Sam Ollason

A group of GoodGym volunteers went to help out at Bath Organic Group's community allotments near Victoria Park. Some of us has been to help out before and we also welcomed some new runners to GoodGym.

The first task was to lay bark chip down to recreate the path around their allotment. There has been lots of grass and weeds growing around and over the path recently so we had to clear some space with sickles first!

The second task was to recreate the path around their pond to make it safer for visitors and volunteers. We had to use hoes to remove the weeds before we could wheelbarrow the chips into a path shape;

After some much-appreciated home-made apple juice to give us a sugar boost we hoed over some ground in preparation of cabbage planting later this week.

We all enjoyed feeling physically and mentally refreshed after spending the morning in good company in the sunshine helping this great community group.

A group of GoodGymmers made their way to St Marks Church in Widcome. We have been back to help their team of volunteers maintain their garden area (used by a variety of community groups).

The wider piece of work at the church is to rebuild a wall that has fallen into disrepair over time.

We split into two groups again. Emily J and I helped the two lead volunteers gather rocks and build a more stable platform to walk along near the wall. We found some awesome beetles amongst the rocks as well as a few big spiders! And Jer, Rob and Emily K toiled away digging the top layers of soil to make an area for the builders to work on the top of the wall.

We saw an impressive variety of wildlife in the forest and we even treated ourselves to a cake from the bake sale being run by a local school (purely for the sugar boost, of course!)

Jane, Emily, Rachel and Sam met for a final session to finish painting the fabulous rainbow fence at First Steps in Twerton.

They may now also have some rainbow coloured paving! But overall the final look really brightens up the space and makes it a fun place for the children to enjoy the outdoors.

Thanks and well done to everyone who has helped out over the last few sessions to complete the project!

Today we were helping out the St Marks Community Centre in their garden area. A section of retaining wall in the deepest darkest part of the garden was crumbling and they needed help digging out the soil behind the wall to allow for easier repair. This was a Herculean task with all the garden weapons, whilst also trying to avoid maiming each other with forks, spades and mattocks.

Rachel, Aaron, Emily K, and David started attacking the section - pulling back ivy and thick roots to try and get to the soil underneath. We finally got a good rhythm going, breaking up the soil, shoveling into a wheelbarrow and wheeling off to a growing pile. Particularly satisfying was digging down and around an embedded metal fencing stake with Aaron finally being able to pull it out like King Arthur and the sword in the stone.

Meanwhile as there wasn't enough room for us all near the wall Sam and Emily J pulled back ivy from a fence in another part of the garden, and cleared a fresh section of path to make it easier to get access.

Whilst we didn't finish our task today we helped clear the area to make it easier to continue and let the organisers see how much soil they still need to shift.