Nathan Swain

We've past the halfway mark in the January Challenge, and we're still raring to go. So, tonight, 14 goodgymers got together to finish off a task that had been niggling (mostly me) since last year. The buddleia at St. Andrews Forget-me-not Cafe had become so large during the lockdowns, that during our first mission to tackle it we had to stop due to the thickness of its branches.

Not Tonight

We were determined to finish the job, 8 runners met in the City Centre, warmed up and then ran 1.5 miles to our second meeting point for the walkers. This was the first time that we had split like this, but it seemed to work for us on a bit of a longer run that may have been too far to walk in the allotted time. From here, we made our way together - it wasn't far until we were at the Church grounds.

The wonderful Kathie was waiting for us, all wrapped up for a warm welcome. We had a quick chat as we tried to figure out the split of groups for the tasks to be done.

1. Sweep the pathways of leaves to make it safer,
2. Clear the leaves from the back of the Church,
3. Move the potted Christmas tree around the back,
4. Cut down the buddleia (of course),
5. Cut the holly growing over the fence,
6. Trim any overgrown plants in the alleyway.

A lot of work, just the way we like it.

Whilst we pondered the split, Alice got straight to work with the brush and was making her way over the path. Nathan joined to clear the leaves, so the rest of us made our way to the side garden to begin the pruning.

We made our Best Bud (leia) team of four, first to take down the main branches and then to cut smaller for the green waste. Hard at work ........ we put all our effort in and ......... "saw it" off.

Hayley and Estelle got to work on some Holly Modification.

Whilst Llion and the Shauny Seans, hit the alley with a flood light, which brought dog walkers over with many a question of who we were and why we were there.

30 minutes went by in the blink of an eye and many a camera flash, it was time to down tools and decide where we were going to have our final picture. Energised and celebrating a completion of the task, the runners and three of the original walking group decided it was time to complete a quick lap of the local 'Rec'. It was a lovely added mile to the exercise tonight, every little counts......(other supermarkets are available).

After our final farewells, the walkers and the runners went their separate ways - with so many challenges a good stretch was needed at the end of the run tonight, followed by a small social and chat about a proper social in February to celebrate our January Challenge.