Seven of us got together to join Martin and his regulars for another enjoyable morning down Manor Woods Valley today.

There is still plenty of colour in amongst the wildflowers and against this scenic backdrop we worked once again to cull the brambles that survived our last visit.

Martin explained that the object is to cut them back before they can bend over sufficiently to make contact with the earth and re-root so we grabbed shears and waded in amongst the thistles to do exactly that.

The time passed quickly and before we knew it we were packing up and heading off in our separate directions, hoping that there will be less brambles to meet us next month.

When we started our third session of gravel shiftting and saw the solitary remaining sack it literally looked like the task was in the bag.

And indeed it was when after an hour of hard graft lugging more buckets up the hill, the last of the gravel was finally out of it.

The remaining holes in the forest path had been filled and we can now look forward to a diversion to the orchard next month, where I'm sure the brambles eagerly anticipate our return!

Martin has asked me to pass on "bags of thanks" for all our efforts the over the last couple of months 😁 - and I'm sure our arms and shoulders will thank us too ... in a couple of days ...

Welcome to Hayley who is based back in Bristol after hanging out with Cardiff GG for the last year or two, we look forward to seeing you back soon!

Wow, what a scorcher!

10 of us met up at the Haven to help reclaim some overgrown space in order that it could be used for a kitchen garden. Ultimately the plan is to have a 'roof on legs' and to use the space to cook their homegrown food together and enjoy it together al fresco looking out at the sunset, picking fresh herbs that will grow alongside.

But enough of my waxing lyrical, first there were brambles to clear! Everyone pitched in with shears, loppers; Tom and new guy Kieran (feel like I know him from somewhere) even got stuck in with a pick and mattock.

Some of the roots were extremely stubborn as Sara is demonstrating in the photos so it was really impressive to see the space almost entirely cleared by the end, we even managed to keep the blue water pipe intact!

Sadly in attempting to get a good idea of the scale of our accomplishment I staged the group photo 2 or 3 miles away, but I've left it in to show how productive we were.

Thanks to Jason for the pun (see - we managed ok didn't we 😁?) and apologies to anyone under 40 who has no idea what it means.

Welcome back to Steve today and thanks to Jenny for helping him to find us - the Haven is certainly a hidden gem!