Michelle

Saturday morning four GG runners came together to clean out the Fulham Palace moat, which (thanks to our prior efforts) had become a source of biodiversity. Personally I saw more butterflies and general wildlife in that moat than I'd seen anywhere else in London so far!

However such diversity does not come easy, and we helped ensure that the other plants were not consumed in a sea of brambles and bind weed, which have become Goodgymmers natural enemies.

A good hour or so session saw the pruning and removal of three large bags of weeds and dead matter to ensure the soil did not become too nutrient rich.

Fun tip for stopping things like nettles and that taking over, always remove dead matter before it breaks down and makes the soil too nutrient rich. Plants that can grow rapidly (like nettles and brambles) get too much of an advantage with those kind of soils.

We rounded off with the classic coffee and cake. Good job by everyone involved!

I arrived at Ms F’s to find her sorting through piles of paperwork. She had had a frustrating afternoon going through various legal documents and trying to work out how to forward contacts on WhatsApp. After a few minutes we’d cracked it and Ms F’s cousin had received the information he needed to offer help with the paperwork.

Ms F then took me through her list and I headed off to try to use as many of her shopping vouchers as possible.

Bottled water, fresh fish for supper and various other favourite items later I was glad of the lift to get back up the 5 floors to Ms F’s flat.