Our first part of a two part mission, we were called to action for the biggest task at Cwtch Together yet.

But first..... 4 joggers, 2 walking group, 2 cycling and 3 more walking from home. This was our 11 goodgymers for the evening, and you were all welcome and very much needed.

The task at hand, clearing an entire store room.... Sarah (organiser) stop buying things! All items had to be moved out to the main scout hall, where it would sit whilst work was being carried out.

The following task will be moving it to the new store. But back to now. With cans of water (Michael's favourite liquid death) and sweets available, no reason for dips of energy.

But plenty of time to dip and lick.... (see photos for context).

It was a nostalgic trip as we moved things, thinking back to when we were younger and having the fun of playing with toys. There was the need to unscrew fixtures, moving shelving and all of the gardening equipment that we know, oh so well.

Still time to spare....

10 more minutes, Michael called. So outside we went, a bit of quick leaf clearing and bramble / nettle cutting and we were done.

A photo to prove that we were here, and we were off, fueled by the sugar of sweets and pure determination. We will return next week, to move it and ourselves once more.....

Another hot hot evening for the goodgymers of Cardiff. We welcomed our first timer to the mix....

CROESO

Welcome Abdullah, we are very pleased to have you on a task with us tonight.

It was a mixed group of joggers, walkers and cyclists for the journey, but all on the same route direct through the beautiful park and up to the cricket ground changing rooms. The only tap, and in direct sunshine....

So to our task for the evening, to fill the four bowsers (40 litres in each), run them 300m to the Orchard, empty the water into watering cans (some heavy lifting required), rinse and repeat.........

We were also joined by some of the orchard volunteers, some helped us with the watering whilst others went off for some wild seed collecting - some yellow rattle had been spotted so they were on the job to collect as much as possible for use at the orchard this winter to help us keep some of the grass under control so that our wildflower meadows could be expanded.

First job was at the tap where we all gathered, we filled the four bowsers and 6 watering cans and made our way to the Orchard. There were a few water works, some unfortunate drips and a moistened short crotch (sorry Jonathan).....thankfully it's hot enough to dry off fast!

Before we even got started there was time to stop and watch a cluster of dragonflies that were feeding at the orchard, just ask Michael he has a lot of videos of them....

Time to get tasking

Abdullah, Jonathan, Rosie, Darcey & Dylan were all on can duty, and what beautiful cans they were.

Aaron, Michael & Nathan were on bowser patrol, along with one of the orchard volunteers and even the lovely Mel that leads the orchard. In total it was 7 trips to the tap for each bowser = 2.1 km each. Add on the 40 kg of water for each of the 4 trips full, and thats an impressive 160 kg of weight per bowser....

What a workout!

In total we went through 610 litres of water, helping to keep our trees going, which in turn is having an amazing effect on the wildlife in the area. We have seen a noticeable increase in butterflies, moths, and bees. We have had green woodpeckers nesting, seen many a dragonfly and the occasional Jay and Tawny Owl.

It's such a pleasure to see the Community Orchard get stronger and bigger every year.

I was run director at Cardiff junior parkrun. Although it had been a bit difficult to get all the volunteers I needed for the day, everything came together alright for Sunday morning.

But, disaster was waiting. According to the Finish Token volunteers, the tokens had not been sorted correctly in the previous week. As a result, finishers 1 - 26 were getting finishing token numbers that did not fit with finishing in 1st to 26th place. There were some concerned and unhappy finishers, who were worried about their stats. Luckily, this is something that was easily fixed in the computer side of parkrun.

200 finishers in total! And 3 milestone wristbands were given out ( 2 x 25 milestone, and 1 x 75 milestone).

A return to St. Paul's Community Hall and Church tonight. But first, time to ask one of the strangest questions at a bar......

did you find my watering cans last week?

Some 13 goodgymers tonight, so plenty to get done. We welcomed to their first task, Bruno

CROESO

And back for their second helping of volunteering, and this week joining the runners Abdullah.

Sneaking in at the last minute, and thinking he'd bypass the tradition by not signing up! Dylan arrived, but unbeknown to him we had already planned for this. Thanks Rosie 😁

And so without further delay.. Congratulations on hitting 100.

Hope you enjoy wearing the wings for the evening.

The walking group made their way on a slightly more direct route, led by Emma.

The runners took a route following the river and getting a wonderful breeze, and arrived to meet our organiser and a couple of goodgymers who had made their own way there.

We had a big task tonight, as so much of the grounds had become overgrown... Even in a drought. We split into groups to get as much completed as possible.

• Group 1 were on fence clearing
• Group 2 were clearing in between the paving slabs
• Group 3 tackling the side
• Group 4 around the back

There was cutting of the ivy around the fences, before the crew got their energy and started ripping it off. The tree saplings that had taken root were also cut back, leaving a nice clear site. The pathway was cleared using some tough wire brushes, before being sprayed to keep those weeds at bay. We may have broken a brush or two, but our organiser had admitted to buying cheap online....

The side had a lot of misplaced plants, so they were removed before the whole area was swept and made all spick and span again.

And then came the back.......Everywhere you looked there were plants to be pulled. Rosebay willowherb and buddleja where just a couple. Due to the drought conditions of late though, they were a little easier to pull up, but the seeds and pollen certainly got up noses. And so, the conversation got onto the conga - Standard.

The original by Miami Sound Machine and Gloria Estefan, and the childhood / wedding party delight from Black Lace.

Distraction out of the way, we downed tools and made our way to the front for our standard group photo. We achieved a lot more than our task organiser expected, meaning our next trip could be something a bit different. Thanks team for a successful evening, see you next time.

It was a split group tonight, half meeting at the task and half jogging in the heat.

Even with a few late night's of rain, it still hadn't been enough to penetrate the earth and keep things green. So, goodgym gets to the cans again.

Tonight, we were heading to Global Gardens to volunteer our time and help to keep the space alive. Michael led the crew around the site showing them the different areas, a lot of which goodgym have been very involved with. The orchard, the forest school, the newly cleared children growing space and the general growing spaces for the volunteers and community.

There was certainly plenty to water, and a chance for lots of extra steps back and forth to the trough. We got out our watering cans, bowls, anything really that could hold water. Unfortunately the trough that we used wasn't filling all too quickly and it wasn't too long before we had managed to empty it.

A quick run around and we found a much better second trough, one that actually filled back up quicker. So our task resumed...

We managed to water parts of the orchard, the children's growing area, the pumpkin trellis, the general beds and even the tomato polytunnel.... We may have tried a pea or two... And the odd apple....

Thanks to a great crew tonight, we have helped again to keep those spaces of beauty in Cardiff to keep growing and thriving.

Join us next week, as we head to Cwtch Together.. See you there folks!

Our second successful task at the local community orchard in Cardiff.

Welcome to our first timers, Jenny and Mhairi.

CROESO

And back for more, on their second return task Darcey (and the orchard again.... do you have a favourite task already?).

Our groups tonight had walkers Michael, Jenny, Rosie, Dylan and Dylan.

Runners Mhairi, David, Darren, Darcey, Aaron and Emily.

And on the cycle..... Lew.

With very little rain in the recent months we needed to help out the trees in the orchard. With some only recently planted (this year), they are much more vulnerable to droughts.

Unfortunately other community spaces in Cathays and Bute Park have had 30-40% of their newly planted trees die this year due to drought conditions.

GoodGym are not going to let this happen to the orchard!

A great team effort watering a lot of trees. We had our extra workout rolling the bowsers to the tsp and back, then team spout got to the watering cans. We managed all the trees tonight, and then had a wildflower spotting session with the wonderful Bodge.