5 of us met at HQ ready to run up to Beaulieu Community Centre to wash their windows on a glorious summers eve. A big welcome back to Mike after returning from a suspected sprained ankle and ready to test it out on a 3.5km run out.

We ran up to Beaulieu with a few walks along the way as it was getting rather warm and we met Fay and Sallyann already hard at work. As everyone was hard at work and in need of a cool down from the heat, I popped into the local Sainsbury's and lucky found one of the last packs of Cornettos still in their freezer.

With windows cleaned, and buckets and flannels rinsed and tidied away we set off back to HQ. maybe it was the tail wind. maybe it was mostly downhill, but i think it was the cornetto that put a spring in our step and whisked us back soon than we thought.

Thanks for coming everyone, next week David will be leading a run to a local free library where we will be donating some books. ( bring any books you wish to carry and run with )

Until next time...

RUN HAPPY

Rich

After a very heavy downpour, the sun came out just in time. I met Andy and Joel at HQ and we had a chatty run to the church, where Sallyann was waiting for us. We grabbed our tools and started pulling up the grass that was growing between the cracks in the paving. The rain had at least made it easy to get the weeds out, and we got a couple of sections of the path clear.
Good job everyone!

Next week our task is cleaning windows at Beaulieu Community Centre.

A team of 5 of us set off towards the new Hawthorns School, with an idea of where we were going, but in the knowledge that our maps may not get us to the right place. Our task was to assist with assembling tents on the school field, to provide shelter for the students in the hot summer months.

We made our best guesses and got to the right place, where we found a mix of tents that our host Louise had found locally on a social media marketplace.

Russell (best tent builder on the team) and David (best at keeping team morale up) started by helping the other assemblers, and managed to put a tent up successfully.

Jane (best at monkey bars), Ben (best tent building confidence) and myself (best at...supervising?) chose one of the other tents, and whilst we started out with a lot of enthusiasm, that waned once we realised the poles were so damaged that it wouldn't be possible. We decided it wasn't salvageable and went with the choice of Russell and David, and rallied together to build a six mesh sided tent. It was getting more ominously windy as the tent went up, but it didn't stop us.

Great work team, and lets hope the Hawthorns School have us back again!

See you all soon,

Laurie

What happened to the sunshine?!?!

Anyway I wandered down in the rain and lobbed the four bags away in the main bin.

Ten GoodGymers managed not to melt while helping look after the community garden in Broomfield. Nine of us arrived in the heat to find Jess already slaving away at our mission of moving a tonne of bark and watering the flower beds. Sallyann, Joel, Richard, Jess and Laurie were soon shovelling the wood chippings into buckets, while Andy, Rich, Leanne, Ben and Martin spread it over the ground and watered the plants. By the time we finished the smouldering mound of bark had been reduced to a mere mole hill. Well done everyone!

Run leader Rich and I met Andy at the gym, and it was good to see Leah, who was able to sign up last minute after getting away from work in time. We had a chatty run to St Luke's Church, and when I walked up the hill to placate my hay fevery lungs, back marker Andy walked with me (at GoodGym no-one gets left behind). When we arrived, Sallyann was already working away (as always, she was the only one to remember to bring her gardening gloves), and David and Dawn from St Luke's welcomed the rest of us with tools and an offer of a drink. David was last to arrive, a little the worse for lack of sleep. Grass and moss had taken root in the cracks on the main path leading to the church, but with six pairs of hands it didn't take long to get it all up, and edge the grass too. We swept and tidied up, and headed off, a good job done. Next week we are back at Broomfield allotments, and don't forget there's a social after at Back Inn Time.