Trowels and Tribulations - Shree-mendous!

It's ages since we had over 20 red t-shirts out on the streets of Bristol but GoodGymmers far and wide were drawn in by the lure of good weather, one of our favourite tasks and multiple offers of cake.

There seemed to be a lot of Sarahs and Richards at roll call but the backmarkers, Jenny and Vaguely Northern Darren had a pretty good idea how many runners were in front of them as Richard B navigated a route avoiding the increasing number of closed bridges currently on offer in Bristol.

We picked up some of the GoodGymmers who'd been stranded by the lack of walkable/ runnable bridges, very Pied Piper but without the music and demands for payment.

Ever enthusiastic, Ruth was awaiting our arrival at the school and had multiple tools available for multiple tasks.

Trowels were grabbed by the Front Planter team to weed out all the plants EXCEPT THE GOOSEBERRY BUSHES, breaking in the fibreboard-like compost as well as some more traditional bagged stuff - Richard G showing some amazing Double Trowel techniques whilst Sarah, Katie and Tim crushed compost, Richard B, Sara and Lexi kept a check on who was Niamh (the owner of the key card) to refill the very elegant watering cans to dampen the soil. It was brilliant to see Charlene pop in whilst she was walking her very energetic dog, holding on with her good arm and now able to start reducing the time she has to wear a brace on the poorly arm.

Meanwhile, inside the Niamh-gate, Art and Paul were playing with sand and brushes in the double height Wendy house to ensure the area was as tidy as can be.

Into the bike sheds with super-sweeps Clo, Alice (being very brave with her blended thumb), Abby and Jenny getting ready for the start of term, whilst the specialist apple-picker collective made for the orchard to harvest the abundance of apples - Russ was predictably quick up the ladder and as far into the tree as possible whilst Maria, Matt, Laura, Fii, Janka and Vaguely Northern Darren tried to coax apples out of the tree and catch them before they could hit the ground and spoil. Shree, possibly her last GoodGym group run before her year in Oz, seemed to be in a lot of photos whilst wandering around with a tub of chocolates - the joy of everything not melting as soon as you step outside!

After weightlifting the crates of apples back to the school building and being able to take some to carry home, Ruth produced a fantastic walnut and chocolate cake to reward the hard work of the team and we tried to take a fantastic panorama photo with a bit of success.

We escaped through the gate in the car park for the run back to Queen Square where Jenny refused to let Shree "pop in to the loo" before stretches as we had the very important business of presenting her 171 not out GoodGym t-shirt to take on her travels.

Even more chatting back at Club Haus in workout where we enjoyed drinks, chocolates and Jenny's vegan rocky road cake - topping off a pretty perfect evening.