This morning Katie, Vicky and myself ambled to Boundary Brook Nature Reserve (which is nearly 2000 miles from Istanbul) to ramble and scramble around raking up brambles. Unfortunately nobody there was called Campbell, but that's enough of a preamble.

We were let in by our friend Helen Edwards, the Reserve's Chair, who used a strimmer with a deadly bladed attachment to cut down the brambles at the northern end of the site. We didn't dare go near it, as risking our fingers would have been too much of a gamble. Once the brambles were down the area was in shambles, so we raked it all up and threw it on the compost heap, which soon grew so big that Helen had to climb on top of it and give it a good trample. The work was easier than it looked; in fact the time flowed by like the River Hamble.

Now what else rhymes with bramble? Jamble? Plamble? No... well I guess that's the end of the report then.

PS: See pics for before & after photos and Helen's 100% plant-based hat.

This week we swapped running for sorting, helping give old running shoes a second lease of life through JogOn.

A huge shout-out to Katie, who arrived towing a wheeled suitcase packed with running shoe donations from her colleagues. Her impressive haul helped us reach a grand total of 44 pairs of running shoes, all matched, boxed and ready for their next chapter.

Those 44 pairs have been saved from landfill and will now be sent to JogOn, who redistribute unwanted running shoes around the world so they can continue to be used.

And if each pair has already covered around 500 miles, that's an astonishing 22,000 miles of running between them, roughly the distance from Oxford to Sydney, with plenty left in the tank.

A simple task, a great team effort, and a small step towards a more sustainable running community.

🏃🏃🏼‍♀️‍➡️