We were met by the elders of the church at Thurlstone eager to welcome us back and inform us of what needed attending to around the church.

The first and main item on the agenda was creating a space for the 'Eco Kids' to grow their own vegetables in. This is a group of local children who are interested in sustainably producing their own food in an ecologically friendly and sustainable way. The area designated for this is alongside a wall at the rear of the church. This area had vegetation growing up the wall and from the woods on the other side. It was mostly covered in ivy; this needed clearing. We did this by using secateurs as high as we could reach on the wall, and then further up by scaling the buttress utilizing our incredible climbing skills!

Whilst we were busy with this the elders were getting busy with some tasks inside of the church. I'm not entirely sure what, I think pew polishing and kitchen sorting was mentioned?!

We had a wall!

When we were almost done with this part of the chopping we were called inside for refreshments, and to chat with the other folks who had kindly come out to meet us. We were informed that we would very welcome to return on other dates throughout the year to complete other tasks- eg, making beds at the front of the church, weeding in the grounds behind, creating a pond etc. I'm sure these will be popular activities with the folk at GG! Yay!

When properly refreshed we headed back outside to remove weeds and dig out unwelcome shrubs from the bed. We also weeded down the side of the path behind the church. A 'bonfire' was made out of all the cuttings and pullings, with the 'guy' on top being the large dug out shrubbery (see pics).

A good job well done (tactfully left with more to do!).

We were welcomed to St Saviour's by members of the congregation who were excited to have us along. Our presence was appreciated by all, one lady commenting "with a small aging congregation we are getting a bit long in the tooth for all of the jobs", another replying "some of us don't have any teeth to be long!"

The three of us switched between various roles throughout the day, but for the most part Kat was focused on clearing the car park area of weeds, grass, moss and other detritus that had engulfed the space over the years; Ash and James were on pothole filling and consolidation duty. Wheelbarrows were loaded with sandy gravel and taken to the areas in the driveway with holes. The gravel was shovelled into and around the holes and cracks by one person, with the other using the cool old skool 100 year-old roller to consolidate it. "We were on a roll!" The weather was fine and we had a crushing time. General foreman Ash made sure James gave the gravel a good 'ol bash!

1 tonne of gravel was put down and consolidated. 3 wheelbarrows of vegetation dug up and scraped off the surface of the car park.

After all of this, we had some chats and snacks as a group and tidied away our tools. We were told that we'd be very welcome back as everyone had thoroughly enjoyed having us there. They will not be disappointed, we'll be back for more!