It was scythe to meet you!

It was a chilly September evening and 9 GoodGym volunteers ran along to the Community Nuttery in Smallcombe Vale to do some scything and harvesting. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed spending a beautiful evening outside among nature (and a glass of homemade apple juice and cider!).

Welcome, Matthew!

We met at our usual spot outside the leisure centre in town and welcomed a new runner to GoodGym Bath. Matthew has previous GoodGym experience running with other groups and came along for his first group run in Bath. And what a great example of a West Country task it was! It was great to have you along last night and we hope you will come back again to run with us!

Please bring head torches, lights and reflective clothing

Sadly, the nights are drawing in and it was nearly dark on our run back this evening, so next week please bring safety clothing and equipment to stay visible when we are running.

GoodGym's 10th Birthday

Our route took us over the canal and up through Bathwick Fields. We paused to take in the beautiful sunset views over our lovely city and take a picture with the GG Flag. We are very soon going to be celebrating GoodGym's 10th birthday and every group has been asked to take a picture with a flag like ours. As part of the celebrations there is a campaign to have the most people taking part in Community Missions on one day (September 21st). We are working hard to get one organised in Bath, but they are taking part across the country so you will be able to get involved wherever you are! More to follow on this!

Two volunteers from Transition Bath were hosting us for the evening. Transition Bath is a volunteering network that is working hard to make Bath more sustainable. Part of their remit is managing the Nuttery in Smallcombe Vale (located between Widcombe hill and Bathwick hill). The produce grown there includes hazelnuts, sweet chestnuts and walnuts. We had two tasks to complete and we split into teams and swapped in the middle.

This is nut your average Tuesday evening!

One task was to pick the ripe hazelnuts from the trees. They were so ready for picking that they practically fell off! Some of the nuts were quite hidden among the leaves but we bagged up a load of them, ready to be dried and eaten at a later date.

"GooodGym went to mow, went to mow a nuttery ..."

The second task was to scythe the grass around the base of the trees. Scything is an ancient and very effective way of managing the height of the grass. Some runners hadn't scythed before, and were tutored on how to focus on using their core muscles and treat the scythe like a 'mackerel in water'. For those of us that have scythed before, it was a great chance to improve our skills and get a great workout at the same time! We piled the cut grass at the base of the trees so it will mulch down and help the trees grow.

We also learnt about how the classic song 'One man went to mow, went to mow a meadow' has its origins in scything. Sadly, we were not requested to perform a rendition as we toiled away...

Apple juice and cider: perfect!

Before we had to head back we were offered some homemade apple juice and cider from one of the allotments that is managed by Transition Bath. They both tasted delicious and we appreciated the sugar boost after all the exercise we had done.

Thanks!

Thanks to Esme and Chris for backmarking for us on the task and many thanks to Transition Bath for hosting us for the evening. Thanks to Matthew for the pun this week!

Upcoming runs

Next week we are running along to Action On Hearing Loss to do some gardening.