Shelia and Jess had a lovely relaxed afternoon helping Formosa Fest in Cookham with marshaling their parking. They had a list of cars who had pre-paid for parking and instructions on where to send those who hadn't! If they weren't on the list....they weren't getting through!!

They also had to help coordinate cars out of the car park, as the road was thin with limited passing places which required walkie talkies and describing cars!! They even had to ask the police to wait!! 🤭

After the shift they both went down to the Festival to have a look around. It was great to have a catch up and enjoy the sunshine!

Jess and Sheila helped out at the Baby Bank at our regular Friday morning session The first task was to check over some clothes which had been checked once by a corporate team, but we found quite a few items which were not up to scratch or were in the wrong size pile. Those that passed could then be put in the boxes ready for selection for handing out to families. We were then asked to put together some referrals which had come in. This involved putting together a full set of clothes for specific families, so we were pleased that we had already checked some of these items. A satisfying morning's work and it was great to catch up with Jess

This evening's task was was a first for us - Himalayan Balsam bashing at Ockwells!

Himalayan Balsam is an invasive species, which threatens native biodiversity if allowed to spread, so task owner Ranger Tom asked for our help to stop it from going to seed and smothering the native flora mix at beautiful Ockwells.

Tom told me we would be going to what3words location ///police.hurt.dozen, which sounded a bit ominous. Add to that the planned 'bashing', and promised attacks from stinging insects and pollen and I worried we were in for a violent and painful evening.

The reality couldn't have been more of a contrast. We had a lovely peaceful walk through the park; ///police.hurt.dozen turned out to be a pretty, sun-kissed spot, not far from a stream and surrounded by trees and birdsong; most of the insects we met were gorgeous blue dragonflies, and we didn't even need to bash anything: the roots of the offending plants were very happy to come up with no more than a gentle tug.

We quickly amassed huge piles of pulled up plants, creating our very own Himalayan (Balsam) mountain range!

Bar the odd nettle sting (especially the one on Anne-Laure's face, which led her to declare that she was growing a face on her face!), it was the perfect evening to refresh and soothe body and mind.

Can't wait for more of the same at Battlemead Common at next Wednesday's Group Run/Walk!