A welcome return visit to see Chris at the Crisis Warehouse this evening, and as always he had just the job for us - after a quick H&S brief (how heavy is this bag?), it was into the warehouse for our intrepid gang of ten, which included first timers Ieva and Steve, and straight to work, as there were a lot of bags of clothes to be shifted, sorted, counted and repacked in the various cages, so as to make life much easier for both Chris and his delivery drivers when they come to transition the range in the Crisis shops on the high street from Summer to Winter wear.

With a rough plan drawn up (tallest to the front...try and avoid an avalanche of sacks), it was then a chain gang effort to get the mixture of bags from all the different shops across London out of the storage cage, sorted by location (Hackney, Camberwell, Elephant & Castle, Hackney, Streatham, Hackney, Kilburn...did I mention Hackney...), identified either by the colour of the cable tie at the top, or more helpfully where the shop had written the source on the label.

The second half then involved counting the number of bags for each shop, and returning them back into their respective correct cages, stacking Jenga style where required, ensuring labels were visible at all times. After an hour of pretty intense manual labour, and with blackened hands to show for our efforts, the final whistle was blown with all bags in their respective cages and the totals marked and taped above them. Yet again Chris awarded us the honour of "Best volunteers of the day", and after a quick tidy up, we ran back to Freaks and Geeks for some welcome, and well earned, refreshment.

Next week we're at the Emmanuel Church helping Sybil and her fellow volunteers to tidy up the garden, and there might just be some post match refreshments to enjoy too...

After canceling our last planned visit in June to The Greenway Orchard due to the heatwave, we were pleased to get back there this evening to see what had happened on the growing front over the past 2 months and catch up with task owners Taiwo and Eleanor...and it's fair to say quite a lot, as we soon discovered that the brambles and bushes that we'd successfully hacked at and removed on our last visit had grown back, not quite to square one, but we were definitely encountering roots and branches on the ground that we'd met before...

Paul, Brad, Adam and Nick met at Freaks and Geeks, and ran the c3km, using as much of the open parts of the Greenway as we could - a shoutout to Eugene who joined us just after 7 having left work in Romford, got home, changed, caught his breath, and then run to the Orchard - true GG dedication in every sense. With this determined gang of 5, plus Taiwo, and armed with a wide selection of cutting tools and thick gloves, we got to it.

Yet again it's amazing/impressive to see what a group of motivated individuals can achieve, as by 7.30, we'd made a real dent in the undergrowth, and created a correspondingly large pile of brambles and branches behind us. Determined to press on (almost to the hospital) we kept at it, and soon found blackberries (but no unexpected wildlife) hiding in the undergrowth. It had been a warm one, and after returning tools and gloves, we set off on a slow shamble along the Greenway before finding our feet/breath and running back to F&G, where we stopped for well earned light refreshment and a debrief on the evening's entertainment.

We'll be back at the Orchard in September (date tbc), as we definitely don't want to leave it another two months...