A cracking evening at one of our favourite spots — Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground, which always delivers on the rewarding session front.

We had a nice little group run: Nick, Rue, John, Adam and Brad joined me in setting off from the Aquatics Centre, jogging up the canal in glorious evening light — about as lovely a warm-up as we'll get. We were joined by Chloe, Joke and Paul at the playground, and got a warm welcome from task owner Ange.

For the record: a Newham task, held in Hackney, with Chloe, John and Rue over from Tower Hamlets. Three boroughs, one sandpile...

The task itself? A mound of sand to shift. Not just any sand — this had been donated from the London Stadium long jump pit, freshly dug out after Saturday's Diamond League meet. Our job was to move what we could over to the sandpit part of the playground.

Cue a shifting and spreading production line: shovels flying, wheelbarrows trundling back and forth, and plenty of teamwork as barrow after barrow were ferried across, with only a small number of mechanical and loading issues.

A couple of surprising things - first, that the stadium needs brand new sand every single time — and second, just how much of it there is. But actually when you think about it, world-class long jumpers probably do cover a fair bit of ground, so the pit must need to be pretty deep to land in safely. A quick google afterwards confirmed it: a competition long jump pit needs somewhere in the region of 6–9 cubic metres of sand. Worth retaining that for when it comes up in a pub quiz.

By the end of our session, we'd made a visible dent and felt like we'd had a workout. Huge thanks to Ange for having us. And a brilliant turnout — it genuinely made the difference, because these tasks simply don't happen without people showing up. So thank you to everyone who came along and we'd love to see you all again soon 💪

So tonight’s big question was – could we manage Fiona’s Cemetery Park task without her “expert guidance” and her Google-Maps Pin? Somehow we managed it; well we did have Nia and Anna, whose names rely solely on letters in “Fiona”

We originally had a healthy number signed up, despite warnings about covering arms and legs against nettles in heatwave temperatures. But gradually, the numbers reduced. Three people sent their apologies, another was held up helping the new PM with his Cabinet, or something, and two people who remained signed up, must have got lost on the way...

Of course we did have task owner Ken, who explained why the Friends of the Cemetery Park had embarked on a THIRTY-YEAR plan to improve the site. He also explained the effect of the dry summer on plants – they produce less flowers overall, but bloom early, to save water

Further, he told us that were everyone to leave the gardens alone, the hogweed would take over. Therefore our efforts tonight were focused on the “common hogweed” which produces its seeds at the top, like an umbrella, all ready to drop or be blown away. Which are things we didn’t want to happen, as the other plants would have less chance to thrive, such as the nearby aromatic stone parsley, which can be used as a substitute for nutmeg

Ken showed us how to snap the stalk, just below any branches, so any seeds dropping off would go straight into our buckets along with the top of the plant. And before we knew it, we’d de-seeded a whole chunk of the gardens. But there’s always more to do, and we’ll be back in September!