I’d been meaning to go to help out with the garden at the Trinity centre so many times, as I support Sunday Assembly’s “Help Often”/community building/doing good attitude, plus helping others and exercise are both things that make me (and most humans) feel good…but…BED. SO. COMFY.

Despite the dismal near-gale force winds, on Sunday 29th March 2015 I forced myself to leave the nice warm house. After expecting to be the sole mad/super determined person and to head straight home, my pessimism was delightfully proven wrong as Claire, one of the lovely people there, welcomed me with the offer of a hot drink. She then asked me how physically taxing a task I would like and I opted for redistributing a vast pile of bark clippings to their proper place – covering a muddy path. When I pointed out my poor choice in footwear, Claire offered me some wellies, as well as raincoats and gloves. After a quick bit of safety advice, I set to work.

The garden is reasonably sheltered from the aforementioned miserable gales, and the work kept me plenty warm enough. It felt good and relaxing to be outdoors after the winter and a week at work. As someone who’s only access to plant maintenance is a miniature potted Christmas tree, it was refreshing to be able to do some gardening! I had the opportunity to meet and chat with some nice people, and their kids. When the small people weren’t trying to remove the chippings from my wheelbarrow – “you’re destroying the ice castle!!” -they were having a great time on the playground.

After a few hours, the snacks provided were starting to look pretty tempting, but I feared I’d have to flee to acquire some food when I was informed that lunch was ready! One of the volunteer jobs is to cook food for everyone, including vegetables from the garden, so ten of us sat down in a volunteer-built hut to eat some curry with broccoli from the garden – and nettles! Delicious, and very sustainable! Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay any longer but I had a great time, felt like I’d done something useful, and am definitely glad I’d dragged myself out of bed!

These drop-ins are on the last Sunday of the month, from 11am – 4 pm, with no need to stay the entire time or tell anyone you are going, so very convenient.