What do the dinosaurs, Viking long boats, Queen Elizabeth I, Mars the Roman God of War, a Sphinx and a pyramid, the silhouetted London skyline from WW2, and Windrush all have in common?

Not only are they all important symbols, moments or characters from history, they are also all the subject of sculptures and artwork created by GoodGymers Claire, Yesim, Hannah, Tessa, Nicola and myself.

And what would you need if you wanted to step back in time and visit all these fascinating parts of history?

Either a TARDIS... or a reading festival, packed with books, visiting authors and interactive activities to help bring the past to life.

Lucky for the people of Maidenhead, we have both!

A TARDIS lovingly created by Scarlett, AND a fantastic celebration of books (and for this year's theme, history) in the form of the Big Read festival.

Many thanks to task owner Tessa from the Big Read committee, who invited us to make these decorations for the library ready for the festival. It is the third year we have been involved in this creative project and it's always a joy to see what people make. This year's theme was 'Stepping Back in Time', so we had the whole of history to inspire us.

Special mention to Yesim's husband, who sailed her amazing viking long boat down to the community centre to welcome us back from our group run this evening.

The Craft Coop has a project to provide realistic-looking fruit, vegetable and other foodstuffs for a permanent window display for the Foodshare shop. Five Goodgymmers rose to the challenge to help out with the project, and started knitting and crocheting with gusto. Very soon, lots of fruit and veg started appearing, with Jess learning to crochet in the process. We now have lots of fruit and vegetables, eggs and even some pasta for the display Well done to everyone who took part, showing some excellent crafting skills. Do pop into the Craft Coop to see some of the other contributions, they should all make an amazing display

'Our Maidenhead' is a collaborative project aimed to tie in with National History month, celebrating Maidenhead past and present. The wall-hanging will consist of 49 panels, each depicting a different aspect of life in Maidenhead. One aim was to involve as many people from the community as possible, so Sheila put the call-out to see if any GoodGymmers fancied exercising their creative side and contribute to the mural. As usual, W & M Goodgym did not disappoint! Everyone took on a different topic, inspired by a favourite place, activity or which otherwise had a particular meaning for them. I was blown away by the different approaches and creativity of everyone in the group, using fabric, felt, wool, netting, beads, sequins, buttons, embroidery and quilting to depict their chosen topics. Well done to Amanda, Celine, Georgeta, Hannah, Jess, Nicola, Sheila, Sophie and Tessa for depicting such diverse topics as Braywick Nature Reserve, The Brickworks, Parkrun, Cliveden, Boulters Lock, White Waltham Airfield, Maidenhead Advertiser, Goodgym, St Lukes Xmas Tree Festival, Maidenhead Bridge and Maidenhead Library. Amazing! After the squares have been assembled together with the other contributions, the mural is planned to be displayed in various locations in and around Maidenhead

At the end of a busy January of GoodGyming some of us have been feeling a bit spaced out. We're ready for February...and beyond! And we've been making sure the library is ready too, by making space themed decorations.

The decorations will go up soon as part of the countdown to the Maidenhead Big Read Festival, which will blast off over the weekend of 4th and 5th March, with lots of free events to inspire everyone to love reading.

This task was more creative than physical, but GoodGymers were also motivated to get some extra steps in whilst delivering their creations to me, and it has been a treat for me to receive them.

I've returned from a GoodGym session to find rockets and astronauts on my doorstep, I've received an amazing spaceship with beautifully crocheted aliens at a Pilates class, and I've even answered the door to discover the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Well done to everyone who dived into the tin foil, paint, cardboard, wool and sequins and made a contribution. You're all stars. We have an amazing mix of fantasy, fact and fun, and it's going to look fabulous!

I'm also delighted to report that this session rockets us into our biggest month of GoodGyming ever. We've really started 2023 with a Big Bang!

Maidenhead Town Show is having a yarn bombing campaign, aiming to decorate the town with colourful knitted and crocheted items. Five GoodGymers rose to the challenge and got out their hooks, needles and spare yarn, and started creating! Claire, Hannah, Nicola, Gillian, Amanda and Sheila created sea creatures, a bucket and spade, granny squares, flowers and pom poms, which will all be used to decorate columns, railings and post boxes around the town centre, together with creations from other local knitting and crochet groups. For anyone who would like to help put up some of the creations, sign up for Wednesday's session here

For our latest mission, four GoodGym volunteers rose to the challenge of helping Lavender Green Flowers in Windsor to re-home the leftover blooms from a busy weekend of weddings.

Anita, Gillian and Nicola got started on the task in the morning, and after a bit of practice our flower-arranging skills were really starting to blossom.

With three boxes of small bouquets ready to go, Anita and Gillian set off to make our first donations, to care home, hospital and library staff. Some flowers were taken into Windsor town centre and delivered to Craft Coop, while a few were given to a People2Places driver for his passengers, and some were handed to members of the public in “random acts of kindness”.

In the afternoon, Nicola and Hannah added to the bouquets made earlier, and delivered some to the therapy team at Thames Hospice. We were also able to make several buckets of bouquets for a local church, which was planning to gift them to Ukrainian families in the area.

Thanks a bunch to everyone who sent in suggestions for good causes we should donate the flowers to - we hope we made people’s Monday a little brighter.

And last bud not least, congratulations to Anita on reaching 100 good deeds. We look forward to celebrating properly with you soon!