A great turnout of 12+ people for the regular Friday morning gardening session at Stephens House and Gardens.

This time I joined Heather and her team of specialist bramble-busters, trying to keep an area of the park under control. Armed with secateurs, rakes, spades and forks, we cut back the brambles and cleared the weeds.

We were working very close to one of the park’s special trees, a Ginkgo biloba. Sometimes called a “living fossil”, it comes from an ancient line of trees stretching back more than 200 million years, with fossil leaves looking remarkably like those we see today.

Having spotted Benedict Cumberbatch earlier that morning, our conversation topic was naturally close encounters with celebrities — always a good one!

After a couple of productive hours we headed back for the traditional tea and cake, this time with an extra reason to celebrate: gardener Ian’s birthday.

Another lovely morning getting outdoors, meeting people and helping to look after this special local park.