GoodGym York Made Quite an Entrance

It was the third of our Starter Sessions at St Nicks today and our task was to have a massive tidy up of the site entrance, which hadn't been touched for a while.

We were delighted to welcome along some brand new GoodGymers to the gang, the first was my weekend house guest and marathon-runner, Jef (who I promise had come of his own accord). The second was GoodGym fan and cheerer extraordinaire, Kate. Kate has screamed wild support and waved our big red flag at many a local race so it was lovely to have her join us for a task.

Also new to the gang today (and another marathon-runner) was Rachel, who has previous form with GoodGym Croydon - so let's all give her a massive welcome cheer too!

We also had a massive congratulations for Lizzie who completed her 50th good deed today! She was awarded the cape of good deeds of course.

Jonathan - the Reserve Manager - met us with four wheelbarrows full of tools. Jef was instantly excited to see a mattock and a scythe.

Our task was to:

• Cut back all grass/weeds/plants to ground level
• Hoe and clear the footpath
• Rake and clear all cuttings to another area
• Remove a big section of tree to make a wildlife area
• Roughly rake the soil to sow wildflower seeds
• Plant bulbs in the newly cut back areas

Anybody racing the Yorkshire Marathon tomorrow was excused from very physical tasks and also allowed to veto parts of the fitness session. Jef basically ignored this and used all his might to hack away vast quantities of brambles - unleashing his energy on the overgrown stuff appeared to bring him a lot of joy.

Meanwhile, Leanne took the recovery option much more seriously and helped me 'supervise' on several occasions. This led to a hilarious incident where Christine wondered why Leanne looked a bit pale.

This is just what I look like at rest - Leanne

One of the areas we were supposed to clear was assigned a danger area as there was a precarious hanging branch. After much deliberation and ladder-testing, Jonathan used an amazing telescopic cutting tool to cut away part of it.

To the side of the danger area, 3-tool-Lizzie had single-handedly taken on the footpath and was doing a very thorough job of clearing it with a spade, hoe and broom.

With the main areas cleared and around 200 wheelbarrows(ish) of green stuff shifted, it was time to plant and sow. Mel showed her amazing wigging technique to dig tiny holes for the bulbs and everyone helped to spread and stomp the seeds in.

Whilst the seeding and sowing was going on, Kate had found her own mission; she'd exposed some very well covered paving slabs which formed the original edge of the car park. Soon enough, everyone mucked in to clear the encroaching grass and we ended the task with a very tidy edge!

We celebrated our good deed with a few leg exercises and a very amusing song workout which mostly involved people rolling around on the floor. At this point. Jef did exercise his marathon veto.. All in all, a great job done.