Skip what you're doing and chick it out!

Pretty much the perfect task today, lots of hands making light work of an allotment clearance to make way for a community chicken farm and orchard.

But we had to get there first! Our destination was in St George and that meant a longish run with a gradual climb so it wasn't altogether a surprise that we arrived a little later than planned to find our hosts Harriet and Phil already hard at work. Trees had been cut down and rubbish piled neatly in the centre all ready for us.

With only the briefest wistful glance at the two handed saw on the way past, everyone first got to work sorting the sawn branches into larger (thigh-sized) firewood and smaller assortments.

This done, we tackled our main job, moving all the rubbish up the hill to a waiting skip. For this, we divided into two groups with the lower team passing items over a fence so the higher team could deposit them in the skip.

All sorts of items went by - old broken up wheelbarrows (sad), carpet, smelly buckets of smelly stuff and window frames and shed panels. With so many people this was all achieved pretty quickly and by the time we left, the rubbish pile was no more.

It only remained to enjoy some welcome pastries and even a little amber hued refreshment which was very well earned (and much appreciated) by all involved!