It was a return to the Penrose Roots to Recovery garden this evening for part two of a big sleeper cutting task.

There's lots of new raised beds planned for this year's crops but before they can be built we needed to cut a bunch to size.

We completed the sawing job and moved some sleepers down to the far end of the garden in super quick time so we ran on to the Wardown Park Bandstand for a leg-based workout circuit.

This week we had Joe return for his second session and we had Steph visiting from Ealing for is 501st!

Our Group Run took us to the Penrose Roots garden where Peter had two tasks for us, an enormous pile of wood chips that needed putting into bags and a pile of sleepers that needed sawing in half.

We split into two teams and the shovelers got shoveling while the saw team hit an early obstacle. Wet wood was making it very difficult to cut through with the saws. After a few minutes of perseverance David remembered he had the trusty pruning saws in his kit bag. They've never let us down! He gave it a try and great success, the team swapped saws and suddenly we were making progress.

We rotated around the tasks as backs got tired from shoveling and arms got tired from sawing. Circuit training GoodGym style!

By the end of the session we got the whole pile of chips packed away in bags, but we only got half the sleepers sawn, so we'll be back soon to finish off that task.

This week's group run took us to All Saints church which needed a thorough cleaning from top to bottom. The high ceilings had cobwebs unreached for 10 years!

We used a combination of brooms and dusters with extended handles as well as ladders to reach up to the heavenly heights of the rafters and the tall windows, meanwhile down at ground level old markings on the floor from covid times needed a good soak with white spirit and scraping up.

Combined with a bit of vacuuming and wiping down walls and sills with soapy water we left the vast space looking much lighter and brighter, ready for Christmas services!

A snap of cold weather brought snow to Luton this week and caused our group run to be a frosty one.

The hardiest runners came out for this weeks group run to Penrose roots, where Pete had a bramble and weed clearing task for us. We ran hard and fast to keep warm and then worked hard chopping away at the weeds and raking the cuttings up into a big pile.

Breath making large clouds in the icy air we kept on going until the area was clear and then quickly took some photos and ran on into the cold night. It was not one for hanging around outside!

Pressing hard on the return journey too, we managed to keep the cold at bay long enough to make it back into town and bid each other goodnight, with very welcome hot showers waiting for us!

This week's group session brought together a team of eight, four runners and four walkers, to take on a task at the Penrose Roots to Recovery garden.

It was just 2km to the task where task owner Peter was waiting for us. The team at the garden had taken a delivery of woodchips which had just been dumped in a big pile and needed tidying up into big sacks, so we all got to work with shovels and started clearing up the mess.

With a great effort from the team we filled up six big ton bags in no time at all and were able to make a start on a second task, clearing a patch of weeds that had grown on the potato patch.

But soon our time was up and we had to head off again, with a few freshly dug potatoes in our pockets as a reward!

In the last of a summer series of dual-task group sessions, our team was split with a walking/biking group heading to the Penrose Roots to Recovery garden and a running group heading to Holy Trinity Church.

The team's task in the garden was to tackle a patch of stinging nettles that had taken over a storage area behind the polytunnel. Kitted out with shears and rakes we worked from each end to meet in the middle, uncovering lost garden supplies in the process and filling two big bags with compost fodder.

Meanwhile the running group's task at the church was to give the railings a second coat of paint to finish the task we'd worked on over the summer stripping and repainting.

It's the time of year that darkness is creeping in so we had a dark journey back into town. Don't forget your lights for next week's run!