Autumn is the perfect time for a spring clean, isn’t it?

A beautiful rainbow on the way to the farm showed we may be in for sunshine this morning, although we were all in waterproofs just in case.

Connell saw us coming and asked if we could weed and tidy around the front and side of the reception building - weed love to! (See what I did there?)

Hoeing and sweeping and scooping and scraping, the transformation was great to see. And then coffee - perfect.

We were quick off the mark setting off for Brunswick Cemetery with new recruit Chloe joining the runners who'd taken enough hand forks to start pathfinding on the spiral - totally normal in Bristol to run with small gardening implements.

We all thought we'd only have a short time before the rain was back so even more enthusiasm than normal and Richard B's determination to find wooden edge finally paying off, though it was disintegrating so were still not entirely sure where the edge is.

Helen and Frances also found edge at the end of the spiral which may be the start of the spiral on one side. its all so exciting...

With lots of soil shifted, and still dry, we were back off to Workout for many intriguing conversations of philosophical merit, if you can remember any of them, leave a comment!

“Cinéma vérité is a documentary filmmaking style emphasizing realism and immediacy, aiming to capture everyday life with minimal intervention” - well I guess that sums things up but with a Cinnabar moth. This probably won’t make much sense if you are reading this (there was a guy filming us too though, well Ed, but us too)… anyway. Thanks for the added culture Marianne!

Lots of cutting, weeding and snipping was done on a beautiful evening. A Cinnabar moth (see excellent photo by Frances), bees (ditto) and a mullein (needs a fact check) were spotted. Figs anyone? This has been a bit of wild ride of a report but hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves.

Until next time...

A fabulous turnout of four GoodGymmers alongside Jo from the Friends group meant huge progress in a corner of the park that we hadn’t tackled for a while.

Big buddleia chopping, bundles of bindweed and buttercups bagged, discarded sharps boxed and general important conversation including whether insect repellent works on spiders or is it only 6-legged creatures? Probably doesn’t work on octopuses.

Transformation complete, it was time for coffee for those not dashing off to other fun Monday activities - a great start to the week.

Another sunny morning cutting brambles and clearing scrub to maintain access to the orchard and prevent nature completely reclaiming the space. We were led today by Rachel of YourPark, who gave us our instructions and safety briefing.

We used shears and pitchforks, enjoying the sunshine and chatting away as we worked. Afterwards we enjoyed our usual coffee, tea and hot chocolate break courtesy of our hosts Peter and Martin.

It's likely we will be back harvesting the orchard apples in the next month or so, and then sending them off to be juiced.

A visit to Mr R in Hartcliffe this afternoon to cut away some brambles from around his lovely Japanese Maple Acer Trees and to bash those growing under and through an ash tree.