More watering watered, lots of leaves down - are the seasons changed enough yet?

Having shopped for Mr I on several occasions now, I know a few things about him and it was weird to discover today that we share the same birthday, later this week!

Happy Birthday Mr I!! 🥳

It was a Great Moon, but was it really a Super Moon?

Our regular corner of Queen Square was a bit congested with filming happening nearby AGAIN (Young Sherlock?) and we even had our own security guards who were Very Chatty Indeed. Not convinced it was just the caffeine from the Monster can talking...

We set off for a lovely sunny walk or run to Dame Emily Park with lots of other people out and about enjoying the warm evening. Melanie found a phone before we'd even left the square, and that will shortly be posted off to it's owner who'd been on a visit day to Bristol from Swindon. Obviously the phone preferred Bristol, who wouldn't?

The next find was a highland cow badge, but like Jason by the M Shed, it set my camera focus to "obscure" to avoid publicity.

At the park, the runners had just beaten the walkers and Ursula was explaining the wildlife work of the evening - cutting back an overgrown hedge that was also home to a tall sycamore trying to take over, finding the bulbs and rescuing the pollen-y plants that had been trampled, clearing the tarmac waster, salvaging the wood and digging over another trampled flower bed and having loads of fun in the process.

• The hedge was soon looking smaller (I'm not sure about tidier...), with some high wielding of long-handed shears and loppers by Caroline, Vaguely Northern Darren, Ed and Jason
• Ciaran took the saw to sort out the sycamore and was joined by Marianne who relinquished her colour-matched secateurs to make sure the big branches weren't falling too far from the tree
• A few bulbs and some salvaged plants were set aside by Azzurra and Kim and the soil sieved to remove errant rocks
• A big pile of wood emerged from the tarmac and rocks and neither Richard nor Roddy fell in the small pond - the wood will be great for making the bug and hedehog hotels

And we created a new job of transforming the fallen sycamore into whips that can be used to weave a low level wildlife-friendly hedge around the pond (which, I stress, no one fell into).

As the lovely sunlight faded, the moon was looking HUGE and we later discovered it was a Super Moon - but we liked it before we knew it had a posh name. We loved the lemon and ginger tea and biscuits Ursula had carried over with her, and offered to help put away all the tools but we think Ursula may have wanted some peaceful time to enjoy the Super Moon herself, and probably wanted everything put away in the right places...

Off we trotted, walking and running back to Queen Square and saw the security guards had moved a bit and it was different guards on duty so we snuck past them and headed on to Workout where we avoided being dragged into the Speed Dating and the Liverpool supporters were sad when AC Milan scored in the third minute. But all came good in the end.

It was a pleasure to help out with the beautiful garden at Mrs B's. She is very lovely and we had a nice chat while I was working on one of the allocated corners. Neighbours dog barked hello a couple of times...unexpectedly...But he is a friendly pup (deep down inside :)) By the end of the task, a little robin visited us and just did not want to leave. It was very curious and we ended up wasting some time to bird watching too.

In total, it was a peaceful and productive evening. Oh...yea...my extension nails did not pass the quality test...I broke a couple, but it was worth it 👼

A plethora of jobs awaited us on our arrival at the Berry Maze. You like edging, hey we’ve got a tool just for you. You like to mow lawns, you’re in luck my friend, you really like to get bindweed, also yes. Time to choose…

I worked with Douglas, who joined us for the first time today, with the edging of the maze, whilst Emma our resident lawn expert cut the lawn with aplomb. Frances the Queen of Bindweed removed copious amounts of bindweed delighting in what were admittedly stupendous roots being extracted.

After an hour we called time and headed to our next task (after sampling all the berries of course).

Until next time…

P.s. If anyone reads this then let me know and I’ll buy you a cookie or cake of your choice.

We turned our attention to a triangular bed that was away from other park users on a busy day in Brunswick Cemetery - the sun had brought everyone out to enjoy the lovely space we contribute to.

Brambles, bindweed and branches (the latter left by some commercial clearing without our tidying up skills) plus lots of Jerusalem Sage that’s spread too well in this bed, plus attempt 2 at cutting back the huge thistle, all in glorious sunshine.

The time flew by, then it was off to The Canteen for more chat and lovely lunch.