This evening's group run took us about 2km up the hill to All Saints C of E Junior School, where it turned out we had just 20 minutes to blitz a gardening task.

No problem! When a dozen GoodGymers are fenced into a small triangle of land and Nicola is armed with a children's spade, we can do quite a lot of scarifying, weeding and generally flinging bits of turf around.

This was exactly what was needed to prepare the ground for master re-soiler Angela, who arrived just in time to spread some fresh compost around.

We then bombed the area with seeds and we hope nature will do the rest to turn this patch into a lovely wildflower haven for pollinators.

After what was possibly the speediest bit of gardening we've ever done, we headed off to celebrate Scarlett's 50th good deed with some of Gillian's gorgeous ginger cake. Scarlett started GoodGyming in July 2023, so has done really well, notching up more than 1 good deed a week. Congratulations Scarlett - here's to the next 50!

We made a return visit to Nature's Haven to add some Goodgym enthusiasm and muscle to clearance work that is going on to make way for a new mini-orchard. We welcomed Aidan to his first ever Goodgym session, and what a welcome addition he was to the group. Nicola was sporting her new 100 Deeds Tshirt, and looked great! Our taskowners Claire and Aleks were on hand to give us instructions for the evening. One group tackled moving a huge pile of branches, which had been cut down from the old shrubbery, to an area at the other end of the site, where they can be picked up for disposal. As Jen commented It was a perfect demonstration of how many hands make light work. Just as they were congratulating themselves on clearing the area, Aleks found them another enormous pile to clear. But they weren't daunted by the task, and by the end of the session that pile had been cleared too. Great work! Meanwhile another group set to, digging the shrub roots out of the ground. Not an easy task, as they all seemed to be interconnected underground, and the roots were tough. Undeterred, the team battled on, and every so often there were little whoops of triumph as another root ball was lifted from the ground! As the light faded we called it a day, and were treated to hot drinks and toasted marshmallows round the firepit. We love coming to Nature's Haven! A very satisfying task and we look forward to a return visit, perhaps to help plant the orchard?

Thanks to everyone who joined in our group run yesterday evening to help Nature's Haven, and a very warm welcome to newcomer Caroline. Big thanks to Tony for this evening;s report:

A small Windsor and Maidenhead council grant to the Nature's Haven and the Community Centre on Marlow Road is being used to plant a dwarf orchard and enhance the front of the building.

Before work got underway to clear the area for planting the Good Gym crew were able to start the evening with some fiitness first. With so many Good Gymers we used the Zebra crossing to access the Cresent, this resulted in an instant Google map worthy traffic jam, red of course.

With Amy leading from the other side of the road there was much leg waving, arm flinging, and some runs up the hill, dim street lighting ensured that personal best times were won by not necessarily getting to the top.

Then the digging and cutting started most people got bushed by the bushes, and stuck in the ivy, unfortunately the ‘wild boar rent a digging app’ was down so we had to do all the work not just MBWA. Eventually the triffids size stumps were overcome to leave vast creators of good planting soil.

Soon it was time to enjoy some fire pit moments with hot drinks and giant marshmallows so big that they caught fire really easily. Skill and pan ash was needed to stop them being charcoaled.

We understand that the Community Centre are currently looking for a press and some barrels...

MBWA (Management by Walking About )

Well done to the 14 superstars who came out this evening for a slice of the GoodGym action. After the recent rain it was great to get out for fresh air, fitness, gardening and most importantly CAKE in celebration of Matthew's 50th good deed and Nicola's 100th (and her 101st!) It was also lovely to welcome Tori for the first time.

We had a change of task because our chair man wasn't available to lead the chair mending session. Instead we ran and walked the 1km to St Luke's for some more gardening. Kudos to the runners, who put in some extra laps of Kidwells Park, and to the GoodGymers who live near the school, so did the journey twice. This time the to do list included emptying planters, re-homing plants and clearing leaves.

Oh the places you'll grow!

Nicola nuts, Tori tiramisu, Angela apple, Toni duck, Juli jelly, Rachel raclette and Georgeta grapefruit tackled the planters, and did a lovely job of tucking the evicted plants into their new beds. There was also an intense chat about a drain.

On track for some terrible puns

Sophie sushi, Jess jellybean, Adam avocado, Matthew mars bar, Scarlett sugar and Ben (who missed the foodie ice breaker and is probably wondering what just happened) took the wheel barrow and hippo sack to the running track on a leaf clearance mission. Of course you wouldn't be-leaf the puns this prompted. Just as they were getting into their punning stride, we decided it wheely was time to leaf, after all there was cake to eat!

150 reasons for cake

Huge congratualtions to Nicola and Matthew, who have totted up an awesome 150 GoodGym good deeds between them. I presented them each with a medal and then we all enjoyed lots of cake. Juli made a gorgeous vegan chocolate cake for Matthew's 50, complete with the number 50 made of grapes, and Georgeta made a stunning carrot cake for Nicola's 100, which was topped with angel wings and a big 1-0-0 made by Sophie - thank you bakers!

As is now customary for a 100, we also had a poem:

Three cheers for Nicola Hine!

Fitness and good deeds she likes to combine.

And now she’s done 99

Good deeds (plus 2), so it’s party time!

Sorry I’m a bit late with this rhyme

Our GoodGyming plans didn’t quite align

And I think my writing is in decline

But we’re all friends here, so never mind!

Nicola’s in her GoodGyming prime

She’s made bunting out of twine

She made an awesome Windrush sign

And made the path a nice straight line.

She helped to clear that pond of slime

She sweeps up leaves and cleans up grime

She decorated our Christmas pine

And back marks so no one is left behind.

Communication is her place to shine

Her reels are much better than mine

Her run reports are so sublime

And her insta advent calendar blew my mind.

Outside GoodGym she doesn’t just recline

She does parkrun – even the incline!

Her blanket for niece Thea was a gorgeous design

And her travel photos are simply divine.

You’re a top GoodGymer Nicola Hine!

So let’s raise an imaginary glass of wine

Hip hip hooray we all shall chime

And on this cake we all shall dine.

.14 Goodgymers turned up at the Community Centre last night for what promised to be a spooky evening of Goodgym spirit at St Luke’s church. After being warned to be nice to the ghosts and to not get eaten by any resident falcons, we set off on a walk which had been deemed to be far too short. This meant that, after arriving, we were promptly told to go away again. Not because we’d been really annoying (I think) but to do what we call a ‘meet and retreat’. This involves pairing up, moving around the perimeter of the church at your preferred speed, doing an exercise when you found your partner, and then moving back to where you started. Competitiveness is entirely optional.

After everyone had returned, we were armed with various sizes of cutty things, which is the technical term, and set loose on the graveyard to conduct a Goodgym haunting. Our instructions basically amounted to ‘fix it’, so we resorted to the destruction of unruly plants. There were very, very many to choose from. We battled bushes of brambles to uncover hidden gravestones (one which included a rather well-preserved anchor), had a fight with some allegedly non-sentient ivy, and created the world’s biggest piles of plant as proof of our victory.

There were protests when we had to finish and threats to stay in the graveyard all night (you know, like normal people) - our Goodgym spirit is just too strong! We were convinced to stop the haunting before the exorcists had to be called in and herded to the front of the church for some more exercise. A circuit of fun awaited us, involving running, jumping, and trying to figure out how to do the bench one without just looking like you were sitting down. Then, tired and happy with our inspired success, we all went home with our spirits high.