...there's nothing quite like it!

After a few last-minute re-thinks thanks to trains, work and sickness we finally embarked on our Cotswold Walk. The advance party did a circuit of Kingham village before looping back to the station to collect the train-team (delayed by engine failure). We then free-styled a walk route very loosely based on the backwards version of the original plan, aided by the OS map app and a bit of local knowledge.

There was mud. Lots of mud. And Ben found all of it. Those trainers and trousers will never be the same again! 3 tumbles into the mud (Ben - 2, Anwen -1), a few horses and a field of sheep, and we arrived for our lunch booking bang on time. It could be said that we filled our boots with pub grub, then rolled back to the station, passing the small child in a tutu on a miniature pony (only in the Cotswolds...), fuelled by chips and sticky toffee pudding.

Hopefully there will be fewer logistical issues next time we go on an adventure, but it was lovely to spend a few hours walking, sliding through mud and chatting.

Wholesome.

What a difference 6 months makes! Back in October we had a super-soaker of a Community Mission at the Highfield Unit of the Warneford Hospital. Today we were basking in the sun as we gardened.

The Highfield Unit is the young person's ward at the Warneford Hospital. It has a large garden, which is wonderful for the young people but quite hard to keep in order with just one gardener for the whole hospital site. Today we were called in to work some GoodGym magic.

One of our small teams focused on the garden area outside the dining room: This was the domain of the injured GoodGym runners ;-) Since our last visit the weeds have re-established themselves, so we cleared them and pruned the unruly shrubbery to improve the mealtime view. Through in the next-door section of the garden another GoodGym team de-tangled brambles from choking the rosemary bush and apple sapling, and weeded and pruned as much of the border foliage as we could manage.

It's going to take a few visits to get he garden looking it's best, but we made a good start today filling 9 wheelbarrow loads of weeds and brambles.

The Highfield Unit have sussed the way to our hearts, supplying hobnobs and water to keep us fueled and hydrated as we worked.

Welcome Amy - glad you could join us for the first time.

Top suggestion of the day: Mayor Mark should instigate Umuganda in Oxford.

With lockdown restrictions slightly relaxed we were delighted to be able to head back to the Children's Allotment.

With flapjacks in hand to celebrate Anna and her amazing 100 good deeds we headed to the site and were greeted by Alice who had some jobs for us.

The main aim for the evening was to prepare some planting beds around some existing fruit trees. This involved creating a "cardboard lasagne" - a cardboard layer to prevent weeds popping up topped with some soil and finally some lovely rich compost - ragu, pasta, white-sauce.................... Silver birch logs to edge the beds were also prepared by Aoife who's eyes lit up at the mention of using a saw!

We cheerfully got to work, chatting as we went. Conversations topics were wide ranging and delightfully random - from rescuing bumblebees from spiders to the joy of river swimming.

By the end of our session we all sat back and surveyed the fruits of our labours - ripe and stinky manure piled around the fruit trees, cardboard lasagne built and some lovely silver birch chunks prepared ready to by made into a gorgeous border. We will be planting strawberry plants next week!

We were all so happy to be back in this gorgeous space and hear all Alice's plans for clearing and planting.

Til next week!