Another night, another midge death squad. This time it was the turn of Bootham Stray allotments to experience a midge swarm of biblical proportions. Note to self, if it's been raining then bring bug spray!

As tonight was well over 6k in total we met for promptly at 6.15 to set the party pace group off, joined by a small GG bike gang. Ed led the remaining GGers after welcoming newcomer Dan and numbering off by naming our favourite flat things in honour of Earth Day. I'm informed that Hydrostatic Bearings are the best flat things ever!

We arrived at Bootham Stray allotments and soon got to work turning over a disused patch that really needed a lot of work. And then the midges came...

I feel ticklish all over - Ben

On one side, Mitch's tool of choice was a 4-pronged spinny thing that he used to twist the weeds together, as if he were eating a bowl of spaghetti. Whilst the rest of the crew, armed with forks and spades, soon made light work of the turf, weeds and roots before tackling bigger things like old guttering and ground sheets.

It was an entirely different vibe over on the other side with Bec spending the night on the tiles whilst Dan got hammered, as the two of them uncovered some old tiling and the head of a hammer respectively.

As the night wore on the midges got the better of us and we called it a day, but not before a group photo and some jaffa cakes kindly provided by the task owner. We then set off back to the Priory Street Centre where Bec learnt that spinning around helps you to touch your toes, and that if you touch a wall with your armed stretched out, then put your arm down, you'll fall just short of touching the wall when you bring your arm back up. Who knew!?!?

The promise of sweeties tempted 27 GGers out on a chilly March evening to lend a hand to the front garden at Fishergate Primary School, which was in need of a bit of a face-lift.

We started proceedings by numbering off whilst listing things to be afraid of. Lyndsey conveniently listed her number (13) as something to fear, but we also Jamie's suggestion of FOMO and Joanna's fear of decision making as some great examples. It was then time for the short dash across to the task with Ed leading a sea of red shirts, and Vicky bringing up the rear.

At the task we were joined by Martin, Jenna, Anna and Charlotte and soon got stuck into the gardening. Rich declared himself the man with the bin and collected the various bits of rubbish dotted around, whilst others got stuck into weeding, pruning and clearing.

With everyone working hard on the ground to get the garden looking 👌, Mitch decided he'd think outside the box and look higher up for his opportunity to make a difference. A rogue black bin bag stuck up a tree was the goal and it was no match for Mitch armed with a spade, who had acted against all advice and climbed the tree to retrieve it.

Opportunities for further weeding and pruning were dwindling as the task wore on, so mind's started think about potential future tasks with Rich spotting a tree guard that looked like it was in need of removal. Obviously GG York are absolute pros at tree guard removal nowadays!

After a few last minute bits of weeding it was time for a team photo before heading off for Vicky's fitness sesh - Head, Shoulders, Knees and Cones! The game involved moving around a circle of cones before dashing into the middle to pick up a sweet reward. The sweets dwindled as the session went on, which led to a bit of pushing and shoving to get the most in demand sweets.

We then headed back to CVS for a photo with the coveted Golden Trowel (the prize for the most good deeds done in the January Challenge) and then sampled some of Nikki's delicious fudge which also turned out to be part of your 5-a-day 😋

Great session everyone 💪

Sadly I couldn't make it to todays task, but 3 marvellous hardy GoodGymers turned up to help the Treemendous folk plant 550 new trees. Fantastic effort. Thank you.

Monday evening meant it's time for another GoodGym group run, and this one had everything that we love here in York. Logs, mud, digging and a pet dog were all on offer but before all that we needed to warm up on a chilly February evening. So this time, in honour of Johnny Cash who was apparently born on this day in 1932, we named our favourite black or at least very dark things and we had everything from Black Metal to Blackberries!

Vicky and the party pace crew set off early before Ed led a group, backmarked by Nikki, to join them. At the task we met Kristina from City of York Council as well as Jan from the Friends of Fishpond Wood, and Callum from Forestry England together with his dog Dylan. We were then led deeper into the woods to a particularly boggy area that will become a drier path through the woods in due time.

It was then time to get to work. Half the team armed themselves with spades and began digging a drainage trench, whilst the others began shifting logs to form the outline of what will become the path. There was some interesting log lifting going on with Martin favouring the over the shoulder look (one for the GG calender) and others preferring the rolling method

I've got a lady log 🪵- Abigail

The trench digging got boggier and the logs got heavier but the GGers were up for the challenge, albeit with some taking an occasional break to stroke Dylan the dog, and before long we'd run out of logs and were ready to head back to base for a spot of fitness.

Tonight's fitness involved two lines of GGers shifting a cone from the front to the back of their line through twisting their core or reaching up and squatting down. But it was no contest with Nick's team finishing comfortably ahead of Jenna's. Once all was said and done we said our goodbyes with some people heading to Dom's pub quiz, rasing money for Mind. Good luck in the quiz, guys 👍

Five minutes before we were due to set off on our group run we got a call saying the council van had been broken in to and they needed to cancel.

A quick phone call and we swiftly rearranged to go to Park Grove and do next week's task a week earlier.

We warmed up and numbered off saying what we'd like a day to be named after as we were unimpressed by it being National Arabian Horse Day. Goodgym and running featured and the other end if the spectrum with do nothing day and stay in bed day!

We also celebrated some outstanding running at Snake Lane 10 with PBs galore. Well done!

We then headed off to task with Leanne as run leader, Pete middle marking and Amy bringing up the rear.

Once we arrived, Gary had lots of tools ready for us to divide into team hedge weeding and team woodchip Spreading (woodchip proving more popular!)

We managed to clear the whole pile of chips with plenty of time for some circuits including a bit of playground hopscotch.

Our route home took in a pit stop at the amazing light display on the art gallery.