Roses smart Bed, Via-lotsa our Broom

On a gorgeous sunny Sunday morning, Patrick reprised his role as GG tour guide to lead a wonderfully scenic 13 mile run along canal and under Thames to our mission for Mrs W in Bellingham.

Mrs W is a lovely lady who is unfortunately unable to tend to her collection of outdoor plant pots (some containing some very fine roses) in the way that she would like to. To add to her difficulties a succession of handsome (but destructive) foxes have been tipping up some of the pots in order to drink from the bird bath and watering bottles. As a result, the area around the pots had got a little untidy and Mrs W was hoping we might be able to sort this out.

After a very welcome cup of tea and a biscuit, we got to work moving all the pots to one side while we picked up leaves, weeded between stones and swept the patio clear. This involved braving numerous spiders, millipedes and even the odd mutant slug. We then replaced all the pots and tried arrange them in such a way that Mrs W could more easily look out on them all again.

Finally, a touch of expertly conducted tactical pruning ensured that a couple of the feistier plants would no longer obstruct the view for Mrs W's neighbour.

The mission complete, we began our journey back and it was noted that the lure of an ice cream van results in a very noticeable increase in pace for certain London-based runners.