Just a perfect day today as the sun shone happily down on us for our second trip along the river to help out our friends Harriet and Phil at Strawberry lane allotment.

Phil greeted us and ran through our tasks. Most of us would be moving manure from the hill on one side of the allotment up to the hill on the other side so it could be spread around the base of the newly planted fruit trees. These had been supplied by the council as part of the 'one tree per child' scheme.

The task was a tricky one with a fairly treacherous slope for the wheelbarrows but there was great teamwork in evidence as people split into teams of manure diggers, barrow wielders, cardboard cutters (to site under the manure) and muck spreaders. Good to see Julie able to help out after taking a tumble from her bike last week.

The remainder of the group worked to dig up some of the remaining bramble roots. Nice to see everyone being so thorough here - Caroline in particular excavating almost down to sea level to ensure no pesky specimens returned.

Our task finished, there were some surprises in store. Chris had hit 200 good deeds today so received the customary celebratory T-shirt (thanks Matt). Better still, it turned out that he had run all the way to the task carrying an ice box full of ice creams and lollies - just perfect for the sunny weather! Congratulations Chris, your love of sugary cereals is legendary, your 5 year commitment to GG Bristol outstanding and you're still the go-to guy if ever there is a mattock to be wielded.

But there was more. Not only had our hosts supplied us with refreshments on our arrival but they now laid on something stronger so with a certain royal wedding going on elsewhere, we could properly toast our very own royalty, GG Bristols Monarch of the Mattock, Chris.

Massive Saturday turn out today for our trilogy of tasks. Big thanks to Dave, Alice and Matt for helping out so we could cover all the bases and spread the red round all todays projects.

A warm welcome to Beth too for coming all the way from WorthingWandsworth to visit us in Bristol - hope you had fun!

Bear Pit Community Action Day

Our headline attraction was participation in the Community Action Day that was taking place in the Bearpit. Sadly, times have been pretty tough for some of the folks down there in recent months. In fact its been so tough that the independent businesses are having to move out after years of working to shed the space of its 'no-go' reputation and create a genuine community feel to the place. One of our longstanding hookups with Incredible Edible is also situated there - one of their flagship areas of urban edible planting.

Rather than go out on a low, all the stakeholders decided to stage one last community action day to give place a general spruce up and clean. We joined them with some weeding around the planters (which we originally painted together with Bearpit Social) and in the edible bed itself. We also had a compost team working hard to rotate the contents - and its nice to hear they managed to make this competitive with Caroline and Hugh turning their section first!

It was pretty chilly today but the morning sunshine meant this was a very pleasant way to spend a morning and we warmed up at the end with a (rather chaotic) three-way running train race around Queen Square which seemed in keeping with todays triple theme.

Shed Smash Part Deux

A second group headed off to finish off the shed we began demolishing last month. By all accounts this was also a very pleasurable way to spend a Saturday morning - especially as it involved a sledgehammer. Kudos to Dave for coming back with an empty accident book!

The shed was rather derelict and needs to be removed so Emmaus can make the very best use of the house in their work with previously homeless people.

Willow Weaving - Taking a cake from it all

Finally, Matt and Alice led a group back to Hannah More primary to finish off the willow weaving we began last weekend. This turned out to be the perfect choice as there was apparently cake on offer and Matt has history here.

Two destinations today:

The Haven

It may have been a bit drizzly today but our first visit to the Haven last month suggested we could at least be sure of a warm welcome there - and indeed we arrived to find Julia and Alistair smiling and ready to greet us. What's more, they had set up THREE tasks to keep us warm and busy.

Task one was to level off a newly dug patch of earth so it could act as a solid base for a yurt. Working with a wooden guide and spirit level, the yurt crew used spades and rakes to evenly distribute the soil. Meanwhile, as a bonus task, Caroline and Darren worked off to the side cutting back the surrounding brambles.

Task two involved cutting out a hole in the ground to site a compost toilet. The heavy clay based soil made this hard work, particularly when the group struck iron (corrugated iron) and had to fill it in and begin again. They did have some feathered company though as a resident duck and hen took a keen interest in anything edible that they excavated.

Finally, Alistair led a third group in constructing a dead wood hedge which I have to say looked quite beautiful when it was completed!

Well done everyone on working so hard, especially after a long run uphill - and big thanks to Haven for finding so much interesting stuff for us to do again.

Incidentally, the photo of Matt pointing shows how nicely tucked away the Haven water supply is now courtesy of the channel we dug for them last month.

Thanks to Matt for leading a group back and to Maria for back marking.

The Berry Maze

Raluca got in touch with me a week or two ago to see if we could send a team to help her make some repairs to the Berry maze after it had sadly suffered from a bit of vandalism just before Christmas last year. We spent some fun mornings helping to construct the maze last autumn so I was keen to help but we had already set a date for the Haven.

Luckily, longtime Saturday run leader Godfather Dave stepped in and agreed to take a craCK team of maze repairers over to help.

As it turns out, the poles had just been replaced by the time they arrived, but Dave's team were still able to repair the wire and then grab wheelbarrows to shift plenty of additional mulch onto the pathways