Looking for a rose amongst the thorns

Briony and Mike fortunately escaped the poor weather that we've been having in Cardiff lately for today's Goodgym mission. The mission was to help Mrs S clear her garden of weeds and trim back rose bushes as Mrs S is unable to do this herself due to her physical condition.

Bri has only recently moved to Cardiff to study her PhD and this was her first good deed for GoodGym Cardiff and the Vale. A huge welcome to Bri and looking forward to seeing you at a group run very soon!

We were greeted by Mrs S upon arrival and shown to the back garden. There was a lot of space in the back but unfortunately most of it had been left overgrown with the dreaded bindweed so I got to work trying to pull as much of this out as possible whilst Briony cut down thorns and removed weeds. One of the bushes had impressively grown into an arch which I had mistaken as a feature!

We both had a lovely chat with Mrs S during our mission and learnt a lot about her. She has lived in the same house since the 40s since her previous place got struck during WWII. She performed in the chorus for the Welsh National Opera for 18 years and gave us a rendition of an aria that she performed for her audition. She showed that she still has the voice as the aria was beautifully sung but she's Welsh so that's no surprise there as we're all beautiful singers ;)

She also told us about one of the rose bushes (a ballerina variety) that was planted in the garden in honour of her grandson. We made sure that we focussed on this rose in particular to try and clear it from as much of the weeds as possible to allow it to prosper next year.

By the end of the mission we were able to fill one and a half garden waste bins, one of which was kindly provided by Mrs S's neighbour who we also met. We bid farewell to Mrs S and made our way back with the warm feeling that another good deed was completed.