Sion shines on the Northern Slopes

It's been a while since we last helped NSI (Northern Slopes Initiative) up at Novers Hill - though we've spent a lot of time just next door at the Berry maze. Really good then to run up the Malago Greenway and find scythes, slashers and loppers waiting for us once more

Over the years we've cut back a lot of the brambles on the top of the grass slope so today was all about clearing a path to make the liberated space accessible and making sure it was kept under control. We had five scythers laying waste to brambles, and - perhaps fittingly in the week before Halloween - a lone slasher, with Dave in full flow taking out anything that didn't move.

Others found themselves trimming the areas either side of the path and David managed a bit of pruning with one of the saws.

With all these blades slashing about it was good to have Julia, our host around to give a bit of scythe training and watch out for everyone's safety!

The steps going up the hill have always been a bit of a hot spot for litter and our two teams of litter pickers were able to collect 5 or 6 bags of rubbish, making one or two unpleasant discoveries in the process. Thanks to Lauren, Rich, Matt, Julie, Darren and Shreena for taking on this rather less glamorous but much appreciated task!

With Julia having provided tea and biscuits and some puzzle solving required to fit all the tools back in Julia's can we were a little late leaving but made up a little time with an impressive and pacey run back!

Congratulations to Darren for completing his 200th parkrun today and also to Sion for completing 100 good deeds in Sheffield a few days ago. Always lovely to see you back Sion and thanks for being such a good sport with the obligatory Centurion outfit photo.

And for the record, it turns out the old style pink wafers aren't actually as nice as the new ones. Though being a year out of date might have just had some influence on that (sorry everyone!!)