On a glorious day in the sunshine, goodgymers got together for the long overdue task of Orchard watering..

The community orchard in Bute park was in need of a good slosh o' water. After heatwave after heatwave, those trees were rattling the fences for us to come in.

Due to all of the events in the parks recently.... The orchard had to be fenced off for its own safety. This had meant a cancelled water session last time, but no more. Finally as the people of Cardiff get their parks back, goodgym can get to the orchard.

We met at Glassworks as usual, and welcomed our first timer Darcey..

CROESO

We set off on our run, a light jog due to the heat.. A slight detour due to the get out for the events crew as they disassembled the monstrosity of the stage and walls, but we made it to the orchard gates. Our organiser, Mel messaged to say she was running a little late so we got comfortable in the shade relaxing after our run.

David decided to try to break the code for the gate lock, but with no success.

As Mel arrived, on her bike with 2 water browsers and a watering can (Michael had run with 2 from his allotment), it was time to get into the orchard to get volunteering.

There are over 60 trees in the orchard, so our task was a big one tonight, the plan of action was simple....

• fill up the 2 browsers (60 litres each)
• decant water to the cans
• give each tree 1 FULL can of water

We rotated, giving everyone time for a different workout. Running back and forth to fill up the browsers, they were quite a workout on their own once full, but fun to roll. Lifting and pouring the water into the watering cans, a great upper body workout. And last, but by no means least, running to water the trees.

We were even lucky enough to see a green spotted woodpecker, but not in time for Jonathan to get it on the merlin app.... Maybe next time...

Speaking of which, we will return in 2 weeks for another watering session as we head into a big ol heatwave....

Join us won't you.....

Sign up here

Friday at Love Trails Festival 2026 saw Goodgym lead a run to beach clean at Whiteford Sands.

3 goodgym run leaders led 12 runners (who had never done a Goodgym task before) on a 7km trail run along the coastal path, through a tick infested forest (only GG run leaders found ticks on them and they hadnt yet dug in) to the beach.

The vast beach on the Gower Peninsula looked clean, but once people started looking we collected bags of rope and netting that would cause harm to birds and fish, a fridge door, a traffic cone, a broken crab cage, wading suit and a huge gas cannister.

After 30 minutes of collecting, we regrouped, committed to heading back through the tick forest, and ran 7km back to the festival site.

Sunday at Love Trails Festival 2026 saw Goodgym lead a run to beach clean at Broughton Bay. ​ 3 goodgym run leaders led 16 runners (who had never done a Goodgym task before) on a 7.5km trail run along the coastal path, avoiding the tick infested forest and diverting onto a hillier road route, and across some sand dunes to the beach. ​ On arrival one runner commented "but this beach is clean? what are we going to collect?"

How wrong they were! the beach on the Gower Peninsula looked clean, but once people started looking we collected 15 bags of rubbish, another broken crab cage, a toy spade (which will be recycled as a gift to one runleaders children) and a heavy duty crate.

After 30 minutes of collecting, we regrouped, and ran 7.5km to the festival site.