Another week, another double task group run! This week we were heading up and over the hills to Seniors (I'll be having words with whoever planned that around my tired marathon legs...) and we had a team dropped off at the Tiny to complete the mulching.

The team at Seniors had the wholesome task of weeding and raised bed and then planting broad beans, making sure the roots were fully encased in compost and giving them a good water.

Next up we had to dig the potato bed, removing the weeds so that a new crop of potatoes can be planted. We had a good go at clearing the bed in the time we had left but didn't quite get round to digging the trenches.

It was then time for the journey back to Glass Mill and I had to admit there was no chance I would make it back. The team tackled those hills and regrouped with the mulching group in Ladywell Fields.

With all the mulching done, it was an evening of two tasks well done!

This group run was a 2 task week and we had 12 wonderful GG-ers ready to tackle the litter at The Albany and the mulch at the Tiny Forest

We gathered outside Glass Mill and as I approached it was great to see a group forming after last week's bank holiday lowering our group run numbers. We split into groups and one group headed to the Tiny Forest guided by Steve and photographer for the evening Julian and the other group to The Albany with me.

The Tiny Forest team were joined by Linda and a couple of Tree Keepers and most importantly joined by Suki - our favourite Tiny Forest dog! There was lots of mulch to be moving to the main Tiny Forest (we covered the extension last week) and involved filling buckets and pouring those over the fence.

Meanwhile at The Albany....there was barely any litter!! That's never happened in the history of group runs at The Albany, usually its a satisfying clean up of all the cans and chicken shop wrappers that have blown in from the streets.

We did still fill 3 GIANT bin bags, when I say fill I mean to about 50% as they were so big I could fit in them and they got heavy quite quickly, with the litter, not with me in them! The litter we did find was described as level 10 litter i.e. nappies etc not pleasant - bring back the cans and chicken shop wrappers (although no litter at all would be encouraged)!

At both tasks it started to rain slightly then it started to pour down!! We made the decision to pack up our litter picking at the same time as the Tiny Forest text to say the rain was too much and they were heading back to Glass Mill.

We regrouped at Glass Mill and headed off for our social at the local, Guardian recommended Turkish restaurant. After some confusion over the booking which Marta handled, we were all seated and ready for a catch up and refuel.

We had lots of tasks to tackle at the PNK Garden this week, it was our first visit of 2024! It's a long run to PNK Garden but the team handled it in their stride.

The tasks for this evening were: - Weeding - there's always lots of peaky weeds to tackle at the garden. - Litter picking - same as above, lots of litter blows in from the main road. - Moving soil - I have to admit I have no idea what was going on here except the soil was going from one end of the garden to the other in wheelbarrows.

And when we left there was a HUGE rock being removed from one of the containers.

Thanks team for walking the last 1km with me when I wasn't feeling well! Also the reason behind the delay of the run report but all should be back to normal for Seniors on Monday.

It was wonderful to see so many new faces gathering at Glass Mill yesterday evening - hope you all enjoying your first good deeding! You also smashed the longer run, it's our longest group run so everything can only be shorter now (until we return to The PNK Garden).

Tonight was meant to make us into German TV stars but it wasn't meant to be, there was no film crew waiting for our arrival at the PNK Garden. Maybe next time or maybe another GG area will be TV stars.

Anyway, onto the task! There was lots and lots of weeding to be done at the garden tonight. A good old fashioned GG task of pulling up as many weeds as possible, we managed to fill 2x tonne bags!! Amazing work!

Rewarded for our efforts with various vegetables from the garden including 2 little pumpkins, the first group began to make their way back to Glass Mill whilst the remaining group carried the bags around to dispose of in the bins. No BadGym here!

We bid farewell to Lara (thank you for the vegetables) and made our way back to Glass Mill where the 2 groups reunited.

Next week we're heading to The Albany and celebrating the achievements of those that are running Vitality 10000 on Sunday.

What a wonderful couple of weeks for achievements in the Blue Borough, we've had:

1. Steve's 500th good deed, in fact it was his 502nd last night!!

2. Linda's 100th good deed, actually her 101st last night

3. Iitmari's 100th good deed, which came as a surprise but I've seen it nearing the past couple of group runs!

Congrats - you've all done an amazing amount of good in our borough and I can't wait to celebrate your next 100 good deeds with you.

Onto the task for this week, we were heading to the Tiny Forest in Ladywell Fields to help build their extension as they're planting another 200 saplings at the site. It was a good strength workout as the ground was pretty hard from all the hot weather we've had recently!

The group split into smaller groups with a group digging the next trench, we had to dig 50cm down and put that soil on the first trench and then loosen the soil below.

There was another group raking the dried grass which will be the organic matter in the soil sandwich above.

Another group tackling the pile of woodchip which had become overrun with pesky bindweed and brambles. That will be used around the extension once the saplings are planted.

Next up was a group tackling the weeding in the Tiny Forest. This was a delicate task of taking bindweed off the tiny saplings to make sure they grow big and strong.

The main task of the evening was making sure the Tiny Forest dog was kept entertained and that was a group effort!

Well done for getting stuck in with the various tasks, we'll be back mid-October, with lights to continue the hard work.

*it's most definitely head torch time towards the end of tasks so dig those head torches out!