Valentine's Day is fast approaching and our task on a chilly and wet Tuesday was to produce a window display for the British Heart Foundation's shop.

The boys in our group were feeling pretty exposed and clueless so we left it to the girls to formulate an idea.

Step forward Levita, Laurel, Claire, Rachel, Jana and Anna to mastermind a design which attracted admirers almost immediately.

Jonathan, Tom, Luke, and Sabir helped bring down mannequins to be dressed in wedding finery, while Dave and Claire and others painstakingly cut out and stuck eye-catching hearts on the window. Flowers appeared by the bucketload, rugs were carried across the shop floor and it ended up looking pretty amazing.

A really fun evening ended with our social at The Albion, where Six Nation burgers are well recommended.

This morning 5 goodgymers arrived at Kingston Cemetery for a spot of bramble clearing. Armed with loppers and rakes we chopped back as much as we could to make a clearer space for visitors. The brambles we prickly and we had to take care to avoid getting stuck! An hour soon whizzed by in the winter sunshine and we piled up the clippings and left to complete a few more kms for the January challenge.

A great team showed their commitment to the January Challenge with another fun Tuesday evening at the YMCA's Hawker Centre.

It never feels like a chore cleaning the soft play area and Emma, Claire, Levita, Tom, Dave, Emily, Anna, Rachel, Luke, Farzeen, Jonathan, Sabir, Marcus, Laurel all got stuck in wiping down chairs, tables, surfaces and the sensory area with a lifetime's supply of disinfectant products.

MVP award to Luke, who even managed to clean the whole of the big slide without making (much of) a spectacle of himself.

The reward for it all is getting to be a big kid and climbing on the equipment ourselves afterwards. Lovely to be out and about, doing good and clocking up those points and kilometres.

We had one hour at Staywell Raleigh House Day Centre to give the garden and patio areas a much-needed tidy, and we packed a lot in despite the weather doing its very best to slow us down. The team got straight to work clearing dead plants from the planting troughs, pulling out tired greenery and making the space ready for new life. Jana and Farzeen focused on weeding and clearing the planters, while Sabir swept, cleared and weeded the patio area, leaving it looking far fresher and safer underfoot. Emily took on the glass cleaning near the patio, and the amount of green gunk that came off was deeply satisfying to witness. The side entrance planting also got some attention, with dead plants removed to smarten up the approach. Halfway through the task, the heavens well and truly opened, leaving us completely soaked — but spirits stayed high and smiles stayed firmly in place as we powered through to the finish. We were very grateful for the sweet treats kindly left out by the Staywell staff, which provided a much-needed morale boost at the end of a thoroughly productive hour. A brilliant team effort, a visibly improved space, and a reminder of just how much can be achieved when everyone mucks in together. 💚

A team of 7 GoodGymers spent the morning at Canbury Community Garden. The winter sun was out in full force, we powered through our the list of tasks with plenty of banter and laughter. The hay! We did a spot of wedding in one of the garden beds and reapplied a protective blanket of hay. Rot and roll! We got stuck into the 3 compost heaps, giving that worm rich black gold a good tumble, ready for the spring planting. We made a splash! We cleared out the winter debris in the pond, and working those muscles using the water rollers we refilled the pond with river water. Looking fresh! Snip snap! Secateurs in hand, we gave the thorns along the fence a much-needed tidy-up to make room for gorgeous spring growth. 📢 and today, we welcomed a new GoodGymer during our sun-soaked mission! Nothing beats the feeling of a productive dig in the fresh air!