A welcome return to visit Sybil and the team at The Emmanuel Parish Church this evening, after what had felt like quite a long winter break - even the evening sun made a welcome appearance after our run across from Freaks and Geeks started under forbidding skies and passing rain showers.

It was also a very warm welcome to Kevin on his first mission in Newham. Regulars Hilary, Brad, Graham, and Nick made up the rest of tonight's gang.

Of course Sybil had much planned for us to do, and so with tools, gloves, bags, Iris plants and compost at the ready we were tasked with weeding a border bed at the far end of the Church garden, as well as removing Ivy from the wooden fence, and then preparing and planting the Irises and laying compost across the top surface. With much helpful assistance from other volunteers from the Church group we were soon down on our knees removing all the unwanted greenery from the bed and fencing, before trying to turn the soil in preparation for the planting. Helpfully a hose was at hand to make the soil a little more compliant, and with trowels in hand it was a case of dig and plant at roughly even spacing, followed by a thick layer of compost to feed the plants.

Before we knew it, the time was upon us to pack up, and as we walked back into the Church hall with tools in hand, the team produced plates of sandwiches and fruit to "replenish our energy" - always welcome after a hard day of bordering. Hilary led us on a chatting speed run back to Freaks and Geeks, where we decided to have an impromptu social in the pub to celebrate another successful Tuesday evening of weeding and planting.

We look forward to seeing these latest plants flourish in the garden, and we'll be back again in early July to do a closer inspection!

As we stood feeling somewhat chilly under the big tree this morning waiting for our junior runners to arrive, we all decided that it really wasn't shorts weather - clearly none of us had taken much notice of the forecast, or we'd been fooled by yesterday's day of summer.

Fortunately the cooler air didn't deter the crowds, as we welcomed 67 runners, plus their coaches and fans, to the course and witnessed a super speedy double circuit by our lead runner, who crossed the line in an eye watering 7:49, nearly 30 seconds clear of the second placer.

Of course parkrun isn't a race, so it was great to see so many others smiling as they went round the poles and cones in much less of a hurry, high fiving some of the marshalls along the way and generally enjoying their morning out. 7 First Timers visited us at the Fields today, hopefully we'll see them all again, and 15 PBs were set, which clearly showed a few had warmed up properly. With results uploaded and everything packed away for another week, we sped off to find ourselves a hot coffee and somewhere a little warmer to try and get our circulation going.