☀ 21 excellent GoodGymmers gathered for our sunny group run this evening.

🦸‍♀ We were thrilled to welcome back Louise who was visiting from London for the double-whammer of her birthday and her 500th good deed. What a hero, especially as this was her 3rd good deed of the day to get there! She posed with the cape but we didn’t make her wear it all evening as it was a tad toasty.

🏆 The other celebration was the arrival of the golden trowel, which Dom brought up from the GoodGym shindig this weekend. Of course we had to get a group photo with it 🤳

✌We had two tasks this evening so Mitch led a super crew of six to Gale Farm Court to varnish some benches there. Here’s what he had to say:

🖌 "We painted the town (or benches) red"

🎨 Six GoodGymmers arrived at Gale Farm Court (via a few diversions...sorry) to help scrape and paint two beaches. With the hot dry weather, this was perfect. So after an hour(ish) of scraping, painting and more painting, between the 6 of us, we had the beaches painted and looking in a better state.

🏥 The rest of us headed to York Hospital where we split into three further groups - Renal, Labour and Mosaic.

👶 The Labour group were weeding and tidying up the wellbeing garden there. They were reassured that they wouldn’t see anyone giving birth, though sadly also wouldn’t see any tiny babies.

💦 Here’s what Ed had to say about Team Renal:

🐜 We got to work in quite a small courtyard area, getting rid of weeds and disturbing woodlice. There was a lot of fake grass that had moss growing over it so some of us did a bit of scraping to remove the moss. We all agreed that fake grass is appalling and should be banned. Other than that nothing remarkable

🧽 Meanwhile, the Mosaic group were armed with soapy water, brushes and cloths. They set to work cleaning the mosaic and soon made a noticeable difference, realising how shiny it could look once clean. They also tackled the spiky sculpture thing in the middle, realising that this was really a task for Team Tall. Steve Rice put in a sterling effort, leaping to reach the top of the spikes with the long brush - very impressive. Amongst the leaping shenanigans, Nicky did some weeding. Not that many weeds were located (proving that the garden is very well cared for) but there were sadly two dead birds (the Labour garden apparently had a net to prevent similar tragedies). We wondered if the turkey statue was a monument to its fallen feathered comrades 🦃

🥵 It was soon time to head back to base where we gathered and made the group decision that it was too warm for fitness.

🍰 People were also keen to get to the pub and enjoy the delicacies very thoughtfully provided by Louise alongside some much-needed liquid refreshment.

👏 Thank you everyone, it was great to get lots done at both tasks.

4 of us met at York Hospital after getting drenched in a thunderstorm on the way! Luckily the clouds cleared when we started our task. We were given 4 bags of bulbs to plant in the staff wellbeing garden.
This didn't take long so we then helped clear away some leaves in a different garden. We then went on our way running, walking or cycling in some lovely autumnal sunshine!

5 GGers met Teena at York Hospital Outpatients Garden to plant up their lovely new raised beds (which had been installed since out last visit). A small herb garden, lots of lavender, a few palms and a lot of flowers were planted, along with one tiny ‘characterful’ Christmas tree.

Once all the plants were in, we spread lots of mulch around whilst chatting away (and hopefully not distracting the staff who had their windows open. Thankfully the weather held off so after a quick water of the plants we were done.

7 GGers met Griselda from York Hospital to help prep two gardens for renovation next week. The first garden had some plants (mainly bamboo and grasses) which needed removing and the second garden needed the ornaments and benches removed.

We cracked on with garden number 1, where the instruction was to 'clear everything' - but Max was slightly disappointed that he could only prune the bush with the pretty white flowers on, rather than hack it to pieces.

Ben, Paul and Antonia got down to digging up what can only be described as chunks of bamboo and adding them to the pile, whilst Ellie, Tay and Emma attacked the grasses. Soon, the garden was cleared of plants (but looking arguably messier) so it was on to garden number two!

Garden 2 is behind the chaplaincy, so has lots of lovely pots and memorials that needed to be kept safe. The goal was to carry them to (another) garden for safe keeping, so soon there was a little line of Goodgym Army Ants carrying things back and forth to pass through an access window. Fortunately, Griselda had warned the cleaners and so we didn't feel too guilty (but still felt a little guilty) about the trail of mud!

Once we were done (although Ellie is still confused about how the benches went though the window), it was time for goodbyes and onto lunch!