The GoodGym flowerbed had become a little full of weeds over the Spring so it was time for a tidy up and the sun was shining so we got stuck in.

We tackled some well known weeds with very long roots that went on for ever, the dreaded bind weed and brambles.

Having cleared the weeds it was time to plant some new plants to bring some extra colour.

Sabir and Claire then headed off to collect some woodchip and Melissa and Julie headed to the river accompanied by our 4 legged helpers for water to water in our new plants.

Having laid the woodchip and watered the plants it was time to leave and hope that the plants will continue to flourish.

Tonight Claire, Rachel, Julie and Dave started with a warm up before running over to Searchlight where we were joined by Luke en route.

Emily, Jade, Petra and Sabir joined us there where Martel explained our task. We were required to do some heavy duty weeding to clear a bed so that flax could be grown as part of a Ukrainian refugee project by community groups. It will then be harvested to make a community patchwork.

We all got stuck in; Luke removed a massive plant whilst the rest is us tackled the long grass and rubbish.

Meanwhile Dave looked at how they could make a raised bed for wheelchair users.

After an hour the weeds were on the compost heap and once dug over the bed will be ready for planting.

After the success of last year’s festival themed window display Christine and the team at the BHF had asked us back for a repeat performance. Julie, Rachel and Claire met at the Quaker centre for a sunny 2.5km run to the shop where we met Emily, Jana, Jade and Luke. After fuelling up on some carrot cake bars (getting some veggies in), we headed up to the ‘Narnia’ store room to look through the treasure trove of donated items for anything we could use in the display.

We filled 3 big cages full of sleeping bags, tents, mats, folding chairs and festival gear. Jana kept an eye out for any colourful festival fashion to dress the mannequins in. Sadly the fluorescent pink shell suit Julie found didn’t make the final display!

Julie and Claire moved the cages downstairs in the lifts to where Jade and Luke had made a start on the backdrop of the display - putting down some astroturf and camping chairs. Next our feature tent was put up and the display started to take shape. Jana, Rachel and Emily brought down the remaining items and started putting them in place.

Soon we were halfway through and there were sleeping bags and camping chairs everywhere! We started to wonder how we would get everything done in time, but we kept going and before we knew it the window was looking very impressive. Well done everyone!

Christine always has plenty of jobs that she needs help with so keep and eye out for more tasks coming up.