OK, it wasn’t really a bivouac, but it was an uplifting celebration of being outdoors after months of cold, wet and windy gloom. Harvest’s network get-together for community gardeners from all over Brighton & Hove took place at the Bevendean Community Garden, a bit of the Downs National Park edging on the Bevendean estate.

We came back smelling of woodsmoke, we had tea from a blackened kettle and a picnic of food contributed by people from various community gardens: vegetable quiches, humous, beetroot and carrot salad, apple crumble and rocket freshly harvested from the North Portslade Community Allotment polytunnel.  It was an affirmation of the outdoors, with opportunities to look for newts and frogs in the pond, and have a good natter around a camp-fire before it really did get too cold.