Watch out for the Sticky Willy!

27 runners met at the Folk House on Tuesday evening for a run that would spread Good Gym across a large swathe of south Bristol!

It was a slightly windy evening and we packed out the courtyard in the Folk House with both regulars and quite a few newer people (welcome to the gang chaps!). Heading south, we ran through a busy Bristol centre and paused south of the river to split in to three groups.

I (Pru) led group 1 to Clifton Street where a familiar patch of ground awaited us - a small square of previously unloved land that was full of stones (see this run report for more info - http://www.goodgym.org/reports/bulbaric-in-bedminster ) . Sadly some weeds had grown back after our previous runs so we set to clearing some of those and picking up litter. Another couple of people ran to the Job Centre on West Street, another previous run site (see http://www.goodgym.org/reports/bulb-fiction ) to plant some lovely new bushes, and yet another group ran off to post flyers about an upcoming event, including building a bee hotel!

It was during this task that one of the group found a pint glass that was perfectly intact and usable - we have something called 'the invisible pint of beer' that we all hold on to in order to help balance when we do our quads, and now we had the real deal. This was a prize indeed!

During the weeding, we came across a weed that it was agreed was called the sticky plant... but in Scotland it's known as sticky willy. The ensuing conversation became a little innuendo-ish and probably doesn't need to be repeated! In case you're interested, it's real (Latin) name is Galium aparine !

After a lot of tugging, digging and all round activity, we ran back to the Folk House but stopped off at College Green for a spot of core work. Well done my team!

The other two groups ran to two other sites in Windmill Hill, one a new patch of overgrown land that is being converted to a community garden on Philip Street and the other to Victoria Park to help create a wildflower garden.

At Victoria Park we had just the right amount of people and time to complete the task which was to dig out the turf so that wildflower seeds could be sown. We even managed to find some ancient finds, including a priceless 10p from the year 2000 and a possibly old or maybe just retro styled lemonade bottle. As Indiana Jones might say THIS BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!

At Philip Street, got really stuck in. Clearing the site of almost everything (with some debate about what is a weed and what is not) from the smallest of weeds to big brambles and tree stumps! We had plenty of questions from people passing by and were able to explain about the great work of Bedminster Patchwork – including explaining to a gentleman in a jeep that we were not actually creating a new car parking space form him!