It was Earth Day, a day to celebrate nature and consider what we can do to help and protect it.

Our task at the Lea Vale Community Garden was to help get some unruly vegetable beds in order with a good digging over and building some new wooden frames around them. This will allow the gardens users to focus on making contact with nature by growing vegetables in the garden and enjoying the peace of this secluded green space.

As always it was a steep run up to Farley Hill that got our legs pumping hard and burning loads of calories. After the task we did a nice core conditioning workout on the lawn before heading back down the hill.

This week our group run was a team-up with another group of volunteers from the Luton Someries Rotary Club. They look after a garden patch in Wardown Park that went a bit wild in past years but has been brought back under control thanks to their efforts.

We ran out from the town centre to find Jan and her team of volunteers getting the weeding done. Our first job was to dig some holes and plant the new plants. A second job was to dig out a clump of sedge which had got a bit out of control. That turned out to be the biggest job as it really didn't want to move. Resistant to forks, spades, sawing the roots it really wouldn't budge.

Community spirited passer-by Hafsa stopped to see what we were up to and joined in with the gang, helping to transform this patch into a flowery feature for the summer. Good on you Hafsa! It's lovely when people compliment our activity and amazing when they join in 💪🏼

A quick break for squash and some Jammy Dodgers and we tried again to have a go at the sedge, summoning the tiger energy in turns to hack away at the roots with a spade and in the closing moments of the session, we secured victory and ripped the clump out of the ground!

Tidying up we helped carry all the weeds and cuttings to the car park for later disposal and bid farewell to Jan's team as we set off for a lap of the cricket pitch and finish our 5km distance for the evening.

Our planned visit to the Lea Vale Community garden was cancelled last minute so that meant quickly packing our handy folding pickers in a backpack and heading out in search of litter.

The original task involved a run up to Farley Hill so we kept that theme and ran up to Winsdon Hill, picked our way back down again and collected about 8 bags of rubbish between us. We also reported a few bulky fly tips to the council too so they can be collected later on.

A lovely warm and sunny evening was perfect to enjoy the wild flowers on the Winsdon hill meadows and the blossom on the hawthorns and the cherry tree plus the view over Luton from the top of the hill.