Leo

Rain, what rain?

The forecast didn't look too promising, but come 7pm and arrival at our Monday night task, the earlier drizzle was but a distant memory: t-shirt-clad, a bit sweaty, and thoroughly happy to be shuttling from one area of the Hollybush Estate to another at our usual frenzied pace.

Background...

Margaret had asked for a hand with some weeding around the Estate's various garden areas, but the task had quickly evolved into bramble-chopping. Not however, before a warm-up task had been completed: distributing woodchip in the new shed area.

It was all go.

Wheelbarrows were whizzed from one garden to the next; woodchip shovelled at a ferocious pace, and new surfaces raked and smoothed over so speedily we finished even earlier than the earliest estimation.

And so we headed to the Family Area with a few more full barrows of woodchip (never know when they might come in handy) to tackle brambles, buddleias and... wobbly stepladders (shh - we won't say anything if you don't).

Lots to do, lots of brilliant, buzzing activity to enjoy while catching up with the latest news.

The time flew by, and then it was 8pm and we were trying to organise ourselves for one final pic. In the photo it all went: brambles, bin liners, the lot.

Homeward bound

The small hotel team returned to base to collect bikes and other belongings, while the remainder of our energetic little group headed home in various different directions.

Superstars.

Until next time.

It was a glorious early evening as I arrived at Mr P's house, and whilst I was a little earlier than he expected, he was very happy that I had come to help him install a privacy screen on his balcony.

It transpires he has an occasionally belligerent downstairs neighbour and the privacy that the newly installed screen affords will hopefully make a considerable difference to his wellbeing.

We were a great team, with my role being in charge of holding up the screen whilst he secured it to the railings of his balcony. Fortuitously, he had had a very interesting life and was regaling me with stories of his time at boarding school and then when employed at some very prestigious media outlets which made for fascinating discussion as we secured the screen to the entirety of his balcony.

He seemed most pleased with our collective handiwork and I left his flat with a real sense of accomplishment.

Tonight’s run saw us returning to the Royal London Hospital for a couple of really great tasks!

Plenty of planning had been undertaken by the brilliant Barts Volunteers team to ensure we were distributed throughout the hospital as efficiently as possible, tackling the most time-sensitive tasks.

Why were we here?

Resources are as stretched as usual at this huge, much-loved hospital, and so pruning the roses and litter-picking outside the Dental area proved a great bit of activity catch-up in these hospital grounds.

Meanwhile, the newly established Patient and Family Contact Centre had mountains of content to be made up for the new, soon-to-be-renamed Dignity and Activity Trolleys for the wards.

(This department was established during the pandemic as a vital resource for friends and families to stay connected to loved ones in hospital.

Having proved effective and popular, this service is set to stay, and the new activity packs we were preparing are to ensure patient needs are met as much as possible.

Impromptu stays, longer stays, admissions far from home all mean that patients sometimes need access to additional items, such as sanitary products and razors, or even art and craft activity to help them remain occupied and stimulated).

And so to work…

Teams were promptly dispatched out to the John Harrison with Barts Volunteer team member, Mbemba, while the team making up the hospital packs headed ‘round with Tom to meet the dynamic Emma.

The preparation was second-to-none, as always, and Emma wasted no time in assigning each member a task, leaving no stone unturned when it came to briefing (including the interesting fact that as this was an office, and not a clinical environment, face masks were optional).

Toothpaste tubes were stuffed into bags of 20; ditto shower gel and toothbrushes. Felt and glitter were sorted into piles; activity cards bagged up or filed. It was go, go, go.

Meanwhile the gardening team were busy attending to the roses, cutting back the grass and seeing off any rogue litter. Once finished, Mbemba brought the team inside and so we finished up a 12-strong team racing to get as much as we could done in the final few minutes.

Until next time

Despite having run over, the time had flown by!

We said our goodbyes to Emma, Tom and Mbemba, and headed out to the sunny, warm streets of Whitechapel, where we formed two groups: The Sporty Squad, who chose to run straight back to base in Bethnal Green, and The Thirsty Squad, who headed home at a more leisurely pace, via the London Hospital Tavern.

What a great night – well done, everyone.

Next week...

...we’ve been asked to head to the Hollybush Estate to offer some serious weeding help...

Until then.

My task today was a follow up to Amy's recent trip and Mr B spoke very highly of her hard work, so there was a high bar for me to tackle the weeds that had sprung up since her visit last month.

As it was drizzling I was absolved of the responsibility of mowing the lawn again and set to tackling the beds along the sides and the back with the instructions that pretty much everything that wasn't a rose could be pulled up. The left bed in particular was beset with nettles and brambles and it was fortunate that Mr B had some sturdy gloves to put on over mine, to protect me from all manner of stings and scratches.

Time flew by as I spent an enjoyable 90 minutes clearing as many weeds as I could.

As I approached the end Mr B came out for a chat and to praise what I had managed in that time, and he pointed out that the two magnificent trees at the bottom of his garden would be furnished with apples and cherries in the next couple of months.

Summer has arrived and we celebrated in style at Victoria Dock Parkrun this morning followed by some coffee and much conversation about how difficult wakeboarding would be. Everyone was very on brand with our good gym t shirts.

It was a first Parkrun for most at the flat course but a special shout out to Fiona who had it as her first ever Parkrun anywhere!