Tappin' off dry January with some scything in the rain

For once the weather forecast didn't lie and it was raining buckets on this Saturday morning. Not intimidated by the floods, we had a surprisingly great turn out for another mission at the Northern Slopes. Scything was nearly impossible in this rain but David gave it a go anyway and cut his way through the thick bramble. Others opted for loppers, probably a safer choice, but nonetheless still useful to remove branches at eye-height and making the "tunnel" (aka a narrow way between to hedges) more easily accessible to passersby and dog walkers. The tunnel also got a much-needed flooring/drainage upgrade to turn its muddy surface into a shiny new "yellow gravel road". The best way for gravel installation turned out to be "tap dancing" to smoothen out the new path. A selected group of GoodGymers couldn't get enough of dancing in the rain and stayed on a bit longer to make sure the final bags of gravel were securely installed. ...or maybe is was the combination of rain, mud and rhythm that got people to channel their spirit animal - seagull - since as a behavioural biologist I couldn't miss the parallels between the dancing Goodgymers and gulls which perform a very similar kind to tapping behaviour to attract rain worms (definitely NOT looking at you Christopher but you might want to youtube "Seagull riverdance" ).

The final crew did an excellent job in litter hunting and pulled out some seriously dodgy things from the hedges, including some graveyard flowers and a lawnmower. Massive shout out to Leo and Martin for attending their first ever GoodGym task despite the rainy madness.

Well done everyone for showing up that day!