What a way to start the week!

Sourcing materials🌺: I started the session with a visit to a garden centre to get some compost, perennials (Choysia and Lavender) and annuals (petunias and impatiens).

Tidying up🧹: Usually there is some litter/cigarette butts in the planters but this morning there was hardly anything (thanks to the cleansing team in Hainault, who do the most important job of all - daily planter maintenance - thank you!). I did some weeding, picked out an apple (🙄) , washed out coffee out of one planter (seriously 😡.

Replanting: One of the planters has died its death, I think due to being pulled out a while back - everything dried out and weeds have taken over. Surprisingly it was very easy to take it out and put it into bags provided by cleansing van people, who kindly said we can just leave these by the bins and they will collect. I laid the compost in stages, watering in between as it was quite dry and fluffy. I've planted fresh plants and flowers, topped up with bark and gave it a proper soak. Hopefully, it all settles and blooms soon 

Watering : This was a bicep-busting work as usual and I ensured that all reservoirs are filled, all planters were soaked, especially under the bridge as they don't get rained on. It's quite satisfying knowing the plants will not be thirsy for a bit!

Chatting 😊: It's always nice to meet new people and catch-up with the ones I know whilst doing this, station staff offered to help create a laminate sign for our storage so it's not used for cleaning purposes, and it's lovely to hear from those who appreciate a little bit of greenery here - thank you for your kind words!

It's always quite satisfying afterwards and I was glad to see the rain as well, it's been waaaay to dry this spring so any additinal water is always welcome! Until next time!

Three of us arrived at Frenford Food Bank to shelve up two supermarket deliveies. The items arrived muddled up within the crates so there was a little presorting which was soon completed and the items were trundled down to the shelves.

It's not the first time that the three of us have done this and the dream team were done in no time with nice tidy shelves of cans and other goods.

Empty crates were cleared away and we were off home for an early lunch.

OK, there might have been a little bit of literary freedom there... we didn't actually go down any driveways, but went past loads of them which is almost the same!

Unfortunately a few others could not make it in the end, so it was just the lovely Ambra and me setting off on a run, armed with litter pickers & bags, 'just in case'. Ofcourse we came across litter, sadly, so 2 bags were dropped at one of our usual points at the Green Man roundabout.

Making use of the improved weather we set off to dip into Wanstead Park to check up on the bluebells, but sadly we were too late - April seems to be the best time.

We did have a nice surprise just a little further up in the park though.... just as Ambra was explaining her surprise of coming across a cow in the park, we turned a corner and saw cows! They seem to be a rugged breed used to manage vegetation.

Currently next session is in 3 weeks, skipping Bank Holiday Monday to pop down to the babybank on 3/6.

Though I didn't get out to the session on Sunday (it was only me after all), I ended up watering planters late at night on Monday evening after returning from the city. It was soooo cold!

I ended up scaring a cleaner in the men's toilet but the job was done and planters definitely needed it!

next session is on the 18th! My work kindly offers volunteer days so I'll be spending a good chunk of time to replant one planter and fill all reservoirs with water!

As the title says.....

Ed was at his usual spot guarding the car park. Peter handed out finish tokens.

Linda & Kathryn ran round and got picked up by the photographer(s)

Not for the first time, AJ just got on with the job at hand, very much appreciated by the team. In other words, some stock pictures were used instead.

BTW, have we mentioned how AJ has been flying the Goodgym flag across the Atlantic all by herself? She does deserve all the credits for her efforts &energy & time, something the different teams she supports very much do appreciate.