*Knock Knock* "Who's there?" Ivy. "Ivy Who?" Ivy good mind to keep growin' & growin' & growin'... "Oh, Leaf it alone!"

DOING GOOD

What a wonderful task last night, supporting Broadway Baptist Church with a garden tidy-up. It was one of those great tasks where there is a clear before & after & our labour felt really useful. Not to mention Nick from the church, who was delighted by our help & enthusiastically joined in... or rather jumped in as evidenced in the photos!

Broadway Baptist Church is having a garden revamp over the next couple of weeks & we came in early to help with some of the labour intensive work to keep costs low & get the job done a little quicker. One of the bigger tasks was clearing the ivy from the back fence in the garden which had grown quite unruly, as well as sweeping, collecting & bagging leaves from a small play area in the grounds.

Split into team Poison Ivy & team Leaf' it alone! (one is clearly cooler than the other here) & armed with secateurs, brooms & a snow shovel, we set to work!

The play area was cleared in no time at all, binning the leaves (pushed down by Nick!) & was our first transformation of the evening. Next was the fence, which with all GG'ers now keenly on team Poison Ivy, soon became ivy-free - almost - & looked as good as new by the end of our task.... We'll be back for those pesky few pieces!

With smiles all round, it was clear that sweeping leaves & snipping & pulling ivy was a surprisingly theraputic job. Especially when teamed with good conversation & even good'er people!

The Stats

• 7 hours 30 minutes of collective volunteering, saving the church a full day labour!
• 1 ton bag (size, not weight) of ivy removed from the fence
• 1 brown bin of leaves cleared from the play area

WHILST GETTING FIT

What also made this a lovely task was the shorter run!

At GG Derby, we're used to running further afield to carry out our good deeds & having just a 2km (cue some eye rolls!) jaunt each way was met with much enthusiasm by all. An uphill run to the task warmed us up ready for 45 minutes of volunteering & then we enjoyed a downhill glide back to base... blissful!

The resistance bands made an appearance for our warm up yesterday, getting our hip muscles & glutes nicely activated ready for our run & task. Be prepared, now they've been found, they'll become a regular fixture. Feel the burn!

THANK YOUS

Massive thanks & welcome to Ellen who joined us for the first time last night; it was lovely to meet you & we hope to see you again soon!

Thank you to our wonderful backmarker Tracey & a BIG thanks to each & every one of you for attending, smiling through the bramble scratches & making GG Derby awesome. Go team!

UP NEXT

Next week we're on another treasure hunt back on Cycle Route 6, keeping our saddle savvy pals safe! If you're keen to help out at Broadway Baptist Church & tackle some more Ivy (it's creeping onto the building as well!) we're back on the 18th Feb, so get signed up.

Big Loves