After a lovely(i) evening, Sunday dawned grey and mizzly. Having whipped the hostel back into shape in the nick of time, we were treated to the shortest(ii) ever task commute known to a GG weekend(iii). The lovely folks at the RSPB are now responsible for looking after the historic Sherwood Forest, and were prepared with a whole host of jobs for us to undertake. They seemed unduly concerned about the poor weather, where it was now definitely raining, but we(iv) insisted we were sufficiently hardly and would carry on regardless.

Volunteers were requested for various weeding, de-leafing and edge clearing tasks around the visitors centre itself, the polishing of remembrance plaques on the Tree of Life installation, and litter picking in the great forest itself. In a break from tradition we assembled for a group photo at the start of the task(v), before going our merry (wo/men) ways, and setting about our work. It is fair to say that some folks were more tired(vi) than others after a busy weekend, but Bec as ever was keen and raring to go. "I've got a fork and I want to weed, but I don't know where!" The answer being between the Robin Hood statue and the bin store, naturally.

A good-sized group made a cracking job of neatening up all the edging of the lovely smooth path surfaces(vii) and clearing leaves from the surrounding grassy areas, armed with very shiny yellow rakes and turf edgers. Many(viii) wheelbarrows of leaves were relocated and encouraged that they would much prefer their new homes, and the overall effect was a definite improvement(ix) . Lured by the combination of "brasso" and "overhang" Debs and Jen found their way to the Tree of Life, and Debs explained her affiliation for polishing shiny things. Alas two plaques were out of reach, but all the rest are now gleaming(x) in their remembrance of lovely humans for whom this was a special place. From up above the voices of Mitch and Paul drifted down, as they found more edges to attend to. Our final team of hardy hoods-up do-gooders set off into the forest, litter pickers in hand. It has to be one of our more scenic places for a little pick, but fortunately it seemed that they had to try quite hard to find litter, digging deep into the soggy undergrowth. Steve did a doubly good job of not only finding two footballs, but somehow managing to give them away to good homes too!

As the jobs came to an end(xi), various folks took the opportunity to explore the forest, making the lengthy(xii) pilgrimage to the legendary Major Oak, whilst bagging yet more kilometers for the January Challenge. Meanwhile some of our younger(xiii) members enjoyed the many delights of the fabulous visitors centre and cafe. Birthday girl Katie showed off her skills with a bow and arrow to great effect.

As lunchtime approached, and the parents(xiv) summoned their young outlaws reluctantly back out the forest, it was time to head home after a cracking weekend. Hot baths and 2 hour naps were on the cards, but the warmth of doing good with excellent humans will last much longer.

(i) Unless you were Amy (ii) 50m (iii) or any task full stop? (iv) Ed (v) presumably in case anyone didn't come back (vi) "tired" (vii) resin-bound gravel apparently, (as your author descends down a rabbit hole of surfacing specialities...) (viii) I'm guessing here (ix) fingers crossed! (x) relatively speaking (xi) ish (xii) 10 minute (xiii) at heart (xiv) The Griffs

Various groups of GoodGymmers gathered at the National Trust’s Clumber Park for our afternoon task. We split into two groups - Team Greenhouse and Team Old Garage.

10 DIY eager beavers volunteered to build Billy bookcases (for the new secondhand bookshop), splitting into pairs to tackle this demanding job. The pressure was on, having been instructed to ensure they were safe for both the hordes of donated books and the masses of potential book-buyers. Tensions (and temperatures) rose in the garage and a certain David Barrett was heard to suppose that a certain Ed Woollard “would never speak to him again” after an instruction-reading incident…(NB These two characters were later seen in conversation in a small micro-brewery so I think that particular incident was resolved, phew.)

Meanwhile, the other half of Team Old Garage were set hard to work, tidying the outside area of what will soon be the main visitor welcome area. Standards were set high and the team were soon hard at work with the tools available, brushing, raking, grabbing and barrowing leaves. Michael L heard of an opportunity to go on a roof so immediately volunteered. A ladder was sought and health and safety instructions were given. Soon, the roof and floor were both looking lovely, although Tristan expressed strong reservations of the durability of our progress, suggesting that a single gust of wind might blow all our piled-up leaves back on to cleared area…Hopefully not though!

While Team Old Garage were hard at work, messages were received that Team Greenhouse were having a tea and cake break! Much disgruntlement followed and soon, various members were dispatched to the walled garden to source and bring back cake to the hardworking remaining team.

This gave us a chance to see what Team Greenhouse had been up to, namely digging, and lots of it. They’d been tasked with clearing a big bed in front of what was soon to become the new cycle hire place (having been moved out of the old garage). The before, during and after photos show the hard work that went in to clear a bed, with many roots being dug up, many of a significant size.

Soon, it was time to down tools and view the incredible sight of Clumber Park’s very own tool-washing machine. Vicky in particular was very excited! At a similar time, we also got a sneak peek in the (very well-stocked) wheelbarrow store (don’t tell Becca who was definitively told there was only one wheelbarrow for Team Old Garage’s use and did what must have been a record-number of trips with said single wheelbarrow, transporting all the leaves).

Next up, it was team photo time before we split into various groups to make our way back to the hostel (many of us via a micro-brewery and some “different” routes back!)

Thanks everyone!

*Joint collaboration credit to James T for the pun!