We had a wonderful morning this morning doing something a little bit different! We took part in the walking carnival parade for Shirleys big eco festival - organised by the Wayne Howard foundation in memorial of Wayne Howard and to encourage sustainability in the local community.

The parade went around the local streets, spearheaded by a group of scottish bagpipers, a group of baton twirlers (then us!) followed by a convoy of eco friendly bikes of all shapes and varieties! Everyone was there to support and promote local sustainability and with an added bonus of a parade we definitely got our steps in!

After the parade we enjoyed the stalls including ones from our friends at Shirley Pond Park and Sholing Valleys. But the highlight was definitely the gorgeous Alpacas!

And to top it off we commandeered a cycling Stormtrooper!

Judy Knapp and Stephanie Longy went to join the monthly session with Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery. We were set to work with pitchforks and rakes to clear up all the piles of cutting left by the cutting team. A great all body workout filling lots of large sacks all in the company of the local Robin and other very friendly volunteers. Luckily the beautiful mature trees sheltered us during a sharp shower. Then sun came out again to prove that it is July and supposed to be summer. We were made very welcome by the FOSOC team with tea/ coffee and biscuits afterwards in the old chapel. We hope to be back again in August to help out on their next session. A great two hours in a beautiful location.

We were very pleased to rejoin Moorlands Community Centre again this evening to give the outdoor space a good tidy up. It had been a year since we last tackled the space and the weeds had taken over again. We started with a short litter pick while Tracy, our task owner, got the building unlocked for us and found us some tools. It was then onto the patio to remove the weeds while being careful not to disturb the ants! We hope the users of the centre can enjoy the space more now we’ve removed a lot of thistles which were extra spiky and nettles that were extra stingy! We worked hard and got all the garden bags filled up again, but there was still more to do so we’ll be back for round 2 soon.

Loved every second, cheering the walkers on and then walking with some of them time and time again in the last stretch and chatting to them about their experiences. A great morning with an awesome buddy.