Aston's Eyot is a delightful nature reserve tucked off the Iffley Road. It is owned by Christchurch College but the Friends of Aston's Eyot rent it for the princely sum of £1 per year and are tasked with its upkeep.

This evening we were greeted by Ruth and she explained our task. Some young hedgerow plants have been being nibbled by the deer who live in the reserve. We were to make the fencing around them a but higher and sturdier, trimming and tidying as we went.

Armed with stakes, bamboo, cable ties and various tools we set to work and soon had built a handsome enclosure, hopefully ensuring a better outcome for the young plants.

There was also a but of scything to be done, because what is a visit here without scything?!?

The return run was glorious, along the river and across the lock. An excellent way to celebrate Global Running Day!

South Oxford Community Centre is a new task location for us. We're always happy to help Oxford's community centres, so when we received the call for help in their courtyard garden we accepted the task straight away.

We started our session with a topical ice-breaker question: "what do you wish AI would/could do for you?" Answers ranged from the altruistic (solve the global climate crisis) to inspired (call customer services lines for you). Then on to the task...

Despite the bulk bags of compost not arriving we had plenty to do - we did lots of weeding the edges of the courtyard, pots, planters, and the long border. We then topped up the compost from some smaller sacks, watered, and topped off with shredded bark. Meanwhile Ben and Trev built a compost bay, and a few of us moved the picnic benches so that they could be used more easily.

We were grateful for cold drinks and chocolate biscuits as refreshments, and had a lovely run along the river before and after.

We'll be back in a few weeks to finish the job once the elusive compost arrives!

Welcome Matthew and Oliver - good to meet you both.

Mrs E wanted a good garden clearing to enable her to maintain it herself going forward. I got to work clearing grass, pesky bindweed, uprooting weeds and removing dead plants, including a lot of dead heather. The grass got a quick mowing and any weeds between paving slabs were pulled up.

After that, there was a section of garden Mrs E wanted completely turning over to recover some tulip bulbs and to remove as much bindweed as possible too. Thankfully I found a lot of bulbs for future use and managed to recover some plants, bushes, and small trees for re-potting.

The garden looked so much clearer afterwards and Mrs E was very thankful. It really seemed to brighten her day and we had a good chat about family, gardening, jobs and the sunshine whilst I did the work.

About last night....

• We shifted 18 boxes of horse manure up and over the railway bridge and into the Hogacre Common orchard.
  
• We hauled 5 boxes of wood chip from Hogacre wild wallow into the orchard (to mix with the horse poo).
  
• We shovelled and carried a builders' bag of top soil from the Oxgrow community garden into the orchard (also to mix with the manure).
  
• We watered every bed in the community garden - the warm weather makes for thirsty plants.
  
• We dug over a couple of beds in the community garden polytunnel ready for planting, but saved the wild chamomile.
  

We also had a lovely run to the task along the river, dodging spectators and rowing coaches watching the Bumps races. On the way back we took Electric Avenue, which was new to many, recce'd next week's task location, and waved to the wild swimmers in Hinskey lake.

It was a lovely evening full of sunshine and exploration - Hogacre is a hidden corner of Oxford which many hadn't been to before.