Today's group run took an antipodean theme as we numbered off by stating our favourite things about Australia, featuring Koalas, crocodiles and a bit of Kylie. We also welcomed back Craig (aka Daddy Haggart) for his first group run in 2 years. Give him a big cheer! 💪

There was also a PB to celebrate with Debs smashing out her fastest ever 5k at the weekend 👏. And a milestone achievement with Stefan completing his 250th Good Deed early in the week. Well done guys.

We set off with Ed leading and Nikki and Amy backmarking, shortly arriving at West Bank Park to be greeting by Christine from the City of York Council environment team. Whilst waiting for Christine to finish unloading her van we had a quick round of Mexican wave star jumps, taking at least 3 attempts to make it all the way round!

The task itself involved us splitting into 3 groups. Team 1 were in charge of filling up a water butt over by the wildlife pond. Team 2 were tasked with restoring a soil area by the pergolas that had suffered from grass-creep. And team 3 helped Christine pack away some tools before turning over the compost area in the play park.

Team 1 dived straight in (not literally) and soon got into a rhythm of running water between the tap and the butt, even if they weren't entirely sure why.

Team 2 debated over exactly what edge they were restoring but soon made excellent progress, and made some clearly defined, if not straight, lines with their edging tools.

Team 3 made light work of the compost bins and started to look for additional work, with Max getting very engrossed in his benchmarking app! But before too long they were back at it with bags to fill with compost and some DIY to do to help keep the compost bins stable.

With time running out team 1 joined forces with team 2 to help them get tidy before it was time to wrap things up and get stuck into tonight's fitness sesh.

The fitness session loosely involved some core strength exercises, but was really just an excuse to make use of the dry weather to get people crawling around on the ground. Teams of 3 would alternate between going under and over their team mates in a race. As Ed was needed to help make up the numbers he was assured that there would be no cheating!

A fab session in the sunshine with lots of work done. Well done all

7 of us met at Rowntree Park to help the Make Space for Girls project to finish off the area ready for this evening's launch event. This is aiming to reduce the drop off of park use in girls as they reach their teenage years. They had fundraised for a bench, basket swing and balance log which we tested in the interest of quality control! They had saved some log stumps from a fallen tree which we collected from various locations and helped secure in place with wooden stakes that were bashed into place either side with mallets and screwed into the logs. We then retired for a well deserved lunch in the cafe.

the story continued with ever present Stef & Mikael joined by relative newcomer Lyndsey who took to packing down Planet Food like a duck to orange sauce.Thus is no time at all the hall was bare of furniture & swept clean.

You want the best? you got the best (available short notice on an extremely limited budget of 0 pence) so the dynamic duo Stef & Mikael chaired & tabled to the best of our limited abilities then captivated onlookers with a consummate display of precision sweeping.

Tonight we returned to the cemetery for more bramble clearing.

We named and numbered off stating some pointless things we get asked to do at work as a nod to health and safety day. These included cleaning pigeon poo and management appreciation days! We also welcomed back Ellie and celebrated some excellent weekend running with Rich and Michal completing the 3 Peaks and Deb's parkrun PB.

We then set off with Lucy and Abigail back marking to meet Clive at the cemetery. After the midge swarm last time, Michael wore enough insect repellent to keep the entire group safe (and anyone else within a mile radius!). We therefore had a clear run of pruning, lopping and digging. Barbara got so excited she snapped a fork!

To finish off we did some fitness relays whilst practising our hammering, then headed back to base. We stretched off then some headed to the pub.