Thank you to our lovely team of GoodGymers for helping out with a bit of an odd task this week!

Part 1 was an adventure into our loft to bring down some old CD racks that are being transformed into planters for a local charity. Dave and Andy seemed to have some pent-up rage as they ripped off the backs with their bare hands!

We then walked the racks in a rather unusual convoy through the streets of Buckland, then set them in place and started loading them with compost ready for planting in spring.

As we were finished in plenty of time, we tidied the shed and had a little basketball challenge. Dave also tested out the pirate ship slide and declared it a good experience, "except for my spine". That is certainly a review from someone creeping closer to 40!!

We enjoyed a casual 2.5km run along the seafront this morning, with the rain fortunately holding off whilst we were running. The wind was a little bit forceful along the front though - and we also had to carry on a little longer so Andy's run hit a round number on his Strava!

We did manage to get most of our coffees down before the rain tried to come back, but did get slightly wet bottoms whilst we sat at Coffee Cup!

We had a bit of an unusual session this week, stretching our creative muscles rather than our physical ones. I think this was very much appreciated in the sudden cold snap - great numbers tonight!

Dave and Sinéad kept to Gym in GoodGym for us, with a couple of laps of the churchyard before joining us in the community centre to get creating.

We had beautiful table pieces, wreaths, orange peel tree hangings, hand-decorated garlands and some very intricate and mathematical giant baubles. Wilson showed true determination, and with the help of Maxine and baby Margaux completed their challenge! Katie and Vicki were another dream team, producing another masterpiece.

Special thanks to Judy for her creativity, resources and epic foraging skills for providing us with such a lovely task this evening. It was truly wonderful!

The Fratton Together Lantern Parade brought the usual chaos, creativity and carnival vibes this year!

After attaching lights and sticks to the lanterns, we prepared ourselves for the tidal wave of local residents arriving to claim their makes for the parade. As usual, the best laid plans for lantern distribution went awry, but we were able to reunite most lanterns with their makers ahead of the parade.

We enjoyed the samba beats of batala as we paraded through Fratton. Dave found a creative way to get around his lantern not having a stick - check out the photos! Whilst carrying some larger lanterns, we were able to marshal the parade safely from start to finish. After enjoying our complimentary cups of tea, we did an extra bit of GoodGyming, carrying lanterns that were too big for cars and vans back to the Pantry.

We ventured out of the city this evening, with a slightly shifty-looking rendezvous in Sainsbury's car park. Walking and running groups made their way uphill to St Andrew's Church, where we met up with Chris, the church's volunteer gardener.

An impressive array of tools made their way from Chris' car to the compost area, where we set to work loading the contents of a make-shift compost heap into bags. This will allow Chris to build a functioning container for the compost, keeping things much tidier.

In her enthusiam, Judy somehow managed to upturn a whole shovel-full of compost over Ness, who in turn nearly took David's head off with a pitchfork. I wonder if I might need to work on my risk assessments! Wilson unearthed a 10ft python* whilst digging, which Ness kindly and carefully moved to a safe new home.

We certainly worked up an appetite, but luckily Val provided some tasty brownie bites to fuel our run back.

*it was a slow worm