An amazing 6 Goodgymmers turned up at Nature's Haven to continue the good work started at Wednesday night's session, alongside other volunteers. Peter, Matthew and Scarlett took on the tricky task of digging out the roots of the shrubs that had been established there for many years. Luckily Peter had been practising in his own garden for just such an opportunity, so was able to bring a wealth of experience And Matthew and Scarlett had been at the Wednesday session, so the task was in capable hands. Meanwhile, Rachel, Clara and Sheila did a final dig over the area soon to be planted with fruit trees, pulling out any bits of old root as they went. We were hoping to plant some trees in this session, but we weren't quite ready - maybe next week. Taskowners Claire and Aleks were extremely grateful for the Goodgym help and delighted by how much had been achieved. We look forward to seeing the fruits (literally!) of our labour very soon!

What an amazing turnout for this evening's session to help at Wessex Primary School, particularly considering we didn't meet in our usual start location. Just when I thought I knew how many we were, more would arrive! Maybe we could call ourselves the Countless of Wessex?

A very warm welcome to Helen, Rachel, Jennie and Alison, who joined us from the school community. It was also great to meet Sion and Sam, who Jenni invited from Reading to find out all about this weird and wonderful thing called GoodGym. We hope you can launch in your area soon - we'll definitely come and visit when you do!

A great big cheer for Taskforce member Louise, who organised our task for this evening and recruited many of our newbies from the school community. Top marks and a gold star for you!

Many thanks also to Mr Beaven and Mrs Pope, who welcomed us to the school, treated us to some jelly babies and stuck around until the end. We talked about a return visit later in the year to help with pond area...can't wait!

During the first part of the session lots of us went for a run or walk around Cox Green. The walkers did a scenic 2km (we passed not one but two Co-ops!) loop, and the lucky runners did similar but with a few extra back and forths to give the walkers time to catch up. This helped us to arrive at the task all warmed up and ready for action.

Lou did a great job of rapidly dishing out tasks to eager GoodGymers, and soon enough everyone was busy. Jennie, Alison, Georgeta, Rachel, Gillian and Helen bravely tackled brambles in a nature area, Adam, Clara, Jenni and Chris bravely tackled brambles next to a fence and Angela and Sara made speedy work of sawing down an overgrown shrub.

Everyone else focused on an area in the middle, where jobs included emptying a raised bed of plants (behaving like locusts), sanding a fence and bench, and painting the fence. An intriguing mix of small toys was also uncovered in the process.

Many hands made the to do list disappear fast. Lou has already received a big thank you from Mrs Corbett, who teaches in the area where we were working. She plans to take the children out first thing to admire our work.

So why the reference to smarty pants? Are we calling Lou a smarty pants because she organised such a bumper evening? Or is Jenni a smarty pants for bringing her Reading homies? Maybe we're all smarty pants for going back to school? Or should that be smarty 'paints' because of the awesome job the painters did blitzing the fence?

Well all of these would be excellent guesses, and quite true, but no. The title pun celebrates the GoodGymer who got paint on her trousers and didn't want to get it on the seats in my car, so had the bright idea to remove her trousers. I couldn't park right outside her house, so (looking quite a lot like an Olympic track star) she did a sprint finish down the road in her pants. What a memorable evening!

It was a dark and stormy night - no, it actually wasn’t this time…it was a night of no particularly memorable weather as 18 Goodgymers met at the Community Centre to help the Maidenhead Community Allotment. It was great to see so many people, and to welcome new face Adam, for the last Wednesday session of the January challenge. This was combined with towel collecting for the other last task of the month, as we’re all really quite obsessed at this point. We may not have won but we absolutely smashed our target and that’s what really matters. On a slightly less cheesy note, this will also provide motivation for when we crush everyone else next year. In a nice, community-spirited way. There was also a distinct lack of rubbish along the route to the task, conclusively proving (because I say so and I’m the one with the words) that we’ve had a real impact with all the litter-picking-up this month.

Once at the task, we were divided into groups and given a number of things to do to help the allotment prepare for the new year. There was moving piles of dirt to the correct places, stamping on said piles of dirt to make it look nice, digging up weeds and artichokes, ensuring the weeds and artichokes were put in separate piles, and a bit of drama over some leaky butts. I have been given permission to use as many butt puns as I can think of but, despite the temptation, I don’t want to make you all crack up too much.

The time flew by and suddenly we’d done all the things that needed to be done and were being herded into a circle for the fitness part of the night - a Goodgym classic where one person chooses an exercise for everyone else to do and then runs around the circle. We left the task with a sense of both achievement and exhaustion, bags full of artichokes, and a little more exercise as we tried not to step in the remainder of the water from the (now no longer leaky) butts.

GoodGymmers across W&M dug deep in their linen cupboards and donated a whole lot of towels for the animals at Diana Brimblecombe Animal Rescue Centre! The staff at DBARC were very pleased with the donations and thanked us for our efforts.

It was a lovely crispy frosty morning for an early start to Saturday with a joint effort to clear York Stream from brambles on its banks.

Clara and Sol joined the friends of Waterways to work on the banks to cut off the overgrown brambles.

Amy joined us in the very beginning to present a medal to Clara for completing 50 good deeds! Amy had also prepared delicious flapjacks. It was such a nice surprise!

Afterwards we split into two teams: Clara joined a team in the boat to cut brambles from the opposite bank and Sol helped the other team cutting brambles into smaller chunks to gather in garden rubbish bags.

Passers by cheered us on and thanked for the effort. The coffee break came soon and we got the opportunity to sample the flapjacks and coffee.

We continued our never-ending fight with brambles until it was already midday. Even two swans came to inspect our work at the end of the session. They were so beautiful!

11 Goodgymmers enthusiastically met to tackle more chair repairs at the Maidenhead Community Centre.

The excellent work started by the team earlier in the week was carried on. Previous attendees; Jack, Jess, Juli, Gillian and Sheila were able to guide the newbies; Diya, Kanika, Roberta, Sol, Rachel and Clara through the process which included: Removing the old bits of plastic, making the holes larger, poking the binding screws through and then magically hiding them away....there was lots of fiddly bits but we did it!

It was such an enthusiastic group cheering and whooping as screws were placed and chair seats completed!

In total 6 more chairs were fully completed and wise words from Gillian - do the front bolts first!

There are plenty more to do - so join us on Tuesday for another session!

This session also included some impressive Goodgym achievements with this being the third task of the day for trio Rachel, Gillian and Sheila and the second tasks of the day for Juli, Kanika and Diya!!