Soggy was the name of the game as the hardy GoodGym Bristol contingent headed to Dame Wmoly Park to see how much the loooong hedge had grown from the last careful pruning* of the hedge that separates the park from the school's forest classroom.

The already-carefully-pruned* section was looking great so we moved downhill to the next part of the challenge with whirling dervishes Rach and Marie armed with shears and loppers respectively, Frances and Richard teaming up for some chunkier trunks/branches, Caroline and Jason as Team Wheelbarrow getting the prunings cut back to a medium size for composting and Vaguely Northern Darren and Melanie flitting between tasks/holding up lights. Though EVERYONE had a head/neck torch which made things so much easier. Excellent choppage, everyone!

And this week we confirmed that trees/shrubs DO have a top and a bottom but horizontal branches don't, or don't know that.

*hacking back

It's Christmas! Well, in retail land and our first festive task of the winter with helping Sparks, Bristol's alternative department store get ready for their busiest season.

We were helping with the communal central corridor and entrances but first had to access the decorations, stored on a tucked away escalator up in the shared studio space, obviously.

There was a slight issue of no bases for the two big three-piece trees (so they were caged to either wait until they were found go back upstairs or wait for John (with the lift key) could be found first.

So, two smaller trees were decorated and paper chains were hung, broken and hung again with environmentally friendly twist ties rather than cable ties - trying to reduce our environmental impact whilst increasing our social impact.

Once the time was up, we went back to get our outerwear and explore the very sinister circus/theatre, glad that the lights stayed on as it will be Very Scary in the dark.

Then it was off to a new venue for Eats (when we pop to somewhere local for food on the first Tuesday of the month, instead if our normal drinks at Club Haus in Workout), with Hot Pot at Matalang, complete with a polaroid of the table and fortune cookies (some of which were devoid of any fortune and some totally weird). We'll be braver with the food choices next time, we promise. Thanks to Richard for organising, Pieminister is already booked for December Eats - see you there!