Four of us gathered to meet Julie at sunbathed Hogsmill Garden on Sunday morning, GoodGym regular haunt now and one of my personal favourites. It has changed to much especially in the last few weeks where the University students have installed some raised beds and a planting area with a roof. We had couple tasks to get on with; staring with clearing space along the metal fence so then we can plant some more small bushes that will eventually create lovely green "fence". Once all was planted, Melissa watered them and the we got on with transferring soil from a large pile into a large bag which will be used later. Turned out that we started at the wrong end of the pile, only for Julie to inform us that actually we need to move the soil away from the outside wooden loo to avoid further damage. We are not to be defeated - bog saved, soil in the bag after a good workout, we said goodbye until next week. PS: Thanks Claire for this report's pun :)

With Santa being very busy at the North Pole he needed some extra Elves to help with sorting and packing 1500 bags of gifts for disadvantaged children and carers in Kingston and Richmond.

After a bit of Elf and safety on the way in we set to work sorting out donations of toys by age and collecting piles of books, clothes, toiletries, soft toys and footballs. Lego and craft kits were definitely popular gifts.

Being Elves for the day meant we had to check our lists twice as we went on a shopping spree around the room.

We were each given a set of tags with a child’s name and age on which we attached to a bag which we filled with a toy or two, a book, a piece of clothing and a soft toy etc.

We all had different systems in place but labelling all your bags before filing them seemed to work well.

Having packed lots of presents it was time to de-elf.

It was great to welcome Cameron on his first mission and for lots of children this Christmas Santa Claus will be coming to town! 🎅🏻