Elizabeth Lees

It was a surprisingly mild and sunny evening as we headed towards the historical church of St James with tools and gloves in hand.

The church, surrounded by so many old buildings in the Old Town, is set back from the Quay and is seeped in history.

The church, originally built in 1142, demolished and rebuilt starting from 1819, it hosts old historical flags, stained glass windows and even a font from around 1770.

We last visited St James pre Covid, so it was lovely to return to help with the ground maintenance.

We picked the side area near the office entrance and to the East of the main door to clear around the weeds and grass from the slabs and the gully. It was surprisingly difficult to get some of the weeds out and they took a lot of persuasion! Patricia had clearly remembered this as she had brought a special tool just for the job! Robert who had already walked down the road carrying a broom took a little while to straigten up at the end, just showing how engrossed in the task he was! Elizabeth and Christine had already ran in for over 2 miles down the Quay with their usual fresh faces, smiles and ready for hard graft.

After around 45 mins, we bagged up, downed tools and headed for the Quay. It was a delight to see people outside, enjoying eating and drinking with friends and family after seeing so many places closed up. The sound of laughter and chatting voices, many layers and coats and the smell of food cooking.

We ran down towards Baitor and into the park and back round along the Quay again. We are truly so blessed to have the beauty of the water so close to us, to run along, chat and admire the sky above us.

We are now slowly getting back into tasks so it is time to start gathering back up the old Goodgym members who joined us previously, hopefully welcome new ones and to keep on with the great tasks we have and keep up this great experience of Goodgym!