Our final visit of the year to St Botolph’s Church garden was upon us, and there was no time for holly-dollying about! We were back in the poppy garden, continuing the clearance work we started last week, determined to get things looking shipshape ahead of Remembrance Day.

Elvira kicked things off by tackling the ivy and brambles before joining Julia in the somewhat prickly business of cutting down two holly trees. She pulled and pushed and nearly lost her feet on tackling the first one - the photos give the essence of that particular situation!! The bigger tree one needed a final bit of pulling and pushing from John to persuade it to give up its place. It seems our holly was no longer jolly, and the ivy was definitely getting ideas above its station!

Meanwhile, Belinda was working incredibly hard to get the ivy under control, showing impressive determination and an eye for every last detail. No sneaky tendril was going to escape her attention!

John and Stephane were busy digging out brambles, enabling Julia to collect the prickly spoils and ferry them off to the compost heap. A proper team effort, with everyone rooting for the same result!

Having already clocked up an impressive 7k run, Ricky pitched in to give Stephane a helping hand . Plus there was an extra reason to celebrate, as tonight marked Ricky’s 7th GoodGym anniversary! Seven years of running, volunteering and being part of GG Worthing , Brighton and parkrun — now that really is something to crow about. A lucky seven for a thoroughly deserving GoodGym member.

As a special 'end-of-term treat' we were invited inside the church to see the memorial wall in the Lady Chapel, bearing the names of the fallen servicemen. It was a very moving moment and a reminder of why our work in the poppy garden matters so much.

By Remembrance Day, there will be one poppy in the garden to commemorate each of the 89 men who lost their lives. Sadly, one of those named was recorded as a boy. 😪 A poignant tribute to those who never returned, and a lovely way for the garden to help keep their memories alive.

And, of course, no end-of-term celebration would be complete without a little appreciation for our efforts. We were presented with thank-you cards signed by members of the parish council, along with enormous homemade ginger and fudge cookies baked by Rik. Yum yum!

A huge thank you to everyone at St Botolph’s for making us feel so welcome throughout the year, and to our wonderful GoodGym gang for another evening of graft, good company and community spirit.

We may have reached the end of our gardening year, but the memories — and hopefully not the weeds — will keep on growing!