I Want to Break Tree(s)

The title is not entirely accurate, but GoodGym did want to clear up a lot of broken trees for last night’s task, about 6 dustbin's full to be exact. The high winds over the last couple of weeks had brought down many twigs and small branches at Tolson Memorial Garden, and GoodGym’s job was to clear them all away and make the place look neat once again.

The 2K run to Tolson also brought about the revelation of the night. Talking about last week’s GoodGym social to see Bohemian Rhapsody the Queen movie, Chris Green revealed that he was born two days after Freddie Mercury had died. Maybe it’s a kind of tragic....but this news rocked one or two of us more senior GoodGymmers who remember the demise of the inimitable Queen frontman as if it was only yesterday!

Fortunately our rapidly advancing years doesn’t stop us running, or doing good deeds to benefit the community, and last night we had just one vision, to get Tolson Memorial Garden tidy. There were a lot of willow twigs strewn all around the garden which would require removal, and also some autumn leaf fall which could do with being swept up. There was certainly work enough to keep 5 eager GoodGymmers entertained for 45 minutes or so.

Brooms, rakes, shovels and bin bags at the ready we set forth with our labours, swiftly dividing into small working groups to attack the task in different areas of the garden. Whilst Louise Galvin swept leaves by the bowling green, Ben Godfrey and Chris Green scoured the walled garden for arboreal debris, and self-monikered “Twig Woman” Kati Law collected armfuls of woody refuse to deposit in the dustbins we had commandeered for the task. My role was (as usual), chief photographer, generally getting in everyone’s way, and breaking up their flow of work by asking them to “look natural” whilst posing for the all important shots of our activities. I did also occasionally make myself more useful by ferrying the filled dustbins away for emptying.

Following 45 minutes of effort our breakthru came. To the best of our ability (and the limited light offered by our headtorches) we couldn’t see anymore twigs in the garden and declared it another good GoodGym job done.

One of the things GoodGym Huddersfield really like about tasks at Tolson Memorial Garden (aside obviously from the fact that GoodGym are performing a good deed in a lovely local park) is that Louise Galvin has a key to the bowling hut. This means that following our labours we can call in and pilfer a couple of biscuits to fuel us for our run home.

It’s a hard life, but little treats make it more bearable, so following after a selection of cookies, Jaffa Cakes and Naked Bars it was back to the run in order to burn off the clandestine calorie consumption. 2K back through Rawthorpe, gave us a 4K total for the night, but more importantly an immense sense of satisfaction from once again having done a good deed for the local community.

Thanks guys, yet another great night and a stunning job done.

P.S. The observant amongst you will have notice I have subtlety(?) slipped the titles of 5 Queen songs into the article above. There’s a GoodGym prize for the first person to post all 5 below.