seats next to the paths, but even so, two barrow loads of gravel arrived before there was space to use it so all hands switched to turf clearing so Paul B could show us all how to handle a barrow like a pro..: A fall from grace as the wheelbarrow had other ideas and instead deposited a pile of gravel onto the grass instead of the path. And a lot of giggles.

At some point it stopped raining but none of is had taken any notice of the rain in the first place.

It was action in all directions as compost and gravel arrived, empties returned and mounds grew as bare paths were made (not to be confused with bear paths - that's another week). Some highly skilled "stomping" of soil and then gravel led Sarah and Marky to mistakenly believe we knew what we were doing - you can fool all the people some of the time. Darren was (apparently) given carte-blanche to make one corner happen and decided a sweeping curve was in order. So we took it one step further to create a GoodGym mini-path for small creatures with two Gs giving us plausible deniability as he forgot what the logo looked like and the Gs are both facing the same way with straight bars. So it couldn't possibly have been us...

With a bit of compost added to a nearby heap and us not breaking the new super-duper trolley (we managed to put it back together perfectly, eh Jason and Valè?), tools were given a quick wipe on the wet grass and all taken back to Marky's workshop having turned down the offer of squash and biscuits this time as we'd spent a teeny bit longer at the task than intended...

The runners set off back to Workout the short (walkers) way and sent back news that there was speed dating at Club Haus and it was too chilly to sit outdoors what with it being February so we headed to The Brew House so Ed could order his tea/supper/dinner and we could all eat Richard B's delicious homemade lamingtons (sp?) to remind us all again it was his birthday week.

Top Tasking, Team!