Nicola Marshall

Well, I won’t lie, I think we were all possibly a little put out last night….. It Rained!! It actually rained….. on a Goodgym night!!!! This is almost unheard of! Lol! For the last couple of weeks, it’s rained all day and then cleared up just in time for our task. This week, it was the opposite. It was beautiful all day and then started to rain just as we arrived at the task… we were almost at a loss as to know what to do with ourselves, haha ;-)

Joking aside, we didn’t let a few (actually, quite a lot) spots of rain deter us from our run!! We did a somewhat brief warmup and then set off. We did get wet but it didn’t dampen our chatting ability. We caught up with each other and the week’s news as we took in the soggy pavements of Crewe. We had planned a two mile route but have to confess to cutting it short as the rain seemed to be getting heavier and we didn’t want to be complete drowned rats for the task. Well, at least it was warm rain!

Back at base, we met with the lovely Debbie (who manages the community garden) and some other lovely residents - Jackie, Maisie and Paul. We should have been painting planters in the garden outside. Sadly, the weather had other ideas and this just wasn’t feasible in tonight’s rain. So, we bought the planters indoors (well, a slightly smaller version of the outdoor ones) and set to work.

It was a cosy evening spent in the company of Emily, Karen, Maurice & Steve. The room was a little snug but we still got the job done. I think this week, the prize for the messiest member had to go to Maurice. Had the paint been a darker green, he wouldn’t have looked too dissimilar to Shrek, lol! I think he may have had a good go at painting Karen as well! You do make us laugh Maurice ;-)

We got all 7 planters painted ready for the RHS judges who will be coming down to judge the garden in the next few weeks. The community garden really is a wonderful space. Not only does it get the community involved in growing beautiful flowers and produce but it’s a place where people come to be together – that’s something I’ve really observed since we’ve been visiting Sherborne. A real sense of community warmth. It’s always a pleasure to do tasks with them.

Well done team, another amazing job. Loved being with you all as always.

Have a great week and see you at the next one!

Nicola xx

It was another of those Goodgym days where it rained persistently all day. Every hour, I’m looking out of the window to check if it’s stopped- hopeful that it has and that it won’t interfere with our task for the evening. I don’t know why I bother to check as 9 times out of 10, by the time we come to do our tasks, it’s stopped and the sun is shining. Tonight was no exception…. The rain stopped, the pavements had dried and the sun was shining.

6 Goodgym members made their way to the start of tonight’s group run. Steve drove down in his new car, having passed his driving test last week. Congratulations Steve!, so happy for you. Question is…. will we see the bike again? Lol!

We had a lovely task for this evening - delivering packets of sunflower seeds to a residents of a local housing estate. A local community gardening group wanted to get the community, children in particular, involved in planting sunflower seeds and growing them (with a little bit of friendly competition involved as to who could grown the tallest one!).

Before getting to work on operation sunflower, we did a short warmup followed by our group run. We did a 2.5 mile circular route which took some of us to parts of Crewe we’d never been to before (that’s another great thing about Goodgym…. getting to see parts of your local area that you didn’t know existed!). It was a lovely evening to be out…. the sun was shining and the company was lovely as always.

On our return, we shared the 200 packets of seeds between us and set to work in getting them posted. It’s a bit of a rabbit warren of an estate, so we had to be careful that we didn’t duplicate our path. It was nice chatting to some of the residents as we went, especially some of the children who saw what we were doing and were keen to get involved and eagerly took the seeds from us. I can’t wait to see the results… I wonder who will win the prize for the tallest?

The delicious end to the evening came in the form of a portion of chips (or two) from the Coronation Street Chippy. Yummy Absolutely delicious. We stood and shared them outside as the sun was just beginning to set (Nigel even had curry on his and I was a tiny bit jealous, lol!). We had a good laugh as we chomped away and when we’d polished them off, we headed off home.

It was another lovely evening spent with lovely people doing a lovely task for our local community. Well done team, another task nailed! Enjoyed every moment of being with you as always.