Despite the evenings getting darker, GG Brighton made a welcome return to Sloane Court to practice our specialty: destructive gardening. Over the summer the plants and weeds had grown wild, to the extent that the paved area was difficult to use and residents couldn't access their shed due to a giant buddleia.

Selecting our tools from the highly organised collection, we got stuck into pulling weeds, lopping branches, and trimming the herb garden, while Frances had the privilege of trimming a notorious bush at the front of the building. Head torches came in very handy, and the fragrances of snipped sage and rosemary accompanied our work. In the space of 45 minutes we transformed the back garden from an overgrown obstacle course into an accessible space for the older residents.

Huge congrats to Jane, who has completed over 50 good deeds with GoodGym and has a snazzy new black t-shirt to show for it!

After the task there was a unanimous decision to ditch the fitness session and get back home/to the pub, although Sarah got in some hill sprints on our behalf! Thanks everyone for another great session, see you again soon :)

Two years ago my new friend Rosemary invited me along to her nerdy running club. It wasn't really my thing...or so I thought. Here I am fifty tasks later, a fully subscribed GG nerd 🤓

Seven of us met outside the Ladyboys' tent (#BrightonFestival) and ran up a brutal hill to Sloane Court. We had no idea the residents of this older adults housing scheme were such talented artists! They have been participating in the Artists' Open Houses Festival, and are displaying a fabulous range of paintings, drawings, and photographs: https://aoh.org.uk/house/may2023/drawing-together-sloane-court/

The team got stuck in with tidying up the gardens, to keep the place looking lush for the many art-hungry visitors. Weeds were pulled, borders were hoe'd, paths were swept, and bushes were trimmed.

A quick HIIT session in Queens Park helped tone our glutes 🍑 and stabilise our knees to support our running 🏃‍♀️

After all that thirsty work, a few of us headed down to the Spiegeltent to soak up the festival ambience ✨ Our next session will be the trail run at Seven Sisters on Sunday 14th May- look forward to seeing you there!

Six GoodGymers overcame depressive darkness, fierce gales and intermittent torrential rains to visit Sloane Court for some destructive gardening. The task owner welcomed us and showed us the absolutely stunning tool collection, from which we selected our weapons and went into the night.

Two team members did a thorough job weeding the fire escape route, while the rest of us headed out back to hack at overgrown shrubs and tenacious bindweed. Our discoveries of an unidentified bone and an abandoned child's shoe fortunately did not herald the start of a horror film, and we all left the premises in one piece. Until next time...

This week we had 3 (THREE!!) milestones to celebrate: Jason and Michelle have reached 50 good deeds and Michael has now reached 200 good deeds 🥳🥳🥳 Congratulations and thank you for all the great things you've achieved over the years!

We welcomed Sarah who joins us again to share in her first gardening task. Hope you had fun with the loppers!

Sloane Court and resident Tony are old favourites of Brighton Goodgym. The fantastic, and well established grounds, needed some trimming back after a summer of sun and the recent down pours. Luckily the rain stayed off while we were hacking back huge trees, bushes and hedges as well as clearing path ways to make them more accessible.

As the photos show, we had a number of great transformations and Tony was extremely pleased with what we managed to get done as it started to get dark. En route to the pub we practiced sprinting up hill using one of the seafront ramps while recovering on the descent. Our hard work earned us our beers! 🍻

Hopefully I can be forgiven for using a classic pun...?

This week we ventured closer to the town centre by taking a leisurely jog to our beloved Sloane Court where we were met by gardening enthusiast Tony, a resident of the mature accommodation. He introduced us to new resident, James who used to garden at Stamner park where courses in horticulture are taught!

Rebecca and Katharine concentrated in the front gardens with weeding and digging out a bed ready for rose bushes to be planted later in the week. Tony was extremely pleased at how much was done and suggested a let the two of them off the fitness (no such luck)!

The rest of us followed James to the back gardens to thin out a walled shrubbery and get the better of some grass bushes. Philippa and Jason wrestled with one bush but were a victorious tag team! There was much cutting back and weeding accomplished, but with the wet and sunny weather recently there is still much to do! We promised James and Tony we will be back soon.

Some of us will be running the events in the Brighton Trial Marathon on Sunday 26th June with a course that includes a bit of hill climbing. So we set up in Queens Park to do some exercises to build our quads and glutes to make those hills (a little bit) easier.

Hopefully we'll be seeing some of you for a trail run and roast lunch on Sunday, please check out the running listings to sign up!

The first winter task convened on what happened to be the coldest night in a long time. We ran up the hill that is Edward Street towards Sloane Court to once again tackle the large garden at this senior citizens accommodation.

Usually we would meet our friend Tony there and he would direct us, chat away and tell stories. Unfortunately Tony is under the weather at the moment....we missed his double éntendres. Get well soon Tony.

We mainly cleared a lot of dead foliage and chopped down some bushes that had left this mortal coil. Jason in particular was determined to dig out a large,stubborn root to the point that a fork he was using also met its maker.

When finished we jogged down to the seafront and Tara put us through some sprints. This writer tried to go for broke and is feeling it this morning!

Another task well done.