Its a long old way to StreetGoat. Especially when they close all the crossings and you have to navigate a way all round Temple Meads roundabout. Luckily we had some super strong running today going on today and so we were only a couple of minutes late by the time we got to the allotments.

I'm not going to dwell on my reunion with my favourite Nanny goat Lily but it was certainly a special moment and she was clearly very happy to see me again. Good to see lots of others also taking an opportunity to get in a quick photo and petting opportunity with some of the goats as our time with them was a little fleeting today.

However, to balance the absence of goat we had FIRE. And BOW SAWS. And LOPPERS. And PRUNING SAWS. And a potential health and safety minefield. (The like of which hasn't been see since we bashed up a shed from the roof downwards last year)

So as I got my accident book out ready, everyone spread out around an enormous pile of sticks and branches to cut them to size and dispose of them on the nearby bonfire. As people worked through they looked out for any larger sturdier branches that could be made to us a fence and put them to one side.

With only about half an hour available to us, we still managed to make a huge dent in the pile and I'm please to report that there were no accidents so kudos to everyone for sawing and burning in such a professional manner.

The run back was a little easier as its mostly downhill so we got back in good time to wish Darren 'Happy Birthday' and head back to Mud Dock to share enojoy the cakes that he and Izzy brought along today.

If I had 11 medals today they would have been handed out gratefully to the 11 heroes who braved the rain and cold to come and help out with weeding the Berry maze. Truly epic efforts from everyone today!

A decision to defer our secondary task of leaflet distribution meant that we could focus all our efforts on clearing weeds from a couple of extra patches in the maze. (I confess to feeling more than a little pride in seeing Barney point out the patches we had cleared previously). This was successfully achieved with hoes, trowels and gardening gloves, donned as much for warmth as hand protection.

Cold hands were also an obstacle for our trio of post-bashers who not only reset a couple of the wooden boundary markers but somehow managed to manipulate a screw driver on the cross sections.

With the briefest of pauses for some goji berries and yellow raspberries (check out Matt's enjoyment savouring these in the photo) and a traditional look-how-cold-we-are photo, we finally warmed up in the best way possible, a brisk 3k run back to warm drinks and - quite possibly - cake.

A gorgeous sunny day saw almost 30 people join us today for our tasks to Manor Woods Valley and Golden Hill community garden.

Liam kindly offered to take the Golden Hill group with Richard acting as backmarker and Clo and Charlie as photographers. There they were greeted with an amazing assortment of tasks - ranging from book stall sorting to sandwich making (pear chutney, hummus and nasturtium!) and laying out mint on the children's sensory trail!

The remaining folks joined me in our run along the Malago Greenway to meet Martin and a few other members of the Manor Valley Conservation Group (MVCG) at the secret orchard (which thanks to MVCGs hard work is not so secret any more).

We took shears to bramble risings and donned hard hats to cut down any elder trees that might be obstructing the fruit trees before doing a little harvesting of our own (picking from the trees rather than the floor to try and avoid sharing any half eaten specimens with badgers!). The elder was then cut down to size and used to build wildlife friendly deadwood hedges.

(Apologies for the gender bias of the title which was chosen purely in the interests of run title punnery)