Ms B loves her garden, but at 91, she can't keep up with it like she used to. She really wanted to have the weeds cleared from one of her flower beds so she can have a little lawn and make the garden feel bigger.

Melissa and I spent a couple of very sociable hours chatting and working in the garden, weathering rain, hail, slightly nervous cats and a persistent flock of visiting pigeons to get the job done. Ms B kept us going with offers of sweets and tea.

Although there's still more to do in the garden, Ms B was very pleased that the hardest work has now been done before she does her spring planting.

Melissa, Graham and James met up on Saturday morning to tame Mr C's garden so that he can enjoy his lovely green space.

Mr C has a brilliant backyard garden area with a nice big lawn. He wanted it cut back with the strimmer and also the weeds along the path and in the garden to be removed. A big task called for a big team so we had the super-size number of 3 of us present to get stuck in!

While Melissa and Graham got cracking on the garden path, James got busy trying to get the strimmer started. The last time James had used a strimmer he was working on a camel farm in the south west of France. But that's a story for another day. Today it all slowly came back to him and after filling up on fuel and oil (correct ratio please) he was away at the races, complete with fashionable harness and cradle.

There was a slight hitch when the plastic thread broke, leading to a prolonged effort at removing the spool housing to replace it. We even got the instruction book out. The answer: an allen key. Of course. Allen keys are the answer to everything.

Eventually we got back up and running (official GG pun there) and finished the job. The lawn had enjoyed a nice close cut this morning, while the weeds were dispatched professionally. Before we left there was even time for Graham to demonstrate perfect sweep-lunge technique.

Melissa, James and Alex ran to Mr F’s house and put masking tape up in his long hallway for an upcoming paint job.

Saturday morning. The sun shines. We’re out running. Enjoying the heat. Or not quite. Because it's freezing. The sun has forgotten how to be warm. That’s okay. We’re problem solvers. We need to get warm somehow. What’s the best way we know? Doing good deeds of course. That never fails.

Luckily we’d signed up to a mission. We had a rendezvous to help Mr F. So along we went and he invited us in to the warmth of his abode.

Mr F was preparing to paint his hallway and needed some help putting masking tape on the edges of the walls and ceiling and on some fiddly bits like light switches and odd metal jutty-out thingees. Some of this required perching carefully on a ladder. Mr F needed particular help with that. Luckily for this balancing-at-height challenge, we were up to the task.

We dusted and scrubbed the walls then methodically made our way down the hallway and around the corner and into the front door area, masking all the spots that needed a spot of masking.

When we’d done the hallway was ready for its impending paint makeover. Mr F was well chuffed and very thankful. We were too, plus we were warm. Mission accomplished.