We were so excited for our first task with Park Palace Ponies as our Group Run this week. Although the plan was to clear out the office, and not actually play with the ponies, we were hoping to sneak a peek as we galloped in for our task. Alas, the best laid plans... An hour before we were due to meet for our run, disaster struck, and Park Palace Ponies contacted us to regretfully cancel due to a safety issue - the roof had leaked and impacted the electrics. Everyone (and the ponies!) were fine, but they had to close the centre and the task wouldn't be able to go ahead at all.

Now as gutted as I was, even I recognised water + electricity = not safe, so regretfully we had to concede defeat and agree to reschedule when the office is back up and running.

That left the big question - what DO we do? Options varied from cancelling (not really the Goodgym way), an impromptu social, or a litter pick. The litter pick won out.

And so after swift organisation and collection of the litter picking kits, we headed to Smithdown Road where we'd heard there was some litter which needed clearing up. Thank you to Sally Ann for whipping up the litter pickers, and to Laura for savvily intercepting Sally Ann en route to carry the litter pickers whilst Sally Ann headed to the group run meeting point to capture anyone who hadn't got our messages.

Clara was fresh from organising her first GG Parkrun tourist trip to Worsley Woods over the weekend, and met Naser, who was proud to wear his red Goodgym shirt for the first time.

I was sulking about missing out on the promised ponies and reluctantly dragged myself along, finding litter little solace in this no-horse race. But the spirit of the team soon cheered me up. The group was such good company as we walked along, clearing as we went. We found no less than 3 x complete pairs of shoes, a little flashing blue light, and a Santa which was well overdue a clear up. Our wandering took us past a little green area on Smithdown Road, which happened to be the site of Naser's first ever task with us. We reminisced about that lovely task - Laura has been so good with the children who were 'helping' with painting the benches, and the fire brigade had arrived to check there was no anti-social activity going on - in fact it was quite the opposite!

Before we knew it, an hour had passed and we had 4 bags of litter to dispose of in the council bins. Despite the grey skies, the rain, and the distinct lack of ponies, we were all glad we'd turned out to do our little bit to contribute to the community.

Well done guys for the speedy change of plans and dedication to doing a little something to help out, even if it wasn't our 'mane' task. You can sleep easy when you 'hit the hay' tonight, knowing you've kept our contributions 'stable' and 'trotted' around the local area 'champing at the bit' to help (I really should save some of these for when we reschedule...)

After a week of glorious sunshine, Goodgym decided to take Parkrun on holiday and venture over to Manchester to try a new course, Worsley Woods, as highly recommended by Goodgymer Amina. After travelling by train and car share, we met up in a cafe then headed over to the car park. After a carefully manœuvred parallel park by myself (I was told to add this), we trotted up to the start line where a friendly local explained the 'lollipop' shaped course to us.

The run began, and we set off on an old railway line, thankfully shaded by the trees, before turning off on to a trail through the woods where we ran past brooks and over bridges. Out of the three parkrun I've done, this was the most beautiful by far! As we reassembled at the finish, it turned out Vikky had taken a bit of a tumble in the woods but we were able to get antiseptic wipes and make sure she was ok. Overall, everyone remarked how nice the run had been, despite some tales of woe!

After the run we found a local cafe and we ate brunch while planning the next parkrun trip before heading off to enjoy the rest of the day.

Super interesting task for this Monday! Our presence was requested with urgency for the Bombed Out Church re-turfing of their grass area as they had a wedding in just a couple of days!

And when someone asks for help, how can we say no? So off we go to the task on a day that was threatening to rain and make the job much harder. Luckily the rain stopped right as we all gathered around the entrance for introductions and debriefing.

It was definitely a task and a half, but we were up to measure even after some of us run a half marathon the day before! We weren't going to let some dirt keep us from completing our mission.

Like a SWAT team, we deployed our divide and conquer tactic. A few of us were in charge of clearing up big clumps and get the plot even and clear for the turf.

The rest of us had the tough job of carrying dozens of turf to key locations to ease the job of rolling them out later. Initially a trolley was used, but the tactics soon changed to a human chain , which was wonderful to see pros do what they do best. Strength is doubled when helping your neighbours and specially needed this time, but the time flew by and although it was impossible to get it all ready, we definitely a big portion of it and we're glad evening was back on track.

A special thing about this task was that it made me think that, you're not just volunteering and doing some work. You're having an impact on other people lives even if not directly. You're creating space for little miracles to happen so why not create as many chances as you can.

So anyway, here's today malapropism: many hands makes the world go round

PS. Should goodgym have a bat signal?

Walked over to Mrs B on a hot heatwave evening! Mrs B’s garden was lovely with amazing white flowers (Peonies, technical term determined by internet) and the grass had already been cut. So we decided to trim a bush type tree (technical gardening term) to stop it over growing but we couldn’t remove the tree twigs as the green bin was too full, a job for next time!

Then I did more chatting than work as Mrs B was telling me about how her garden used to be, how much she loves being out there but how her health does not allow it so much, also Mrs B's life with her late husband and her up and coming checkups in August.

Enjoyed the cooler dawdles home writing this report contemplating less tropical weather in August along with good news for Mrs B.

Smithdown in Bloom is a community group which looks after the popular Smithdown Road and surrounding streets, by adding planters, bringing some colour and greenery to the area, and other maintenance aspects like litter picking.

We received a last minute invite to join them for their planting event on Bank holiday Monday. We ummed and aahhhd over setting up the community mission, as it was a) only 3 days notice, b) bank holiday weekend, and c) set to be a scorcher. There was a little interest so we listed the task, and I prepped the task owner that we wouldn't be expecting a large turnout, but I'd be there and it would be nice to meet them with a view to arranging a session for our weekly group run some time.

Much to our surprise, a fabulous 9 Goodgymmers braved the heat and turned out to support the group. Smithdown in Bloom are developing as a group with founder Ian sadly due to move away, so they're reviewing processes, structure and looking at putting things in place to maintain consistency. The group were well prepared with lots of plants to plant, tools, water bottles and watering cans. They kindly advised the water wasn't just for the plants, we were encouraged to drink some too! It was super hot and collectively we got round all the planters: weeding them, adding new colourful plants, and giving them a good water to take root. We were approached by a group of 6 young teenage boys who asked about what we were doing, and who then kindly got involved and helped plant some plants, even refilling the watering can for us from the local shop. It was lovely to see such young people in the area getting involved.

After just over an hour we wrapped up the session and headed for a well needed iced drink (iced matcha latte with coconut milk for me 👌), cooling off before our regular Monday evening task later that same day. It was great to meet the Smithdown in Bloom team and we look forward to helping them again - we've already been invited back.

Well done everyone who attended for a great turn out on this gloriously sunny bank holiday weekend, we really demonstrated what Goodgym is all about ☀️

Another fine Monday evening, and we were back again at the Mulgrave street community garden. The garden has been growing away over the winter, and we were back on the scene to clear out all the weeds which had built up, and make space for the flowers to flourish properly. With no time to lose we got down to business and made swift progress, tallying up four hefty bags of weeds by the end of the session.

It was a classic Goodgym Monday, if you'll forgive a little sentimentality from the writer, it was a much needed boost for me. I've been recovering for much of this year from a major operation and a lot of work stress, and this session was my first day back in the wider world after my surgery. The community of Goodgym and our wider collaborators has become such a pillar of support for me and so many others, and I couldn't imagine a more welcoming community for faces old and new.