Juno, Gosia, and I helped with marshalling and some of the clear up at Stamford Park parkrun event number 442. We were tasked with the final corners that take the 5 km route along Darnton Road.

140 runners and walkers completed the route. Definitely one to run at some point.

Good session with Smithfield Garden Club, clearing lots of litter from an area near The Wheatsheaf in Northern Quarter 🚮

Welcome to Tyla for the first time, joining a bumper group for a rare Wednesday night task.

Louise and Phil were in charge with Robert, landlord at the Wheatsheaf, also lending an able hand. We got bag rings, gloves, bin bags, a makeshift sharps bin, and brooms with dustpan to do a loop of the area.

Some notable collections:

• battery 🔋
• mattress 🛏
• hoover
• various clothing 👖
• lots of broken bottles, glass, cans

We also trimmed one of the communal beds and had an introduction to the amazing work the local group had done to develop the area, including some of the planted areas that were looking good 🌳🌱🍃

Productive session at What If? in Stockport this evening for Julie, Laura, Niamh, and Ben!

Braving the stormy weather 🌧 we split into 2 groups:

• Clearing the garden and pond maintenance 🌳
• Planter painting 🎨

Directed by Pauline and Aoife, we managed to put a first coat of green and pink water-based protective paint on the dry bits of the planters, managing not to cause too many splashes. Even with the small brush, Niamh expertly filled in all the nooks and crannies. Julie was in the garden, giving it a clear up after the hot spell of weather.

After Clearing up, we had a brew and some Moroccan chickpea salad 🥗 before heading home.

Following a session planting hedge trees 🌳, Ben made the 2.5 mile run, admittedly on the way home, to drop off items to the foodbank collection point at ASDA in Hulme. In all there was:

• tinned sweetcorn 🌽
• tinned mushrooms 🍄
• tinned tuna 🐟
• tinned spaghetti 🍝
• tinned mandarins 🍊
• jar of jam 🍓
• UHT milk 🥛
• Apple juice 🍏
• rice pudding 🥫

Decent run and made the trolley a little bit fuller before running home 🏡