Back to Dorset Road Allotments and s new chicken coop they've found for us to dismantle! Our first project has now been seeded with grass and is awaiting some benches to make a picnic area, but the work is never done because this new coop can make way for a new area to lease. Jeanette, committee member for the Allotments, said it was a 2.5 year waiting list, so any new space will be gratefully received.

We did a good 3km run from Bridge House to Dorset Road and headed over to this new spot to inspect the work. With tools provided, Fiona, Cat, James and James began demolition and weeding operations whilst Clare and I ferried the pieces over to the waste area.

We made massive progress and will be back in a few weeks to continue, so join us then :)

Snow way?!

Two unexpected things tonight:

SNOW, or some blossom that looked like snow, and a LIZARD loose in Cator Park. We didn’t see it but we were shown pics. Wild.

Before all that excitement, we met at the bridge house, named ourselves, partially numbered, and told everyone our favourite races/future races.

We jogged a cool 2-3km to the park via the snow to meet Gill, Lou and Ian aka some of the friends of Cator and Alexandra parks for some Tiny Forest weeding, mulching and watering of the thirsty trees.

Lou showed us a pic of the lizard, which someone probably let loose. No one saw it.

300 trees, 1000 weeds and several wheelbarrows of mulch later and we were done. Nice one everyone 🦎

We had our first WWF X GoodGym Workout for Nature session* this evening and what a lovely night for it!

After discussing our favourite UK place to be in sunny weather (thanks for the question Clare!), six of us ran the 3km to Dorset Road Allotments where we met Jeannette and co. Over the last year we've been helping to dismantle a HUGE chicken shed which hadn't been used for a decade so was full of brambles. This has finally been demolished so our task tonight was to clear the foundations so that topsoil and grass seed can be added. The eventual plan is to turn the spot into a picnic area, which will look out over a flower-covered hibernaculum made from the leftover rubble from the chicken shed. Very environmentally friendly!

Over 40 minutes we made good progress, with Colette being in charge of scouting out bits of broken glass and plastic, David trying out the pickaxe to get rid of tough roots, and Clare, Catherine and James digging and raking over the earth and shuttling wheelbarrows of top soil from the compost heap while I worked with Jeannette to get rid of any pesky bind weed roots.

We finished off just as the sun was setting (so nice to be able to do tasks in daylight!) and before setting off on the run back the team gave me their best chicken poses in honour of our long departed friends.

Great job team!

*Between 7 April and 4 May 2025, WWF (the wildlife people, not the wrestlers) and GoodGym are collaborating on hundreds of sessions to celebrate Earth Day. Each session will involve a Workout for Nature - a physical volunteering activity which will benefit local green spaces, and give our own wellbeing a boost. You can find out more here