GoodGym say “so long” to litter and overgrown vegetation in Longley Woods

Longley Woods are looking a little lovelier following GoodGym Huddersfield's efforts last night. It was great to see eight Huddersfield GoodGymmers up for the task, and also perhaps appreciating a slightly shorter and flatter run than usual.

It's always good to do a task for a fellow GoodGymmer, so it was great that Louise Galvin, who has been involved with GoodGym Huddersfield from the start, was able to come up with some jobs for GoodGym to do in the woods. Louise met us on site, well prepared with a car load of tools, black bags and gloves for us to use. As well as a spot of litter picking, which is fast becoming a regular feature of our tasks, there was also some woodland vegetation to cut back and special mission for those brave enough to accept it.

Chris Green and myself were well up for this latter option and willing rose to the challenge of a run up Dog Kennel Bank to clean the Longley Woods Nature Reserve sign which has become quite green over the years since it was installed. Louise had provided all we needed in a little cleaning kit, water, vinegar solution, cloths, and even a couple of hi-viz jackets. Anyway 20 minutes of spraying and scrubbing later the sign was almost as good as new, and definitely pretty than it had been previously....have a look at the "before" and "after" shots above if you don't believe us!

Chris and I enjoyed the run back down Dog Kennel Bank to join the others picking, poking, cutting and chopping deep in the woods. Kati Law was definitely finding the litter picking strangely addictive, "just one more" she kept saying as I was trying to to drag her away at the end of the task! When it comes to litter it seems that Lambrini bottles are highly prized, and Pauline Williamson was becoming particularly adept at finding them in the undergrowth. Andrew Cooper was also well into the litter picking, venturing far and wide, returning with a bulging black bag. Meanwhile, Louise, Ben Godfrey and first time GoodGymmer Chris Shaw were busy lopping limbs from trees and banishing brambles to ensure the woodland pathways remained clear.

Following forty minutes of frenetic work it was time to move on. The shorter run left plenty of time for a fitness session, so after saying farewell to Louise we headed off to the university campus for fifteen minutes of outdoor bodyweight exercise. Step-ups, press-ups, tricep dips and jumping jacks were enough to almost finish us all off, and for once the Huddersfield GoodGymmers were uncharacteristically quite quiet as we ran back to the Stadium!

By the time we'd had a good stretch and a bit of recovery, we had enough energy to chat, and the consensus was that once again GoodGym Huddersfield got a good job done well. Thanks to everyone for their efforts once again, and also to Chris Shaw for this week's title.