A fearless fab four headed out into a fog‑soaked spring evening, powering up Farley Hill in search of our newest community‑garden partnership. At St John’s Church we were greeted by Carlene, who guided us to the hidden green haven tucked neatly behind the building.

Our mission: assemble a brand‑new poly‑tunnel… minus any instructions. Cue a symphony of puzzled looks, pole‑juggling, and collective detective work. Slowly but surely, logic (and a fair bit of trial and error) won out. Arches took shape, a base emerged, and before long we were confidently bolting everything together as a sturdy structure rose around us.

We didn’t quite get it finished, but we left it tantalisingly close—ready for the garden’s regular volunteers to complete in daylight. With time ticking, we dashed back down the hill into town, pausing only for celebratory cupcakes to mark David’s incredible 500‑deed milestone. Huge thanks to Gill for the perfect post‑run treat!

This week's group run took us to Manor Park for a litterpick. The river Lea runs through this park and was the focus of our efforts as there was a lot of litter collected in the bushes between the road and the river, and quite a bit washed up on the river bank from recent high waters.

With a small team of 4 we collected an impressive 12 large bags of rubbish as well as a buggy and a hubcap from a thorough rummage in the bushes.

Leaving the area looking satisfyingly cleaner and ready for spring nesting 🦆 🪹 🕊️ without all the litter, we finished our session with a well-paced run back to our start point.

The Grasmere Nursery School called us up with a request to help empty their sandpit for a refresh with new sand.

So, in less than ideal weather we set off on a 5km run out to the school, joined by a sprinkling of light rain.

We arrived in good time after a good consistent endurance-paced run to the nursery. The sand, thanks to the rain, was wet and compacted, really hard to scrape up and into the barrows to shift out to the skip.

Getting the barrows up the ramp into the skip was the heaviest job, but working together to spread the load ensured we got the sand into the skip safely.

When time was up at the task, we headed off into the weather again, a gentle run back into town keeping us warm as the cold wind pushed back!