We arrived to the ominous sight of three builders bags full of gravel waiting to be split and spread over the paths in the garden. Equipped with a wheelbarrow, one shovel, and a rake, we set about ripping open the bags and raking out the gravel. The sacks were so heavy that even when they were almost empty it still took three of us to tip the remaining contents.

With not enough gravel to cover the full path we sensibly focused on the area nearest where the bags had been dropped.Neil also used the wheelbarrow to ferry gravel to the other end for Liz from the school to spread in the area around the shed.

The task was a great workout and by 10:45 we'd spread everything sufficiently well for Liz to let us have some of her excellent homemade cakes. With potentially another three bags needed to, we'll be back to finish the job soon.

Four GG Yorkies helped Manor CE Academy to set up their charity fundraising event. Martin was already busy sorting clothes hangers for the clothes swap (the main event) when the rest of us arrived and Mrs Power (Liz) put the rest of us to work on hanger sorting as well. Pete was soon very pleased to discover a specific hanger for padded bras!

We helped put out some of the raffle prizes and other bits and pieces from Liz's classroom (a real treasure trove) onto the relevant tables and covered the tables in brightly coloured tablecloths which were re-purposed bits of material from the textiles department.

We collected some bottles of soft drinks for the refreshment stall (from Liz's "stash") but discovered that the metal trolley wasn't the ideal mode of transport as every time we (Pete) stopped, several of the bottles rolled off onto the floor. Good job I was on hand to help pick them back up (after I'd finished getting lost in the maze of corridors). We also moved a large red noticeboard, hung up a banner, filled paper bags with sweets (and ate some too), distributed bins and put out several tables.

In a flash an hour had gone by and we were happy that we had been able to help at what will hopefully be quite a successful event.

Four of us met Liz again at Manor to continue helping with their allotment area. We were joined by Liz’s neighbour Peter and a couple of students from the school as well.

I was set to work trimming back the bushes whilst Claire and Nick helped Peter to dig out and level where originally a pond had been dug. Alistair was helping Liz and the students around the back of the poly tunnel but joined in the digging fun later on.

The students brought out some drinks and snacks for us which were very welcome as the sun came out.

There was just time to help get some odd pieces of rubbish from the side of the shed moved around to the side of the school to join other various bits of unwanted furniture, etc to be dealt with at a later date. A possible “throw it all in the skip” mission perhaps?

After just over an hour we admired our work and the improvements we’d made to the allotment which is an ongoing project.

We met Liz, one of the teachers, on a damp Saturday afternoon at Manor CE Academy (very conveniently only 1km from home) to help tidy up their allotment area.

It was lovely to have visiting GoodGymer Pippafrom Hounslow joining us today - sorry about the rain! 🌧️

Nick started weeding and tidying the herb garden (which mostly involved moving old car tyres) whilst the rest of us started clearing the weeds from around the base of the raised beds.

With most of the weeding done, Liz asked us if we could construct another compost heap using wooden pallets and various planks of wood. Although destruction is probably our favourite task, we like the challenge of a bit of construction occasionally and soon we were all gathering materials (including a couple of breeze blocks) for our construction.

Being told

use whatever you want

was music to our ears! Soon we had created a fine structure, reinforced at the side with a concrete hedgehog ornament! 🦔

A great job which will help transform this area into a really useful resource for the school and local community.