One GoodGymer, Marie-Noëlle, joined the Kingston Friends of Queen's Promenade team on this bright but gusty Saturday. 

Today's mission was to tackle the invasive,  creeping bindweeds which had smothered an area of the promenade. 

10 volunteers were hard at work, digging deep,  as the roots are said to reach up to 7 metres.

After a good couple of hours, we packed away our tools and sat down for a well earned rest,  a hot cup of tea & some yummy homemade pakoras. 

🎉Happy 5th birthday Friends of Queen's Promenade 🎉 

A lovely morning well spent with the Queen's Promenade Friends. They want to restore an Italian style terrace which has been neglected for too long and they needed lots of volunteers to sift through the soil removing the invasive St John's Wort plants and roots. Not a bad plant but it has completely taken over sections.

Jane, Petra, Marie-Noelle and our wonderful new GoodGymer Ana all went to help from 10am. They had made fantastic progress so when I turned up at 11am they had found a stone ledge and removed bucketfuls of weeds.

It was lovely to be by the river and chatting to Stefan, who had contacted us to help, we found out more about their plans to keep weeding and then plant a beautiful garden when the time was right.

Lots to do - we'll be happy to help in the future.

Well it at least didn't rain on our parade today. After an overdue deluge, making park run that extra bit more challenging Rob, Kate, Caroline and Samia, in spirit, met up with the Friends of Queens Promenade to help make a wheelchair accessible path and a three tiered sleeper bed for flowers, not tired walkers.

There was plenty of the Queens mud about but as usual we were ready to help no mattock the weather or task. With many deep roots holding strong, a mattock was needed to break them down and churn up the soil to make the holes needed for the bed. The shovel was then used to very roughly accurately, make the correct incline angle for the wheelchair path. This was made royally difficult due to not having a protractor handy.

Thanks to the friends of the Queen(s promenade), for having us along, look forward to visiting on an upcoming Tuesday run.