While Simon was away, Patrick came to play. The Grateful Eight helped Anna at Thornhill Square Gardens to keep up appearances by watering the trees, tidying the bed edges, weeding, clearing detritus and shifting a MASSIVE BRANCH

This was the first deed since Earth Day and it was great to have a wonderful green outdoors task. Today, we were delighted to welcome Adam for his first good deed after "a while" since a little birdie told him all about it (and it just so happened Charlie also joined GoodGym a short while after a word-of-mouth referral, too!). At Elizabeth House, the arrivals of Josh and Katie made the fantastic five. It was so good to have time to talk, get to know each other and hear about PPE, water and accessibility among other things. We arrived warmed up, so only had a brief intro before running over to Thornhill Gardens while Patrick brought Adam up to speed about GoodGym along the way.

Two miles later, we arrived at Thornhill Gardens where Alice, Caitlin and Emily already had the hose out and were watering the trees.

Anna gave a quick welcome to Islington's largest square, showed us the flowers we had planted at Halloween and was soon handing out tasks and tools :

• Charlie, Josh and Katie tidied up almost all the messy edges of the flower beds equipped with shears and gloves where the blades were too close to the wire.
• Alice, Emily and Caitlin were armed with scrapers, gloves and a zombie knife (!) to weed at the pavement edges and avoiding earwigs along the way
• Adam worked with Patrick to fill bags and barrows with branches, brambles and roots that looked like a stag's head before dragging or wheeling them to the compost pile
• Bonus task coolly completed by Charlie was to shift "a massive branch"

Candy Kittens, duck, duck goose

Patrick brought Eton Mess Candy Kittens to boost energy and explained "back in the day" there were more regular fitness sessions and games and Patrick had once led a session of Duck, Duck Goose in the Square (Josh was surprised that Patrick and Adam had not played it in childhood).

That's a wrap Anna was grateful for the help as always and mentioned upcoming garden awards season. Patrick took a team photo before most people went directly home, leaving three to return to the House.

Coming up soon

Next week is Bank Holiday Monday - there is a group run led by Simon but the first Monday of the month social will be deferred to Monday 9th May at the Owl and the Hitchhiker after a trip to the Rose Bowl.

In the middle, Patrick reminded Anna there is an Open Day for volunteering on Saturday 7th May - weed all about it and sign up here

PS: Before showtime, Patrick arranged a DBS Document Check - remember if anyone would like to get involved with Coach Runs or Missions, then please do express interest, get verified and open up more possibilities to do good, get fit and support older isolated people in your local community.