Rake'n'Roll

On a sunny late summer eve, 38 GG Yorkies ran to St Nicks to continue the huge meadow keeper's project.

We welcomed along a brand new runner, Jane, who has been meaning to come along for ages after hearing about GoodGym at York Beer Runners, welcome Jane!

Tonight it was the turn of MAGNIFICENT MADDY to wear the Centurion Cape as she completed her 101st good deed (her 100th was a mission over the weekend) - make sure you go and give her some huge cheers.

We arrived at St Nicks to a beautiful display of rakes and scythes which Jonathan had lovingly created for us. As well as explaining why we need to scythe and rake (c'mon, you know this now; wildflowers thrive in nitrogen poor soil so grasses/weeds need cutting back and removing so they don't break down and add extra nutrients and stop wildflowers from living their best life), he also gave us a bit of an equality and diversity statement.

We have tiny scythes for the tiny people and massive rakes for massive people. We're very inclusive.

Maria turned up with a 'barrow full of spades for another task in the meadow for those who were feeling like they wanted a bit more of a workout. This task was to basically completely dig up a patch of very thick grass where scything simply wouldn't cut it.

The action kicked off with scythers making quick progress into the long grass, rakers raking up big piles and Gareth learning all about the benefits of a pitchfork.

It's actually amazing how much grass you can pick up with one!

Pete and Tom were the official grass removal crew, dragging bags and tarps full of cut grass to the composting area, whilst Tim was the official grass and soil remover for the digging team.

A bonus extra task came up when Jonathan re-emerged with some metal rakes and got a small team to start scarifying another area ready for more wildflower seeds (scarifying: rake the ground really hard to break up the soil).

This grass is definitely very scared, petrified! (not sure if it was John or Nick with the dad jokes)

In 50 minutes, a huge area of the meadow had been completely cut back. The diggers had finished their patch and enjoyed a little 'seed and stomp' action whilst Rich scythed to the bitter end to make sure he broke through to the 'other side'.

For our fitness session, we enjoyed a little game of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Cones, which involved some fierce cone-grabbing action, forfeit burpees and a winner's game of "pick the exercise". I have to say I felt very proud of Vicky for choosing press-ups and Beth too who made her partner hold a plank - absolute heroes. For future reference (Katie and Mitch), 'rock, paper, scissors' is NOT an exercise.

Next week we're all together again for one massive cycle path clearance along the river, see you then.