A beautiful evening for a run/walk to a new task beneficiary - well, new for Tuesday evenings, it's one we've been visiting on the last few Sundays.

The Green House is owned by the Council but they'd had to pretty-much abandon the building due to costs. It's an eco-friendly, green-roof wooden building that's now leased to Xquisite Spaces who have big plans for community events as well as renting out the studio and other indoor space. They've spent the winter repairing the inside (including rotten wooden floor and many leaking pipes) and for Spring have turned to the outside space which had become incredibly overgrown.

Also part of the lease are six parking spaces and hedge line, two of which have been used as a dumping ground for building waste and the holly bushes have thrived on neglect. This bodes well for the future, just with a little more taming!

Lifting, shifting and brutal cutting back are GoodGym Bristol key skills and over 60 minutes the unloved-looking spaces were transformed into actual parking/utility spaces with plants that can thrive and years of leaf mulch skillfully chucked under the bottom of the hedging plants/trees. Lots of very old litter was also pulled out of the now-quite-a-lot-thinner holly and sorted for recycling or actual litter and the green waster was added to the pile for collection.

Then the rocks - from the builders' rubble dump, lots of bits of tarmac, concrete and a few bricks to lift and shift, some braving heaving lifts with spades (newly acquired by Lou from Xquisite Spaces from a second-hand tool search), others grabbing handfuls and the system leading to the Rock-Queue - thank to Frances for the pun, I'm sure Jason is jealous it wasn't him but pretty confident he'll find ways to get it into conversation over the next week or so.

Having wowed Lou with our ability to get weird things done whilst having a good time, we were off to Workout or, for those feeling a bit peckish, Rosa's Thai for our monthly Eats - a local eatery that doesn't mind a group of sweaty runners turning up for a quick bite and a lot more chat. Possibly the speediest service we've ever had, and NO RAIN AT ALL - more of this, please!

Sunday at The Green House for more nature-supporting tidying - dead hedging, leaf mulching, litter-picking goodness as the outside gets tidier for some community events. And Jana found a very useful mallet.

Then coffee.

From a gloomy start to a super-productive clearing session all the way back to the fence, plus protecting some of the small hopefully-shrubs that might make a bit of a hedge - lots of hamstring stretching!

Jana and I braved the rain which soon stopped, clearing the debris left at the side of the building including clearing the patio so there are now only three piles, garden waste, wood bits and the flytip/metal - the patio should be usable next Sunday 😂

We also uncovered some climbers, maybe honeysuckle, so created a temporary frame to show where the plants are - we might get to use some of the woodpile to build a structure for the to grow up and over - re-using whatever we can.

Continuing the good work from last week, dead hedges were made, areas cleared of weeds and wood, and general tidying done. Lots done but lots still to do on a future visit.

Good to see a new project take shape and see the difference a big group of volunteers can make. Picture of dead hedge/screening made for befuddlement purposes. And the carpet of crocuses/croccii looking amazing

Until next time…

Our first visit to the newly rejuvenating Green House in Bedminster, under new management since the Council pulled out a while ago.

We were part of a larger volunteer gathering concentrating on the outside space - garden, seating, a pond and a LOT of piled up chopped branches and old wood combined with litter.

Choosing the live hedge-trimming and dead branch/wood sorting, we were soon chopping and dragging choppage away, plus a lot of chatting. We managed to get loads done and after about 90 minutes got called inside for homemade soup - what a treat!

We managed to pack up just before the rain started with a plan to be back again next week, fingers crossed.