After canceling our last planned visit in June to The Greenway Orchard due to the heatwave, we were pleased to get back there this evening to see what had happened on the growing front over the past 2 months and catch up with task owners Taiwo and Eleanor...and it's fair to say quite a lot, as we soon discovered that the brambles and bushes that we'd successfully hacked at and removed on our last visit had grown back, not quite to square one, but we were definitely encountering roots and branches on the ground that we'd met before...

Paul, Brad, Adam and Nick met at Freaks and Geeks, and ran the c3km, using as much of the open parts of the Greenway as we could - a shoutout to Eugene who joined us just after 7 having left work in Romford, got home, changed, caught his breath, and then run to the Orchard - true GG dedication in every sense. With this determined gang of 5, plus Taiwo, and armed with a wide selection of cutting tools and thick gloves, we got to it.

Yet again it's amazing/impressive to see what a group of motivated individuals can achieve, as by 7.30, we'd made a real dent in the undergrowth, and created a correspondingly large pile of brambles and branches behind us. Determined to press on (almost to the hospital) we kept at it, and soon found blackberries (but no unexpected wildlife) hiding in the undergrowth. It had been a warm one, and after returning tools and gloves, we set off on a slow shamble along the Greenway before finding our feet/breath and running back to F&G, where we stopped for well earned light refreshment and a debrief on the evening's entertainment.

We'll be back at the Orchard in September (date tbc), as we definitely don't want to leave it another two months...

Both Mr R and I were stealing ourselves for the upcoming heatwave later this week - Mr R struggles in the heat, so is not looking forward to it...fortunately there was a breeze to accompany my wander to Tesco this afternoon, and his list was straightforward including a request for Ritz crackers which were easily found. The shelves were a little bare though, and on my return we discussed whether this was the taste of things to come (excuse the pun...) due to the various global issues headlining the news at the moment, and which products might prove harder to track down over the coming months...

An unusually cloudy and breezy (and dusty) London Fields greeted Run Director Rue, Marshall (and nearly tail walker) Sooz and timekeeper Nick this morning - after the past few weeks of bright sunshine and warm temperatures it was something of a welcome change. We were also delighted to be joined by John, who eagerly donned the hi viz and stood ready for instruction on where Rue wanted him deployed - the marshall post by the playground became his chosen spot for today.

As we now seem to be very much into summer holiday season, we stood under the big tree at 0845 somewhat in anticipation of how many enthusiastic runners we'd get, but they soon started appearing from all directions, including two absolute first timers, and in the end 22 stood poised on the windy start line awaiting the off...and then they were gone, and soon spread out in a long line around the edge of the fields - our intrepid Tail Walker Johnny (who to be fair had a small person on his shoulders) struggled to keep up with the pace!

After just over 8 minutes our lead runner headed down the finishing straight followed by a neatly spaced sequence of out of breath runners, of whom 6 set new PBs, which was going some in today's wind. At the end we sadly bid farewell to Johnny one of our long time RDs today as he heads to deepest Kent to take on a new job, and who, along with his wife and two children, have been huge supporters of London Fields junior parkrun for such a long time - they will all be missed, especially when it comes to token sorting at the end of each event...