Leaves are everywhere at this time of year. Littering the park, blocking drains, turning cycle paths slightly treacherous, and so on.

So as we entered Bath Organic Gardens it was possibly no surprise to see a huge, suspicious-looking pile of leaves, adjacent to the spot from where on a recent previous visit there we'd moved a huge, suspicious-looking pile of compost.

They love leaves down at BOG, of course. It seems nothing organic goes to waste there.

Tim arrived and immediately set us about moving leaves from that large pile on to a smaller pile deeper inside the garden. The mathematically-minded or attentive reader might notice that a large pile probably isn't going to fit where a small pile goes, and luckily you're right... we only had to move a few barrows of those leaves, rather than all of them.

Fortunately that left us time for a second leaf-related task. That of transporting some of the more rotted leafmould, which was adjacent to the pile of new leaves into some large containers inside one of the greenhouses.

This involved digging the leafmould into barrows, sifting, sorting, removing any bindweed and then barrowing it around to the greenhouse.

There was a lot of bindweed. Getting rid of bindweed seems to come up a lot in GoodGym tasks. It seems it's the one type of organic produce that isn't wanted. This of course set Meyrick and me thinking about what use could be made of bindweed. Surely such a prolific grower could be put to use in some way to solve one or other of the global energy crisis, global food crisis, a cure for cancer, or who shot JR? Something

Alas we couldn't come up with anything during our timeslot on this bright wintry Saturday morning. The world will have to stay unsaved for another week. Our time will come. Just you watch...

Another fantastic morning at the farm! 5 Goodgymmers met and were set to work clearing a patch that used to be a flower bed. We made steady progress clearing out rubble and putting it in a "neat pile" that got increasingly un-neat... And then digging out around half a foot of clay earth that got wheelbarrowed up to a bed by the pigs. It wouldnt be a morning at the farm without a bit of wheelbarrowing!

Art had a real knack for uncovering large stones and weaving tales of their origins, while Holly and Emily worked tirelessly to dig out the clay, and Alice and Meyrick wheelbarrowed, with much-needed help from others!

Looking forward to next time we're back :)

Snow is not yet falling, but all around me this gang of GoodGymers are like children... Playing. Having fun!

To herald the season of love and understanding... we've headed to Community Matters charity shop on Chelsea Road - to help put up some Christmas decorations.

We decide we're gonna have a party tonight (this afternoon), and Aaron spins up some appropriate tunes on Spotify.

Shakin' Stevens is signing out, and we're finding stuff amongst a stash of decorations - hanging baubles, tinsel, anything seasonally appropriate we can find to decorate the shop windows. We're finding a couple of trees and decorating those.

I'm gonna find that ... no, can't find any mistletoe. Nevermind.

The room is swaying. Records playing. Bublé comes on, and a bit of Mariah. All the old songs we love to hear. Hanging with our GoodGym friends - what a nice way to spend the year.

Merry Christmas everyone!

(apologies for the ear-worm. You love it really :)

Today we paid another visit to Claverton Pumping Station, a Grade 1 listed building which in its heyday used to pump water from the River Avon to keep the Kennet & Avon Canal topped up.

Last time we were here, we'd wheelbarrowed tons of stones on a particularly wet day - but this time the wet day had arrived three days before us. This had been a particularly wet deluge which had flooded the river, completely submerging Warleigh Weir and washing loads of silt - not to mention an unfortunate eel - into the the pumphouse.

By the time we arrived, our host Julian had already rescued the eel. Although it turns out eels are really slippery (who knew?) and he'd had a hard time trying to get in into a bucket to facilitate the rescue.

Once we arrived, he set Meyrick and Jer up, helping to sweep the mud out of the pumphouse. It felt a bit like graft, but to be fair our flood must have been but a damp dribble compared to some of the numerous past epic floods of the last couple of centuries, whose high water marks are recorded on the walls inside the building.

Meanwhile Emilies K and M were working on clearing a path alongside the river just downstream from the pumphouse. By the time we'd finished sweeping silt and came outside, they'd not only cleared earth to make way for the new path, but actually in the process had unearthed, and were uncovering more and more of, a pre-existing path made from a mosaic of various different stones and bricks from various past eras of the station's history.

A path which is no doubt* of prime historical significance, and possibly** even Roman in origin. Or maybe was just an old path to the gent's loo (a.k.a. screened-off plank next to a tree). But was jolly interesting to discover, nonetheless.

Jer and Meyrick also donned life jackets to do a bit of work cleaning up the edge of the river containing wall.

To finish up we went inside into the station's living space for a nice cup of tea and a chocolate digestive.

* totally doubted

** absolutely not Roman!