The make up of rake up artists

On the last Saturday of February, three GoodGym runners braved the winds and cleared up four huge bags of weeds, brambles, ivy and vines to give Ms C's garden a much-needed makeover

Ms C's garden was in a bit of a mess. Ms C had a stroke a few years ago and her son had recently moved down from "the north" to help look after her but they have been unable to keep on top of the gardening.

Garden Force Majeure

The garden was covered in weeds and gunk but this didn't faze us: nothing that a few pairs of experienced, gloved hands couldn't handle.

I put on my tunes and then started with sweeping up the slippery gunk while James attacked the weeds and Beth took on the vines. The vines had twisted round pretty much everything in sight: the fence, the weeds and the plants. Some needed a double team and spade action but we managed.

How bizarre

We methodically cleared the raised bed of anything green and chatted about the upcoming races and new GoodGym initiatives.

When "Keep on Moving" came on the speakers, Beth and I were surprised that boyband, 5ive, had made it over to New Zealand. I mean, they were good but I didn't think they were that good. So James explained that they had to import British music as they had no choice: the amazing musical exports from New Zealand were Lorde and OMC - the band behind How Bizarre. I see his point.

Bag it up

As Geri Halliwell put it, we bagged it up - four times over and, by the end of 90 minutes and a bit of taking, the garden was a chocolatey brown and the patio was grey showing few signs of weeds.

Ms C's son thanked us for our work and we went off to enjoy the rest of the last weekend in Feb.