Overground, underground, brambling free!

Yesterday it was time for our regular visit to Chiswick House and Gardens, which operates as a charity, and it was great to see a lovely big turnout of smiling GG faces in the sunshine!

It was an extra special evening as we also got to celebrate Pippa's milestone - welcome to the 50 club! Give her a round of applause for all the good stuff she has done, the weeds eliminated, the compost shifted, the plastic picked!

We met with Chris who led us to an extremely well hidden spot round the back of the Italian gardens. Chris has big plans for the area which include installing a seating area for a new view over the orangery. But before that can happen, there was the small matter of masses and masses of brambles.

We divided up into two groups, one half of us tackling the roots near a big pile of woodchip, and the other heading into a very overgrown area to hack away at the bramble jungle which had appeared there.

After 45 minutes of hard work we could really see the difference, and the proof was in the several large bags and barrows of brambles destined for the compost heap. Job well done!

We decided to finish off the evening with a fitness session in the lovely grounds, and knocked out several sets of tough tabata exercises such as shuttle runs, high knees and power squats.

Great effort everybody. Next week we're back at Cavendish school to help cut back their protruding bushes, and there is also a fun couple of missions to volunteer at Osterley parkrun and help with the 10k warmup - see you there!