Seven runners and four walkers made their way to Riverside Park in the evening sunshine to do what we do best...rid the parks of rubbish with style, panache and a little je ne sais quoi! (one of our new GoodGymers is French and I remembered that I am fluent at French! :-) So bienvenue to Genevieve and benvenuta to Brent GoodGymer Gaia (who's Italian, which is not one of the many languages I speak so had to Google that one.) It felt as if spring had finally arrived this evening and while we worked hard at the task, it was great to hear the chat and laughter while doing good, and seeing passers by smile and acknowledge the work we were doing for our community.

What a bumper crop of GoodGymmers under blue skies for a foray to Brunswick Cemetery after the inaugural presentation of Very Exciting GoodGym Bristol Badges for Run Leaders, TaskForce and extra special helpers. Watch this space for future developments!

We were joined by Jordan on his first good deed, Tom on his first group run and Freya back for her second Tuesday and looking totally different without her big woolly hat - fantastic to have you all on board. And yes, it normally appears a little bit chaotic at times but is definitely All Under Control.

With the tree popper/root puller on site and training demonstrations given by Top Tree Popper Marianne, Jordan was in his element tracking down protruding sycamores and brambles to be collected up into the Dumpy Sack of Doom, alongside Richard B's entrenching tool's victims.

Valè and Richard G took to the paving slab tidying, Richard missing his seasonal role as a lamppost already.

The bindweed/buttercup/sycamore club scouted out more widely - Caroline, Jason, Janka and Frances uncovered lots of ground and were very good at leaving the non-weed plants to grow, whilst Tom moved on to earn his Pathfinder status with the muddiness redistributed away from the golden gravel.

Ed and Nik grabbed the loppers and went in search of bigger things to chop - do much is now growing so fast!

And Janka's email address is nothing like kangaroo, in case you were wondering.

Until next week!

We had rival teams of GoodGymmers in Bristol this evening with the runners heading up to Bramble Farm and the walkers across to Redcliffe. Who would get more soaked was the main question but we didn't care because it was daylight! Jo was taking no chances in her three coats

As the runners, including safari-experienced Freya, helped out around the farm, including very deep mud for the pigs in their pen, the walkers were finding pens of their own on the litter pick by the bus stops - very entertainingly an Avon and Somerset Police pen followed by a Crimestoppers one, and a discarded badge which ironically was for "Be an everyday hero, #choosetoreuse".

Far more excitingly, FOUR discarded penguin wrappers were found, each at a different location and each with a different penguin joke. I say joke, thats quite generous. It did lead to Frances only being able to communicate through penguin "jokes" for a while.

Most unexpected finds included a curtain rail and dumbell, the later proving a very good workout for Arron and his Streetmaster Pro pickers, whilst Caroline's pickers had lost an Important Red Bit that holds the trigger in place and was most impressed that a little bit of stick could substitute. Richard G proved very good at ensuring we still had all seven walkers and herding us all back together - sheepdog-in-training for One Area Activator and Her Dog at the Shindig later this year.

Jason rounded off the task with a pose akin to Roddy the Roadman, which no-one except Melanie had ever heard about.

It was GoodGym Eats at The Stable and top runner (with a new haircut) Richard B was mighty happy when all seven walkers joined him at the big table he'd been occupying all on his own.

See you all again next week?