With Pete and Catherine enjoying a walk along the river to the task we were joined by James and soon put to work taking a gazeebo down, moving various tables and chairs and genetal tidy up. Much appreciated by Abigail and her small team and if anyone wants to help set up next sat with Mitch at Homestead Park many hands make light work....

3 GoodGymers turned up to the Tiny Forest as the sun shone on the daisy meadow and verdant new green tree growth. It was lovely to meet Nada Nada at her first forest session.We set to repairing the woodchip path / edging and filling in holes to make it flatter and safer. As always there was time to sit and enjoy the views. Chatter over coffee & biccies revolved round the many meanings of the word weed. In no time at all the entire wood chip heap was used up so it was time to go home.

The Land is on the edge of Haxby with a wonderful view of the Howardian Hills. Well done for Jake for running all the way to the task, some miles out of York, straight after work! We soon got stuck into shovelling the grit into barrows and carting it down a grassy track to make a stone track. It was a good decision to start laying the path a bit closer than the end of the road, a 5 minutes wobbly walk away! The sun soon came out and we focused on clearing the pile of grit that was blocking the mower's garage. It was a decent work out for all, so we celebrated our true Northern grit with cookies, iced buns, brownies and doughnuts. Well, it is Saturday! We will be back to do more, I'm sure!

Although it had been tipping down all day, 3 hardy GoodGymers turned up in full waterproofs to help with the gardening. However, a wonderful surprise awaited - a lovely warm indoor sitting down chatting task making cardboard boxes. These will be filled with jams, marmalade & chutneys to raise funds for Planet Food. Despite all the chatter, we were so efficient, we were stopped from making any more by the very grateful task owner.

It was another hot one in Paradise City (aka York), but that didn't deter us - a whopping 31 GGers ran, walked and biked to West Office Gardens, fuelled by our Appetite for (vegetative) Destruction. Jake and Ruth joined us for their second time - nice to see you both again - and it was Una's numero uno run out with us - welcome!

Having been given our brief on which plants should Live and which we should Let Die we got to it, clearing the area of overgrown vegetation to make space for a new planting scheme. We made quick work of the weeds, but the buddleia and other large shrubs gave us a run for our money: we Slashed them with saws, Duffed them up with spades, but it took heavy metal mattocks and Raw Power to really shift them. Martin twisted the roots, Jake heaved at them, and Kit tried pogoing on his spade, just for funsies. Vicky, Jamie, David and James showed great Patience cleaning up everyone else's mess, running around after us all with brooms and wheelbarrows. We were also tasked with trimming an oversized bush: Laura, Jenna, Scarlett and Jane tamed its frizzy locks, turning them from an out of control mullet to a tidy crewcut.

What had seemed at the outset an insurmountable task was actually completed very quickly - It's So Easy when there's a lot of you. Skip filled to the brim, we downed tools and laid out cones in preparation for fun and games. Ed led us in a round of competitive Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes - featuring an unseemly amount of squatting - culminating in a tiebreaker showdown between Jamie and George. The day went to Jamie, but he sportingly joined George in his second place burpees - Nice, Boys.

A ridiculously large turnout from GoodGym at the clothes swap this month with Pete making his first visit and Antonia making a welcome return. Good to see Issy back again as well.

The clothes swap volunteers were also there in force which meant we could enjoy a more relaxed morning than last month's chaos 😁

Lots of fun was had and Pete, Claire and me all walked away with outfits for upcoming festivities.