We were greeted with glorious sunshine for our task (part 1) at the allotments of Urban Escape, I nearly regretted not wearing sunscreen! Despite blazing sunshine, the ground was still frosty and slippery making our task of maneuvering bucket loads of compost from the entrance of the allotments down a path (half concrete/ half wood ship) quite a tricky one. With many keen hands to help but strict social distancing measures in mind, we organised ourselves (well Lisa from Urban Escape organised us I should say) in a perfect COVID-safe one-way compost conveyor belt. A couple of runners shoveled the compost pile into buckets making sure the portion size was light and liftable. The load was then transported via wheelbarrows (powered by strong runner legs) to their destination at the other end of the path. There, the buckets were lifted up onto the roof of a hut (built by one of the roofers overseeing our work) years ago. The roof needed some urgent fixing as wind and weather had blown most of the soil of the green canopy away. Also quite blown away were the two roofers having to unload the buckets on the roof at the speedy pace the GoodGymers delivered the bucket loads of compost. Small stops in the supply chain were a welcomed opportunity to catch up on some sun (right, Russ?) or catch up with other GoodGymers (appearently Dave and Paul had a lot of catching up to do!). Moving most of the compost pile on to the roof in record time, we were sad to stop the fun but we had to leave some for the next group...

New GoodGym recruit Till did phenomanally well in picking the hardest task on his first GoodGym mission with lifting up the buckets to the roof.

Meanwhile, Laura was breaking ground on her own mission and started digging up the somewhat frozen ground around the poly tunnel, a task to be continued...

Amazing job everyone!

On a sunny Sunday, eight volunteers arrived at Eastville Park. Today’s task: stopping the weeds around Eastville Park lake from growing too big and pushing the edging stones into the water. Spreading out along the lake edge to keep a suitable distance apart was easy enough, carefully taking out the weeds less so. Still many hands make light work, and soon the whole east side of the lake had been tidied.

We then branched out to clear a freshly chain-sawed pile of branches from a tree that had fallen in the recent winds off of a footpath. Now, imagine the Benny Hill music, heres a timelapse video.

After the tasks were done the group retired to the lawn and flower garden at the old bowling club for a well earned Elderflower cordial and cake.