Bramble with care! (Like toad-ally!)

What's this stuff falling from the sky? Could it be rain? Surely not...

NOT! Hurrah! We escaped another drenching and the rain gods looked down upon our run with favour, although did their best to test the faithful by making it rain until about 5 minutes before we were due to get started. There were nine in our posse today, and off we trotted up one of Bristol's finest hills, Park Street, to get to what is considered to be the spiritual home of GoodGym, Brandon Hill (recent winners of an award for contributions to the neighbourhood, I'll have you know!).

We met with Friend of Brandon Hill's Fraser (who's been known to join us on a run or two), grabbed our tools and headed off to a massive bramble patch, where, to put it simply, we obliterated any blackberry, bramble or Rubus fruiticosus that dared to set forth tendrils. To see an overgrown area transformed into a space where plants can be planted and bulbs can be bulb-ed was really satisfying, as was the delight of a passerby who was so pleased that we'd cleared the space so that spring snowdrops and croci will flourish once again.

There was a price to pay, however... the clement weather meant that most runners were clad in their lightweight, go-faster striped shorty shorts and t-shirts. Many a scrape, graze and scratch was endured! Blood has been spilt on this ground and so forever let it be said that on this day we made a stand. Not just for passing old ladies with a love of springtime flowers. Not just for the tired office workers who stroll the park as respite from their desk bound existence. And not even for a humble toad who we found whilst working. Oh no. This blood was spilt for Good, ladies and gentleman. For the desire to take a stand against the mighty bramble and to say 'NO! No more will you choke the hawthorn and the sycamore. No more will you cast a shadow on earth so that the slumbering bulb feels not the sun!'....

Ahem. I seem to have got carried away, but let's just say that these folks worked their socks off, and even had energy for shuttle runs, press ups, walking lunges and other exercises devised to make them lean, mean, bramble destroying machines! Well done, everyone!