So tonight’s big question was – could we manage Fiona’s Cemetery Park task without her “expert guidance” and her Google-Maps Pin? Somehow we managed it; well we did have Nia and Anna, whose names rely solely on letters in “Fiona”

We originally had a healthy number signed up, despite warnings about covering arms and legs against nettles in heatwave temperatures. But gradually, the numbers reduced. Three people sent their apologies, another was held up helping the new PM with his Cabinet, or something, and two people who remained signed up, must have got lost on the way...

Of course we did have task owner Ken, who explained why the Friends of the Cemetery Park had embarked on a THIRTY-YEAR plan to improve the site. He also explained the effect of the dry summer on plants – they produce less flowers overall, but bloom early, to save water

Further, he told us that were everyone to leave the gardens alone, the hogweed would take over. Therefore our efforts tonight were focused on the “common hogweed” which produces its seeds at the top, like an umbrella, all ready to drop or be blown away. Which are things we didn’t want to happen, as the other plants would have less chance to thrive, such as the nearby aromatic stone parsley, which can be used as a substitute for nutmeg

Ken showed us how to snap the stalk, just below any branches, so any seeds dropping off would go straight into our buckets along with the top of the plant. And before we knew it, we’d de-seeded a whole chunk of the gardens. But there’s always more to do, and we’ll be back in September!

After the recent warmer conditions, it was a pleasant (but very welcome) surprise to be met by a cool breeze blowing across the Fields this morning - it made Rue and Nick's job of setting up the course easier, albeit the wind was definitely not in a co-operative mood as it seemed determined to blow over the start/finish sign and parkrun flag...

It was great to see Anna and Lobo also appear this morning to help out - Anna was keen to don the tailwalker hi viz with the added foxtail, and Lobo did an excellent job on token duty (both Finish and Sorting) - Rue was on barcode scanning duty, which proved for once to be a bit more challenging than usual, and all this assistance made Nick's job as today's Run Director a whole lot easier.

A good number of first time visitors to the Fields swelled the pack as we discovered that Highbury Fields junior parkrun had been cancelled this morning due to an event. Our first finisher sped round in a super speedy 8 minutes, closely followed by the remaining largely breathless pack - Anna brought home the final walker, who was doing just her 2nd ever parkrun, in just over 20 minutes, and so event #378 came to a successful close for another week.

Same time, same place under the Big Tree next week for more fun at the Fields.

This Sunday morning, we headed to Epping Forest (home to 55,000 ancient trees!) where we were met by the brilliant Robyn, Conservation Officer at Epping Forest Heritage Trust. This was no usual gardening task. Instead of shovels, trowels, and rakes, modern gardening equipment was forgone and we went back to basics. The weapons, I mean tools, of choice, were big sticks. As we made our way to the task site - a large open area dense with bracken - we kept an eye out for the best ones. Robyn advised they needed to be reasonably long, and sturdy, but not too wide, so that they could be wielded in a whip like fashion. Where bracken grows, not much else does, so our task was to bash as much as we could to give other plants a chance.

Big sticks acquired, we set about, in a somewhat zig zag direction, clearing all the bracken we could. Many different bracken beating techniques were employed - everyone seemed to have their own unique style:

• Hilary found a back-hand most effective
• Chloe put her golf skills to use and struck the ferns as if on the tee.
• Fiona aka Fiona Woods
  
• Emily entered a flow state - the stick became an extension of self
• John employed a choppy, efficient technique
  
• Anna held the stick like a sword, comfortably swiping from multiple angles
• Jack's moves were really a sight to behold, resembling a Wu Shu martial artist at times
  

This was such a fun, (and cathartic!) task - a lot of bracken was successfully bashed, and no-one got hit by errant stick swipes.

Post task, Robyn led us to Ambresbury banks, an Iron Age hill fort, thought to be constructed in 700 BC. Legend has it that this might be where Queen Boadicea fought her last battle in the uprising against the Romans...We stopped to have a picnic lunch here before setting off through the woods towards Chingford.

Shout out to Emily for completing her first Goodgym task!