We were 3 of 743 finishers at University Parks Christmas Day parkrun! A chilly but lovely start to the day ❤

Have I mentioned just how much I love having a dog at a task?!? ESPECIALLY when it is a visit from the glorious Juno (and Ben).

Back to the task in hand....

This morning we had a lovely hour at Rose Hill Community Centre weeding the Youth Club planters and generally sprucing up the growing area.

Thistles were removed, planters were watered, litter gathered up and Juno was fussed and we all had a lovely chat, setting the world to rights.

An excellent start to the weekend.

Well it HAD to be a Bonnie themed title didn't it?!?

On this historic evening we gathered at Magdalene wood - a beautiful patch of woodland but also a notorious litter grot-spot. Serving as a cut through between 2 areas it gets very mucky very often.

This evening was no exception. We found some massive areas of litter - the usual cans, bottles and fast good wrappers but also an area where some cats have been being fed (Anwen would approve, though not of the litter) and a huge stash of nitrous oxide cannisters.

We cleared up for an hour, filling 11 MASSIVE bags and reported everything into the council for collection. Amusingly Jacqui was asked if she was on community service......!!

We then headed out of the wood and with Henry's pin hole set up we managed to safely watch the eclipse! A pretty fascinating experience. The light really did go very strange and gloomy.

Thank you team for coming out in the hot hot heat!!

A small but mighty team returned to Marston Forest Garden this morning, to have a second go at clearing daisies from around the fruit trees.

Things we learnt:

• Rats like apricots.
• Trimmings should be snipped ready for composting.
• What a Hairy Shield Bug looks like.

We also had chats about poetry, books, the importance of names, WILL IT EVER RAIN, and the bakeries of Oxford.

Smaller team means a bigger share of Isobel's delicious blackberry cake!