We had a change of plan tonight after postponing Project Planter for another day. Fortunately, we found the perfect substitute for our collective tonight as we tidied up a lovely street garden for the folks of Wood Street South Gardening Club.

Met by our industrious contact, Stavros, we armed ourselves with the necessary gloves, rakes, spades etc. that we needed to complete the task in hand.

Accompanied by the enthusiastic barking of a large dog (thankfully it was hidden away behind a tall wall!) we got cracking. It was an honour to be graced by the presence of Jo Loxton tonight, one of our founder volunteers. Jo works so hard we don't see her as much as we would like. It was, of course, great to see everyone else too tonight and what a hard-working and organised bunch they were. Before you could say mulch, they had filled two large bins with about 100kgs of soggy leaves.

After that is was a quick jog to return our tools before doing some intervals around St Mary's Churchyard. Splendid.

I hope you can join us next week for the last Group Run of the decade. After a decent 4km run to the task we will be helping to clean a church in readiness for the Christmas festivities. I hope to see you there and you can sign-up here

It was a game of two half yesterday. Starting proceedings off we were tasked with a bit of planter building for the folks of Wood Street South Gardening Club. A few mishaps along the way, hampered our progress as we lacked the necessary tools and materials to complete the task. Nevertheless, our resourceful A-Team of volunteers pulled together and with what we had still managed to assemble a planter and to transport a significant amount of soil into place ready for us to hit the ground running next week when we return to continue this project.

After this cold comfort, we all dashed back to the more salubrious surroundings of Mirth Marvel and Maud for our much anticipated and richly deserved Christmas party. Thanks go to Clara and Pippa for organising such a fab night and even preparing an award ceremony that beautifully punctuated the evening. Thanks also go to the mega generosity of Raymond and Ercole who lavished us with drinks!

I'm not sure how this evening ended, but I left a merry crowd at about 10.30 pm, so I hope there are a few sore heads today.

We are back at the same task next week although I will check ahead with a few stipulations to make sure they are ready for us. Sign up here and see you there

☮️🎄

Apart from the trainer we had an all female team last night and their handling of power tools and gardening skills were quite simply sublime! We were kicking off a 3-week project with Wood Street South Gardening Club to spruce up some gardens in a local council estate near Walthamstow Village.

There to meet us were the green-fingered gardeners Stavros and Julie. As part of Wood Street South Gardening Club, Stavros and Julie have worked hard to build a real sense of gardening community in their local area. The plants and trees they have nurtured make a real difference to this corner of Walthamstow.

After a winning recent Silver Medal at the London In Bloom Awards, they have raised the bar even higher. Our job was to help cut back some of the plants, clear away some apples from the trees and most importantly help to build some planters. Fortunately, we have some experience of planter building from a previous project

As if by magic we were joined by, Clara, a veteran of the previous planter campaign whom we hadn't seen for ages. So good to have you back Ms Breakwell and not just because you brought a couple of cakes with you!

After meeting Stavros and Julie and working out the various jobs we needed to do, we set to it. Ama was front and centre on power drilling duties (don't mess!) Pippa and Clara were supporting this effort with some heavy lifting. Meanwhile, the rest of the group got busy with weeding, cutting, apple picking-up, and generally making everything look beautiful.

With the light fading and the planter still under construction, the gardening team of Ruby, Ruth and Kelsey dived off for some cheeky drills leaving the construction team to finish off their planters. It seems I underestimated their work rate as when we returned to meet them they had finished and gone to meet us!

Fortunately, WhatsApp came to the rescue, and we reconvened at Mirth with Clara's cake and a few cheeky halves.

Join us next week for Planters II, The Return Of The Planters

☮️