Spent a lovely sunny morning under a bridge with the billy goats. After feeding them lots of banana skins - who knew goats LOVE banana skins, we got to work clearing lots of bits of tree, brambles and general scrappy cuttings to a big heap further away. Now the goats have much more room to roam and it’s a lot easier to clear up after them and keep their area tidy. We were even treated to delicious banana cake (made with goats milk!) afterwards.

It was a most beautiful and glorious day when we set out to help one of our most favourite organisations. After a gruelling uphill run (well done everyone!) we arrived at troopers hill to see the largest pumpkin in Bristol (probably).

We set about helping Street Goat to clear a path of overgrown brambles and other dastardly foliage. By the end of our session you could once again walk freely where that had only been nettles and pain before. We also got to help out in the goat enclosure and even witnessed a head butting goat battle!

Always excellent hosts, street goat supplied us with food and drink before we once again set off for the much more pleasant downhill run back to mud dock.

A visit to Street Goat is always a popular task, and this week there was also the rumour that the goats had "finished being pregnant" - might there be baby goats???! Alas no, it turns out the goats are still very much pregnant and we were a month too early for a goat-birthing task* *(goat birthing will almost certainly not be a goodgym task)

However there were plenty of tasks to keep us busy, as always. After an obligatory bit of goat visiting, the group split into two teams. Team 1 tackled the fence-erecting, pounding in a series of perfectly spaced and level posts and getting a great workout in the process. Team 2 got stuck into a big pile of brambles that needing shifting from the goats' enclosure - apparently they will eat the leaves but not the woody bits. Lily the goat was eager to help, nibbling any remaining tasty morsels off the branches. Finally there were some trees to wrap in plastic netting to protect them from hungry goats.

Before we knew it, time was up, tasks were finished and snacks consumed, and it was time for everyone to say goodbye to the goats (and attempt to coax them into our group photo) and head off to scoff chocolate eggs and hot cross buns, and other such Easter activities. The group headed off +1 as Emma had acquired a travelling bear who will be accompanying her to London marathon! :-)

Thanks everyone for coming, and extra thanks to Dave for leading the running group from Mud Dock. Happy Easter!

Its a long old way to StreetGoat. Especially when they close all the crossings and you have to navigate a way all round Temple Meads roundabout. Luckily we had some super strong running today going on today and so we were only a couple of minutes late by the time we got to the allotments.

I'm not going to dwell on my reunion with my favourite Nanny goat Lily but it was certainly a special moment and she was clearly very happy to see me again. Good to see lots of others also taking an opportunity to get in a quick photo and petting opportunity with some of the goats as our time with them was a little fleeting today.

However, to balance the absence of goat we had FIRE. And BOW SAWS. And LOPPERS. And PRUNING SAWS. And a potential health and safety minefield. (The like of which hasn't been see since we bashed up a shed from the roof downwards last year)

So as I got my accident book out ready, everyone spread out around an enormous pile of sticks and branches to cut them to size and dispose of them on the nearby bonfire. As people worked through they looked out for any larger sturdier branches that could be made to us a fence and put them to one side.

With only about half an hour available to us, we still managed to make a huge dent in the pile and I'm please to report that there were no accidents so kudos to everyone for sawing and burning in such a professional manner.

The run back was a little easier as its mostly downhill so we got back in good time to wish Darren 'Happy Birthday' and head back to Mud Dock to share enojoy the cakes that he and Izzy brought along today.

A really happy morning out at StreetGoat this morning. There's something about goats wandering around that makes even the least desirable of tasks a joy. After a fairly testing 5k run uphill to get there - and an early start, there were still no shortage of volunteers to collect goat poo. Fi and Laura alone managed to collect two large buckets of the stuff!

Not to be outdone, our second team of Poo Collectors - Alison and Alice managed to work miracles on the goat bedroom producing a poo-free makeover that was clearly appreciated by our hooved companions - and amazingly they even had time for one or two photographs :)

The rest of the group were continuing the makeover theme by making available additional living space via the removal of assorted brambles and litter using rakes and wheelbarrows. Lovely to see Shona getting stuck in on her 'day off' and the joy on David's face as he discovered the turbo span adjustment feature on his very special rake (also nice to see said rake find its way back at the end and not depart along with David). Well done to Maria too on managing to move so many brambles with a punctured wheelbarrow.

With all this happy occupation, it was no surprise that the goats wanted in on the act - as can be seen in Alice's lovely photo of one of the goats with its wheelbarrow. But of course the star of Street Goat has always been Lily and it was particularly nice to catch up a bit while she munched happily down on the green around her tether.

Thanks for a great morning everyone and thanks to our host Amy for the post-task refreshments. (Incidentally, anyone who is interested in spending additional time at Street Goat and can't wait for our next visit in November should note that the group meet there for a work party every first Saturday)

Animals all round today as our two tasks took us to Goats (with kids!) and Dogs.

Great Dog Walk Together

The Great Dog Walk Together was organized in conjunction with the Jo Cox Foundation as part of the Great Get Together weekend. The community dog walk around the Downs hoped to give its participants the opportunity to meet new people from a diverse set of backgrounds while aiming to concentrate more on what they had in common rather than any differences that might divide them. It also gave its canine members a fun chance to be in the company of lots of their furry friends.

Particular thanks to Laura and Zdeni who arrived early to help set up and then joined the walk to act as marshals and on one occasion help to locate a lost four-legged tourist from Miami. Thanks also to Charlie for taking on another marshal slot and a special mention to Julie and Fergus who joined in as participants!

The rest of us took on the rather hilly route up to Clifton (respect to new GG runner Gina for making this her first run with uis!) and were tasked with collecting surveys so the organisers could check on whether the event had been successful and identify any improvements they might make in future. Thankfully everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves and were very willing to answer all the questions. Meanwhile the dogs (including marshal favourite Ruby) were given some free dog treats to chew on.

Street Goat

Patrick took on the lead role for our other task today up at Street Goat. We were needed to dig a water channel and it seems that even with a long run there and back, the group managed to complete this task and still have some time left over to play with the kids.

Many thanks to Patrick for stepping up and agreeing to take this on - and thanks to team Lewis-Priest for back marking

Happy Name Day to Zdeni!

Apparently in the Czech Republic everyone has a sort of second birthday with a day of the year set aside for each name and it just so happened that yesterday was Zdeni's. Hope you had a happy name day Zdeni - and thank you very much for the delicious brownies!!