Today at Let's Grow Preston

Good afternoon and welcome to the last blog of this week documenting the many voluntary roles Alex Ashworth is committing to throughout Lancashire.

It's been a fortnight since I last volunteered for Let's Grow Preston and if you recall last time I was given the mighty task of mowing the community garden. Today that task was set upon me once more, this time, however I had come prepared. Acknowledging that last time I wore my heavy waterproof jacket and was sweating buckets by the end of it, today I settled for my high visibility vest on which was so much cooler and kept me going till break which was at 11.55am.

On arrival this morning Paul Greenwood let me know of the biscuits on offer during brew time. Much to his disappointment though I said I was on a diet but that he could have my share of the biscuits. He was quite content with that.

So the mowing endured and I completed the task in an hour getting all of the community garden mowed and looking presentable once more. It was at the beginning of the mowing where the first of two volunteers arrived. She explained about the peace pole which would be the centrepiece in the peace garden that is currently in development.

Volunteer number two arrived shortly after and their task whilst I was busy mowing was to paint the trellis's in the peace garden. A coating of brown enabled it to look more polished and enhance the overall look of the garden too.

By at least 11.55am I had completed the mowing of the community garden and it was time to take stock for quarter of an hour over coffee minus the biscuit. I was tempted by a member of another organisation at Preston Parks with a big barrel of chocolate biscuits. I think he was testing my self control and willpower, anyway I didn't give in and instead enjoyed my coffee that Paul had kindly brewed.

At 12.15pm it was time for the second half of the mornings activities to proceed. I helped out the two volunteers mentioned earlier with the painting of the trellis's. I found it quite therapeutic and enjoyed chatting to a fellow volunteer.

We'd just about wrapped up by 12.45pm but myself and another volunteer wanted to finish the last section of painting and then we were ready to go. The peace pole mentioned earlier was brought to my attention when a fellow volunteer showed me where it was towards the skip area. We both agreed it could do with a little brushing up and some paint to spruce it up. She also talked of potentially including the 'Let's Grow Preston' logo on the peace pole. I agreed and thought it was a great idea.

It was approaching 12.55pm and myself and another volunteer stood back and admired our work at the peace garden. It was here where Paul provided us with some words of wisdom:-

* Think about doing something

* Do the activity

* Admire your work.

We both took that into consideration as he was right in how you should go about a certain task.

The clock struck 1pm and it was time to bid farewell for another session.

It was another productive and beneficial time volunteering for Let's Grow Preston.

This is Alex Ashworth signing off for a mornings work with LGP.