April comes, and struggles to commit to Spring, as despite some sunny days recently the temperature has been a little on the chilly side.

In the sheltered courtyard of St John's Court however, we found ourselves in almost mild conditions as four GoodGymmers, Richard, Helen, Emily and Meyrick rocked up to help remove the Winter's weeds from the courtyard outide the dining hall.

This care/retirement home is in a lovely setting by the riverside and it's important that the residents can fully enjoy the outside areas as the weather warms up.

There were a lot of weeds though, but we are GoodGym and we made quick work of removing them with the limited tools we had at our disposal.

With a hope that Spring proper is only weeks away, let's hope the residents can enjoy this area all the better as the weather warms up.

Christmas was over in a flash. It felt like days had past since we put up the decorations but here we were posed to take them down again.

Since there were only 3 of us, we had to be speedy. We had 2 rooms, 3 Christmas trees to take down and pack away. We moved at pace, placing all decorations neatly into the numerous boxes they had come out of. We ran from room to room, squashing Christmas trees back into the boxes which seem far too small at first. But whilst two of us sat on the box, whilst the other taped it in place we managed to get them all boxed up.

Another year done and we look forward to returning in December.

GoodGym Bath made another trip to St John's court to help put up their Chrimbo deckies.

This has become an annual outing for us over the past few years, and once again we decked out 3 rooms to help brighten the place for the festive period.

In total we erected 3 Christmas trees, loads of dangly thingies, and about a million* lights. Lovely.

* actual figure may vary

Four of us arrived, four of us conquered, four of us spent much longer than anticipated to take down Christmas decorations.

You'd think that taking down decorations would be a quick job, however.... with Christmas trees, lots of ceiling tinsel with sellotape to remove and lights to pack away it certainly took us much longer than the hour planned.

This didn't worry us but did present us with a unexpected challenge. We removed the lights from two of the trees but the three tree was much more complex. With twists and turns around each and every branch it certainly took a while. Unfortunately it was only when half of the lights were removed did Helen point out that these trees come with lights already attached which didn't need removing... aaah!

But we had started, so we must finish. 45 minutes later and a tangled mess on the floor we slowly detangled the lights until ahhhahhha! It was done. Yay result. At least now this will make the job in December much easier for the next person....

It might have been the last day in November but for the Goodgym crew it was the beginning of Christmas.

Armed with bags of tinsel, baubles, stars and trees we set out to decorate the front foyer, back room and main cafe area ready for the residents at St Johns Court.

Some of the residents took a sneaky peak as we split into three teams to put up three trees. In no time the front foyer and back room had beautifully decorated Christmas trees which left the main cafe to be decorated from head to toe with tinsel. If there was a empty wall, we decorated it. By the end of the hour, the whole room glistened with tinsel and there were stockings and even crackers affixed to walls.

We only wish that we were flies on the wall this morning so that we could witness the residents rocking around the Christmas tree

GoodGym turned up to St John's Court by the River Avon on Tuesday evening to continue work already started on a previous Mission. There are still plenty of chairs left to paint and it was down to Christine, Max and Meyrick to pick up the brushes.

St John's Court provides Extra Care Housing for older people with some care needs and this small community has plenty of garden furniture that needs a new lease of life! As well as repainting five chairs whilst attempting to not get paint everywhere, there was also a table that needed repainting in a lovely blue, which Max completed in the time we were there. Christine and Meyrick managed four chairs between us in the company of three of the residents who were more than happy to chat whilst we worked.

There are still chairs to be painted so I can see GoodGym returning to finish the job on a future occasion.