Great to welcome Grace to their first session this evening. Sorry we were not toadly successful! We also had Lucy and Duncan join us all the way from Portsmouth for their first toad patrol. We were optimistic despite the lack of rain, but also went ready for litter picking as expected a quiet night. A lot of the toads seem to have moved back to the woods already so the season is almost over for patrolling. We didn't spot any live toads, but found one dead one. We managed to collect one whole bag of recycling, one of other litter, and a few glass bottles too. I got very excited thinking I had found a rare magical pink newt...the unicorn of the newt world surely?! Alas it turned out to be a discarded rubber toy!

We have had a great few nights learning the ropes at the Colden Common and Wellow patrols this season. We might be able to squeeze another patrol in before the month is out if conditions are right, but otherwise we are really looking forward to next season. So make sure you sign up ready for next January if you want to get involved!

We were back at the farm this evening for more lifting and shifting and log chopping and burning!

We moved lots of pallets and gates from the top of the farm to the bottom and then chopped lots of wood to be burnt down and turned into ash to help the crops.

We had lots of fantastic new faces getting stuck in and helping out, it's always nice to see new people!

We kept ourselves nice and warm around the fire too!

Unfortunately not all of the photos will upload 🙁 but here are the ones which will!

Tonight Lucy and I set off to see if we could deliver approximately 80 leaflets in 20 minutes. It started out feeling like we would never get through them all quick enough, but it wasn't long before we were down to the last few and with time to spare. We hope this will encourage some more people to participate in the Southampton marathon, half marathon, 10k and 5k races coming up in May and raise money for a local charity that supports disabled children and young people.

Tonight we were tasked with helping to tidy up the supplies in the fund raising section of the loft and creating an inventory for raffle prizes/donations. First of all we had to divide into Spreadsheeters and Non-spreadsheeters! Those with IT skills set to work listing the inventory while those with a bit less IT skills begun sorting through the stationary and craft supplies. We think we came up with some logical yet novel categories. Everyone will know where to go now to find "Pegs + sticks" and "Feathers + Pom Poms + foam"! We look forward to planning our Rose Road session for next month where we will have finally made it back to lighter evenings!

We can’t believe it but it’s already time to pack down Santa’s grotto! After spreading much joy it was alas time for Santa to return to the North Pole to get ready for the big day. Don’t worry though as he left an ample bunch of elves away to get things clean and tidy for new year. He even left his newest recruit behind so welcome to Yoyo. We hope to see you back again soon. Merry Christmas everyone!