Are we going to be allowed to pet the animals?!

It was a new task for our Group Run tonight following a switch around of our regular visit to Eagles Community Arena, this one pulled together by fearless fun run leader Katy. This had been a visit for previous Community Missions including a painting task last summer, so it was ace to get the chance to go along for a Group Run tonight too.

We took a different spin on the weekend round up today, with Katy also giving a special task force intro for the first time ever and giving us the lowdown on all the action from last week's puntastic Community Mission on Valentine's Day and all the great things that are coming up- so many things to get involved in, check them out here and sign up if you fancy.

It was a big welcome to new runners Eion, Melvyn and Maddy's Dad Andy who joined us for their first ever GoodGym run tonight. They all brought so much energy along with them and were so great to have along, we can't wait to see them all again. There was a lot of hand shaking and general kindness in the run/jog/walk warm up themed for Random Acts of Kindness day- kindness is our thing, right?!, then we got ready to head off to Ouseburn. Our conversation topic was around favourite films and thankfully not Spotify playlists which I had been forced to share in Apple last week. I loved the route tonight across the city and towards Byker, before dropping down the very steep bank towards Ouseburn Farm. Even better was having the wind behind us all the way!

Ouseburn Farm sits right in the middle of Ouseburn Valley and it's a working farm in a very cool part of Newcastle. They offer loads of activities and educational opportunities which you can read about on their website here. There were no animals for us tonight, just straight into the education rooms for our task. We were met by the brilliant and super-organised task owner Stuart who had loads of cleaning products out and ready for us. Our task was to clean down doors, skirting boards, door fascia and frames, with the biggest challenge being that we had to stay quiet due to a yoga class going on next door.

Namaste

We turned the room, staircase and passageway sparkly clean (Maddy, great job on that glass, by the way) and regrouped ready to head back into the cold for fitness. I kept it simple tonight, parlauf hill sprints and long recoveries with loads of cheering, high fiving and excellent marshalling from Paul and Rachael.

I'm sure you said there was only a minute left, a minute ago

As my final act of kindness I allowed everyone to walk the hill back up from Ouseburn as a little bit of a cool down before we headed back to Hotel Indigo.

Hope you all have a great week knowing you started it with good things!

See you next week,

Anji xx

PS: I wrote a thing for the GoodGym website for the Give it Heart theme last week, all about what it's like to be a runner with a heart condition. Please give it a read and share with anyone you think it might help. You'll find it here.

We were glad to answer a last minute call from Ouseburn Farm to help them tidy up for the summer. They hold events for children and those with Special Needs and Disabilities throughout the year, but moreso in the holidays.

Our job was to scrub down the walls and then paint them. Unfortunately, we had to wait a little while for the paint but that meant that once we'd cleaned the surfaces, we could visit our old pals - Sir Cucumber, Robson and Jerome and the other animals! Also, some 1-week and 3-week old bunnies! Awwww!

Once the paint arrived, we got stuck in! Soon, however, Evan was off to rugby with the GoodGym team - never a dull day! I soldiered on and painted the full staircase and began on the gloss before we needed to head out.

Hopefully we can help out this lovely charity again and see more of what they do to help people in our community.

We have lots going on this weekend to get involved with: Marshaling at Newcastle Pride on Saturday, Litter Picking at Pride on Sunday and the group run at WERS.

We were a well oiled machine at Ouseburn Farm as we returned for the third time to complete the painting work requested in their classroom.

Finally, the bright blue and cartoons is gone to leave a fresh white on the walls with chalkboard shutters for a bit of creativity! This space will be used for schools, groups of young people and adults with special educational needs and other community groups to complete a range of activities.

At GoodGym we like to do our best job so it was great to get to touch up the painting we'd done last week and also do some gloss painting which would tidy the room up totally. What a change!

Hopefully we will be back again soon to help the farm with more tasks in their education rooms.

We returned to Ouseburn Farm today for round two of our painting mission and the promise of more animal antics!

Carol Anne was first there (no surprise as she was definitely the most excited to see the animals again!) and was soon joined by Ross and I. We got straight to work on the walls and had managed a good fraction of the space when we heard the magic words...

Do you want to come and help take the sheep out?

YES. The three of us headed down to the farmyard and the volunteers explained that we would run behind the sheep as another volunteer ran in front with a bucket of food to direct them from their pen to a lovely grassy field. It was only a hundred yards or so, but sheep can definitely run faster than you'd expect! Next, Ross stepped up to the plate and offered to take the lead with the next pen...little did he know that these were the lambs, and were much speedier than the pregnant ewes!

Run, Ross, Run!

Hilarity over, Rachel and Dan arrived and we said a quick hello to the cows, pigs and goats before heading back into the classroom to get back to work. That being said, we had all put in so much work over the past two days that the second coat had to come to a halt as we ran out of paint! However, the chalkboard shutters were totally completed today and we will be returning next weekend to fully finish the walls - stay tuned for the mission listing!

Paint tidied away, we headed back to the animals and held the corn snakes and bearded dragons (other than Dan who is NOT a reptile person...)

We are so thankful to Ouseburn farm for allowing us to help out and we looking forward to coming back in the very near future. It's great to do something different and also know that you're making a difference to a small local charity.

If it hadn't been for GoodGym, I don't think we'd have had the chance to do any of these types of things! - Carol Anne

Okay, I may be biased since I organised the task, but I officially declare this GoodGym Newcastle's BEST. TASK. EVER. Firstly, it involved painting while singing along to the radio. Secondly, we got tea and coffee. And finally (but most importantly) we got to cuddle with some baby bunnies!

It was our first trip to Ouseburn Farm for a two day community mission to paint their education room. Our team of 9 GoodGymers successfully completed the first coat of white on the walls and chalkboard paint on the shutters in just over an hour! GO TEAM!

I think we're going to need a second coat. That's a lot of blue...

Sally, the task owner, then surprised us with a visit from Sir Cucumber, a 3-week-old bunny who was the fluffiest and cutest little thing we had ever seen.

"Who wants to hold him?" - Sally

"ME!"- Carol Anne (less than a millisecond later)

After we'd finished coat number one, Louise expertly cleaned up the brushes and we tidied our painting gear and hopped down to the farm to find some more fluffy animals! We had a lovely snuggle with Sir Cucumber and his friends (inspiring Ross and I to find out whether they could get some pet rabbits...) and then Aimee, Miranda, Carol Anne and Evan got to take the goats for a walk on this lovely Sunny Saturday!

We're looking forward to coming back tomorrow for more painting and especially to see our new furry friends again! Check out the listing here, we hope to see you there!