We were asked to help Ms Y cut back her blackberry bush to maintain her tenancy. When I arrived Miriam and Ms Y were already chatting away, Ms Y was telling Miriam all about the local seagull, Sammy, who comes to visit her twice a day. After short introductions, and a warning it was "a big job", we headed into the back garden where Ms Y announced "Welcome to the jungle!".

The bramble had indeed taken over the majority of the right hand side of the garden. After a super quick pow wow on approach ("I think we just dive in"), we did just that. Miriam took one side of the garden and I took the other. In the distance and mostly hidden by bramble we could see Ms Y's Greenhouse - she wanted to be able to access it again to fix a tear in the roof so it remains waterproof.

I'll be honest, we're generally super efficient at GoodGym but I wasn't holding out much hope for 2 of us being able to get rid of all that bramble in 90 mins. I thought we'd make a really good stab of it, get a good dent gone, but potentially have to report to the referrer that more help was needed. Nonetheless, we cracked on and started to do what we could.

It was slow going work. The brambles were so twisted, gnarly and tough it took a long time to make any headway. We could both completely see how they're apparently carnivorous plants - we were getting battered! They kept attaching themselves to my shirt, shoes, leggings, skin... Miriam's excellent new gardening gloves made her feel invincible and she expertly whipped through the bramble, but as good as the gloves are, they can only help with what they cover, and her upper arms were super scratched.

Ms Y wouldn't even entertain the idea of sitting down and not helping us. Although not steady on her feet, she cut through the parts we'd hacked and made it easier to bag them up, helping us throughout the whole task. As she helped, she chatted, and told us all about the numerous cats who come into her garden (some hers, such as Guinness, who we met, some not hers), the pigeon who she feeds, and all the animals she's looked after over the years. It was lovely to hear how she has such a way with animals. The time flew as we chatted away, and before I knew it - the greenhouse was in reach! Buoyed by the tangible progress we'd made, we were determined to get through the last sections and spent the last half an hour clearing the way to the greenhouse with Miriam singlehandedly raising a forest of brambles over her head to take out to the green waste pile.

I was so glad Miriam remembered to get a 'before' picture to capture the difference. It really felt like a very good job well done and super valuable for Ms Y, who can now access her garden, the greenhouse, and keep on top of the garden before it becomes overgrown again. Ms Y clearly loves her outside areas and puts lots of love and thought into them, this was a good example of a one-off task which is really beneficial to help her get on top of it so she can now continue to maintain it.