Another session at the amazing water tower base and we're (sadly?) gradually getting to a point where our work will be done on this 18+ month project!

We had a top team of excavators in the form of Catherine, Kelsey, Hannah, James, me, John and new-to-the-crew Livia! 🥳

We were digging the remaining soil out of the old pipes, removing soil and digging down until we (hopefully) reached concrete, and pulling out weeds and dead tree roots.

We ended up with a decent-sized pile of soil, a big collection of dead vegetation, a little more knowledge, and even some smiles for the photo 📸

Nice one, team! 💪

Poor Millie has broken her toe - so our helpful Linda nipped over to get the toolshed key and we swapped the Cator Park task for one at Alexandra Rec. We started the meetup with a quick chat about 'favourite smells' - inspired by petrichor smell of the earth when the rain starts. Favourites in the group were quite specific and ranged from the New Zealand bush, to painting memories, and nail varnish! We headed off doing just a little loop, and dodging raindrops, and met Merrin and Linda at the park, where we set about mulching the new hedgerow trees that had been weeded just a few weeks back but now needed protecting from the recent hot dry weather. The little bits of rain the last couple of days made it the perfect time to wheelbarrow mulch over to the trees and hold some of that moisture in, to give them a fighting chance this summer. We got quite a few barrows ferried over and added to the rows of trees in between chats about holidays, the weather (of course) and even ChatGPT! Thanks all and see you again soon - another great job :)

A small but mighty gang of two James', two Cats and a Hannah met at St John's Church tonight to help Karen and the Thursday Lunch Club volunteers spruce up the grounds as a thanks to the church for letting the club use its hall. Armed with loppers, rakes and wheelbarrows, the volunteers made great progress clearing back brambles and ivy to make the path to the hall more accessible and the area generally more presentable. Special shout out to newcomer James who got stuck straight in with the chopping and had to be prised from his loppers when it was time to leave!

Great work tonight gang!

You can find out more about the Thursday Lunch Club here. It's a great initiative so please do reach out to Karen if you can help with your time or donations.

It was great to return to Ripley to scrub up the windows from the inside too this time (+ some radiators and extra bits)! Brenda and Hannah set to work with the help of the warden, Cliff, and got things sparkling while discussing the benefits of Goodgym and volunteering in general. We also found out about more of the activities going on at Ripley, including coding, yoga and art clubs, and took the opportunity to pose for some shots in the elegant music room... (We did actually clean as well!)

You can check out what's on at Ripley here:

https://www.bromleyarts.com/events-manager/