The Grasmere Nursery School called us up with a request to help empty their sandpit for a refresh with new sand.

So, in less than ideal weather we set off on a 5km run out to the school, joined by a sprinkling of light rain.

We arrived in good time after a good consistent endurance-paced run to the nursery. The sand, thanks to the rain, was wet and compacted, really hard to scrape up and into the barrows to shift out to the skip.

Getting the barrows up the ramp into the skip was the heaviest job, but working together to spread the load ensured we got the sand into the skip safely.

When time was up at the task, we headed off into the weather again, a gentle run back into town keeping us warm as the cold wind pushed back!

Five Goodgymers helped out at Foodcycle doing hosting, pot washing and clearing up. 41 guests plus take aways enjoyed vegetable curry with egg, bombay potatoes and naan followed by pancakes with caramelised bananas. The meal went down a treat !

We teamed up with some of the residents of Drunraven Avenue, Kevin from ABCD Luton and Sam from the Parks team to install a new hedge in a small park along the fence line of some houses to improve their privacy and security.

A swift spurt of spades sliced slots in the soil for the saplings. 🌱 Canes were added, protective spirals too and finally a splash of wood chip to help the hawthorns get established.

Last job of the day, a nice cup of tea in the sunshine ☕ ☀️

A quick run this week out to the Hightown Baptist Church via a short or long route depending on preferences.

Our task for the evening was to give all the chairs in the hall a good scrub down to remove stains and spills that had accumulated. These chairs are used each week for the FoodCycle sessions so they get a lot of action on top of normal church activities.

With a big group of us we were able to get them all scrubbed up with plenty of time to spare for a workout session in the luxury of the indoors and a soft carpet!

The activities for the workout were all down to chance as we used fitness dice to prescribe each component of the session. This led to a lot of jumping jacks and walking lunges!

We added small recovery stretch sessions in between as everyone got a roll of the dice, and finished off with a round of squash from the kitchen before locking up and heading back into town.

(apologies to Buddy Holly)

The weatherman didn't say clear today,
He didn't know that we wanted to say,
"Please don't be raining,
Raining in the park."

The sun's not out,
The sky's not blue,
So many clouds right over you,
It was raining,
Raining in the park.

Oh littery, littery.
And it was the first time for Lee.
🌧️
We get our hoops and off we go,
We’re picking litter as you know ,
It’s still raining, raining in the park.
🌧️
We keep on going, in the rain,
Soaked to the skin but don’t complain.
It was raining, raining in the park .

This morning I had my first visit to help Miss M who has recently come out of hospital and in need of some help. We sat and made her shopping list together and then I headed off to Lidl to hunt down all the items she’d requested. There were a few bits and bobs that I was unable to find but the rest was soon in my bakset. Then it was back to her flat to unpack the shopping. After helping her take the laundry downstairs and fold up some towels and clean clothes my task was complete. Miss M, although a little confused about who and what GoodGym is, was extremely appreciative of my help and is hoping another of our group might be able to help her next time.