Thursday 6:15pm is GoodGym Windsor Night! 👑🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️

Tonight we were doing a double bill with not one but two acts of kindness 👏🏻 💪🏻

Helen ( who had just run the London Marathon 🏃🏻‍♀️ 👏🏻🎖️), Devon and Mandy met at The Binoy for a social run and Sue, Adam and Margaret (her debut GoodGym session 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻) met us at the task.

Then the show began …. Or was it a circus 🤣

For our first act we met our task owner Anne at Busy Buttons (St Agnes Church) and Anne kindly showed us the church garden. We de-weeded the gravel drains, broke down and moved some old wooden furniture and other rubbish to the front of the church to be collected and swept/made tidy. Devon even did a bit of guttering clearance !

After the interval (as in us hot footing to the pathway near the church with our belongings) we got to work for our second task. We had done some work here in the dark but we had not quite finished it so we did that tonight. Devon and Adam had a great technique and were very neat and precise and polished. Mandy less so 🤣 she kept getting her lines all wrong 🤣 although Helen did keep her in check. Sue and Margaret attached the brambles. We filled three bags which is amazing in the time we had.

Soon it was time for the final curtain and we took a bow, gave ourselves an huge round of applause and made our way home.

Thank you all as always Windsor GGs 👑 ♥️👏🏻

On a beautiful sunny morning, 6 Goodgymmers met up with Karen Davies at Spital Cemetery for one of their regular clean-up sessions. Although Margaret has been helping out at the cemetery for a long time, this was her first session under the Goodgym banner, so welcome! We set about clearing some huge piles of branches and grass left by an unknown person, who had been spotted clearing some graves so he could take an image of the inscriptions. Unfortunately he left a trail of devastation behind him, which needed clearing away. Sue and Margaret worked on one area, while Matthew, Scarlett, Sheila and Tessa worked in another. Matthew started chopping up the branches already left by the side of the headstone, putting them in a dumpy bag, while Sheila and Tessa tackled cutting down the remains of the bush. We realised as we worked, that it was the 75-year anniversary of the death of the lady who the grave belonged to - Bessie Nicholls died on 25th April 1949. The bush was a pyracantha, which was extremely prickly and difficult to deal with, but Matthew was up to the task and bashed and cajoled it into submission. We disturbed a beautiful yellow moth, which was later identified as a brimstone moth. Scarlett worked on a different grave, that of Edith Wilcocks who also died in 1949. By the end of the session, an incredible 6 dumpy bags had been filled, and are awaiting collection by Tivoli. Great work by the team to get the cemetery looking tidy again.

Thursday 6:15pm is GoodGym Windsor Night! 👑🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️

Tonight we were helping The Windsor Boys’ School Boat Club filling potholes along the track and cutting some plants back. The track is used to transport the rowing boats on trailers from their storage areas to the river and potholes can cause damage to the boats.

Bekah and Mandy ran to meet the walkers - Caroline, Didem and Sue at Sutherland Grange and Adam met us at the task.

Ryan our Cox for the evening was at the ready with spades, shovels, rakes, lots of rocks/gravel/stones and some gardening equipment.

Mandy put the noughties dance tunes on the radio . Adam took possession of the wheelbarrow. Sue’s eyes lit up when she heard the word pruning and she was happily lost in the jungle 🌿 for a majority of the session. The rest of the crew grabbed a spade and launched into hunting for holes 🕳️ and fill with gravel. We made our way from the entrance up the track to the river. Each filled pothole needed stomping down and raking over to get a good level surface. There was a bit of shuttle walking/running going on as we had to get the gravel from the pile and take it to the holes. Lots of exercise for all the group tonight and a lovely view of the Thames and some rowers. Looking back at the completed track was hole- y ful- filling. We had to drag Sue away from the shrubs ( she’s hardcore!) as it was time for our end of session curtsy.

On the way back we waved at a stranger 👋🏻 thinking it was Adam 🤣 the poor man though we were potty 😂

We said our goodbyes and made our way home.

Thank you all as always Windsor GGs 👑 ♥️👏🏻

Thursday at 6:15pm is GoodGym Windsor night 👑🏃‍♂️🏃🏻‍♀️ and tonight we were at Vale Road Cemetery doing its first tidy up of the spring.

This was a community mission so Adam, Zoe, Helen and Mandy made our way with a social run the long way round from the meeting point at The Binoy and Sue met us there. Huge welcome to Zoe who was attending her very first GoodGym session 👏🏻♥️

The task owner Paul had left tunny bags for us and given Mandy instructions. Sue is also a regular volunteer there so we had an expert on hand.

We split the team with Sue and Adam attacking the Ivy on the fences, trees and gravestones on the far side they were not ghouling around 👻 . While Helen, Zoe and Mandy stayed nearer the entrance collecting leaves bending, squatting and pulling the tunny bag as we went and Helen had a good go at pulling down the tallest bramble ever known but sadly failed but lots of effort was put in trying 🤣 Mandy also found a bone 🦴…. Don’t worry it wasn’t human we didn’t do any digging!

Lots of chats and looking at how much difference we made lifted our spirits 👻

We left the two full bags for collection by the council tomorrow and the rubbish in the bins.

After the task Sue and Helen made their way back but Zoe, Adam and Mandy decided to get RIP- ped 🪦and used some fitness playing cards for a quick extra fun workout followed by the Windsor 👑 curtsy/bow before we made back to the meeting point.

Thank you all for coming. ♥️🏃🏻‍♀️🏃‍♂️👏🏻

Photos by Mandy (although I forgot to take one of the two full tunny bags at the end 😬 sorry)

Title of report - Adam 🤣 yes I stole it!

Thursday 6:15pm is GoodGym Windsor Night! 👑🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️

Tonight we were helping the Achieving for Children - Family Hub Service improve the aesthetics of their entrance way.

This was a community mission so we met at the The Binoy for a social walk with some tools and other items we needed for the task.

We were met by task owner Daniel and a Spanish Storm called Nelson! They both introduced themselves 🤣 Nelson was particularly forceful! 💨💦

We put on the 70s music to drown out the wind and have a sing/dance to as Jen, Didem, Devon, Sue and Mandy set about the weeding, ripping up the old weed-proof lining, removing leaves and litter.

Nearly lost the dust pan a few times in the air and everything was flapping about. But the we kept going in true GG spirit.

Once the main weeding was completed we did our very best to brush away the mud and debris but this was made difficult by the rain so we improvised with a bucket and old kettle to try and swilll some of the mud away. We also gave the inside a hoover at the end to get rid of any mud.

We then took the bags over to the bin area with Daniel.

Sadly it was too wet and windy for Easter games 🐰🐣( maybe next week?) or to paint the bench but we will try and go back for that another time. Sue will also go back and scatter some grass seed 🌱on the cultivated earth in the next few days 👏🏻♥️ when the wind has died down.

Thank you all as always for coming especially given the conditions 👏🏻♥️

Photos by Mandy

Tessa, Sue and Sheila turned out to help Friends of Spital Cemetery with their first tidy-up session of the season. We split into two groups, with Sue's group tackling a bush which had completely covered one grave. With 4 people tackling it, the bush was soon removed, and the gravestone and surround are now visible. What a transformation! Meanwhile Tessa and Sheila tackled a few smaller projects, removing ivy before it could take a proper hold. Unfortunately we could not read some of the inscriptions on the stones - we would love to know some of the family stories. Unfortunately the Heavens then opened (appropriately enough!), and heavy rain stopped play for now