Bath GoodGym trio Cosmo, Ruth and Tanya returned to Grow for Life's walled garden where they helped the regular Saturday volunteer group tackle an overgrown area. it was a battle against bindweed, brambles and burdock with the odd surprise find of an old rake, long lost loppers and even a selection of wellies amongst the undergrowth! Great progress was made in clearing the area which is destined to become an additional space to be used in therapeutic sessions. Join us next time in this lovely place to help Grow for Life continue to transform lives through gardening.

With just a few weeks to go before Cleveland Pools in Bath opens its doors to visitors for one day only, GoodGym Bath made a welcome trip to make sure the site was shipshape and Bristol fashion.

Bath is a world heritage site due to its cultural and historic significance and once a year venues that match those values allow people inside to have a sneak peek. While the Georgian lido is not open to swimmers at the moment due to flood damage it is a secret gem with plenty of interest to see as well as a chance to find out more about its future.

Did you know, for example, that the wonderful curved changing rooms and cottage dating back to 1817 is lovingly referred to as Bath’s fourth Crescent?

Anyway, back to GoodGym. We were tasked with tidying the slopes of the site. We welcomed Richard from GoodGym Bristol who showed real strength in removing some stray roots and we all pitched in to help Paul plant a new tree to improve the biodiversity of the area. The field maple was a perfect add to the collection as it supports insects and is a great habitat for birds and small mammals.

Lovely as the tree was, even more impressive was Paul’s ability to get around the steep grassy banks of the site. He has acquired the skills of a mountain goat and I am quite jealous.

After a break - with some of Trustee Sally’s delicious blueberry cake - we set our sights on making the pools look good for their oncoming moment in the spotlight. This involved removing the leaves from the surface using a big net. It seemed that however many we removed there still seemed more left behind but I’m told we made a big difference.

The Heritage Open Day will take place at Cleveland Pools on Sunday 13 September from 10 am to 4 pm. Why not drop in?

I love marshalling at Junior Parkrun. It’s simple. Don hi viz vest, a whistle in case of emergency and a giant foam hand and I’m on it - ready to cheer the runners on. The hardest thing being to come up with something new to say to the parkrunners as they pass you.

This Sunday was different. I had a new job - barcode scanner. I stayed up late the night before to make sure the technology (Parkrun app) worked. It didn’t but some intense googling fixed the problem.

I turned up at Odd Down cycle circuit with the responsibility of my new job weighing me down. But it was okay - there were two other barcode scanners there to help and we made a formidable team encouraging the children as they ran and then photographing their barcodes and finish tokens and then popping the tokens in the little pot you see in the photo. It was an eye opener to see how the magic worked.

We clocked up 77 finishers and got to see the pride on their faces as they celebrated their achievement - 2km at speed around the track. My achievement - surviving my first barcode scanning task - was small in comparison.