The great British rake off

Back at the mosque for the third time in as many weeks, Ruby had plenty to keep us busy this time with a lot of hedge trimmings to clear up into bags, another effort at the tree root, and more clearing around the peace garden. But she had also promised another lunch so we were very motivated!

After parking our bikes and grabbing a bottle of water, Michelle, Salwa and JP headed round the front of the mosque to get underway with raking and bagging up the foliage left behind after the gardener had trimmed the hedge. There was a lot of litter in the piles of leaves and we managed to fill a black bag of rubbish as well as eight bags of leaves.

Meanwhile Luis hacked away at the never-ending task of freeing the burnt tree stump from the ground, and after making as much progress without the right kind of tools, he joined the others on raking and bagging.

As well as slogging away at the peace garden, Anita acted as consultant to Ruby, advising her on plants and composting, and on the plan to develop a new addition to the Bug Hotel chain (after the brilliant work done at 3 Pigeons flowerbed in Richmond).

And so to the main event: lunch. This time we were treated to some amazing pakoras as a starter before a supremely delicious chicken and spinach curry with rice. Everyone was feeling pretty stuffed after that, but some managed to find the space yo tuck into dessert and some managed seconds (and even thirds) - as always the food was fabulous and a very satisfying reward following our efforts.

After a bit more chat with Ruby and some of the other members of the community, we headed off on our bikes feeling a little heavier, but a whole lot happier!