Following our energetic group session last Tuesday to Stephens House and Gardens, Helen, our wonderful host there, invited us to join her for another project she helps with at St Mary's. As part of the church's London Festival of Architecture Week, they hosted a community gardening session, clearing parts of the graveyard and tidying gravestones.

Jacqui arrived first and, given a choice between gardening alone in damp weather or going on a tour of the church, she went on the tour. Then I arrived, with Filip and Chloe (who'll soon be earning their first t-shirts!), and we met Helen with a wheelbarrow and got stuck in, coppicing some of the smaller trees, digging up alkanet and then dragging ivy back from the graves. Chloe found and relocated a toad to one of the quieter parts of the grave. We all found lots and lots of snails.

A couple of local volunteers cleared and tidied some of the old graves. Many are too worn to read, but we found a few from around two hundred years ago. Helen told us that one we were working around had actually vanished into the undergrowth. They found its location from old site maps, and rescued it.

Richard then arrived from his training (he's doing a marathon hike next weekend!), grabbed gloves and then grabbed up great fistfuls of ivy. And Jacqui waved hello as the church tour led her through the graveyard. Understandably, she couldn't tear herself away from the tour, the church is a real historical gem for Finchley and always open if you fancy a visit.