Lots of people today - attracted both by the propect of helping establish a brand new community garden and just possibly also by a very manageable 1k run to get there.

The community garden is to be located in the open patch of land behind a block of flats and is the joint project of one of the residents and our host for today, Jane from Jump Start. Jane runs a fitness session for kids in the space and was keen to get them involved them in the work today - they seemed to be having lots of fun carrying roots and branches to the compost pile, and having a go with some of the tools!

That's not to say there wasn't fun to be had for our runners - with spades, pick axes and rakes supplied by the excellent Park Works project, we made great progress clearing a wide band of land around the newly sited benches so it could be used for planting and be a welcoming place for some of the parents and more elderly residents to hang out for a bit of a chat.

With almost 30 of us working we made great progress and we're hoping to get back and continue working on the space later in the Spring so it will be fun to watch the project develop.

With such a short run it was great to have Danica step up and volunteer to lead a longer run back and there seemed to be plenty of folks who were happy to join her. Thanks Danica - and well done to all of you for taking on Constitution Hill and the Zig Zag on the way back to base.

Thanks also to Danica and Matthew for back marking today, to Fi for helping me carry a few tools and Paul for services to health and safety.

Painting and a shortish run. The GG equivalent of a perfect storm. No surprise then to see 23 eager faces lined up for our pre-run warm-up.

Originally listed as a double bill, a last minute cancellation of our scheduled visit to Ashley Street park meant that team Cube was to be expanded from the planned six to our entire group. Massive thanks then to our host Pete for rustling up plenty more rollers and paint brushes in the last couple of days.

The Cube is a small independent cinema and music venue run entirely by volunteers. Over the summer the venue closes down for essential maintenance but with many of the volunteers on holiday our help was very much appreciated to help with some of the painting.

We were to paint the outside walls with a special fire retardant paint and the gents toilet floor with a non slip version.

Toilet Team

Special thanks go to the volunteers for the toilet team particularly on such a hot day and especially in the presence of an 'unidentified liquid' (presumably water as the toilets had been thoroughly bleached and disinfected before our arrival).

Wall Team

Everyone else got to work on the outside walls. Amazingly we got 17 people in action in a fairly small space and as a result we managed to finish the whole space in just over 25 minutes. I have to say it looked pretty smart by the end (as evidenced by the much happier 'after' group shot)

With the task finished in such a short time there was plenty of time for some tricep dips in the Bearpit and a quick round of Grandmothers triple extension footsteps and Squatopia on the way back.

Well done everyone - and thanks to Sarah for helping to set this one up!