Despite the rain this evening, a super sixteen GG Yorkies put on their running kit and left their houses to clear leaves at Clarence Gardens.

We warmed up by practising some important leaf clearing techniques, including the leaf pick-up squat, compost-turning lunges and the all important leaf-catching leaps. Then it was off to Clarence Gardens. Most of the group took a short detour to see the Christmas lights around the Minster, while Vicky, as backmarker took the executive decision to head straight there - meaning everyone arrived at almost the same time!

Taskowner, Iain set a small group the task of turning the compost bins to make room for a fresh batch of leaves, while the rest of the group divided into rakers, picker-uppers and bag draggers.

Paul Kelly came up with an excellent suggestion for finding leaves:

We should try under the trees

Which led to a big haul with many tonne bags filled, dragged and emptied.

Mission accomplished, we assembled for a game of alphabet fitness (during which Dom noticed that "the alphabet is really long" ) before heading back to base.

Incidentally, "E is for Energetic cheering" seemed to be the most popular exercise - which will probably come in very handy if you're thinking of Marshalling at Chase the Pud this Sunday. 📣👏😁

🍁 18 excellent GoodGymmers met on a lovely November evening for an autumnal classic - leaf-clearing.

🎇 Ed led the group to Glen Gardens, which was locked and dark on our arrival. We soon heard from our task owner Iain that he’d gone to Clarence Gardens by mistake so he quickly headed over to join us at Glen. In the meantime, we did our fitness session first (which proved to be a popular option!), which was a belated (and tenuously-linked) bonfire bonanza. Thus followed sparkler skipping, toffee apple squats, Catherine wheel side crunches and rocket sprints. These sprints were then extended to the different entrance that Iain arrived at with the van.

🌬️ We got to work quickly and split into teams to tackle different parts of the park. Neil took on the blower challenge, moving between the groups to blow leaves in the right direction to be raked, leaf-handed then bagged/barrowed. Meanwhile, the leaf bin crew were tackling the three bins, moving the compost that was already there to make space for the new leaves. There was even space for a small amount of fun, including the moment (captured on camera) when Ed may have dropped some leaves on Max's head...

🥳 In no time at all, we’d filled the bins and the paths and grass area were both noticeably clearer of leaves than when we arrived. Iain was very grateful and will be ready at Clarence Gardens when we go in a couple of weeks for more leaf-clearing action.

⏰ It was soon time to head back to base and on to the pub for most of us while others headed home.

🙌 Thank you everyone, and hopefully see you again soon!

💨 Well, this evening started with various weather-related dramas and changes but all came together in the end, thanks to some tremendous teamwork of the 11 GoodGymmers who braved the stormy weather to attend anyway. (It also didn’t actually rain on us and wasn’t as windy as expected, which was a win!)

📖 One of our two tasks was cancelled due to high winds then my train was thoroughly messed up so Ed and Mitch took the reins for the intro and warm up, which seemed to involve some communal story-telling.

🍎 They then also led the run down to Holgate Orchard and got cracking with some digging. The aim was to dig and level off a patch of ground for a shed and some raised beds to be built once it’s ready. The team got to work, with some folk digging, some raking and others on barrowing and quality control, identifying areas that were not quite level and therefore needed filling. Leanne noticed a particularly large dip in the corner and set to work filling that. In what felt like no time, Helen was happy that the job was done so the tools were taken back to the shed (including the rake, which wasn’t actually meant to go back, whoops!)

🗻 Mitch then led some hill reps on Windmill Rise while some of us walked back to base. We regrouped at CVS and headed to the pub for some good chats (and an exclusive peek at the 2024 pub dog calendar!)

👏 Thank you everyone, we’ve had a few additional tasks added this week (Thursday evening and Sunday morning) so do join if you can.

🎬 *Pun is related to a certain “classic” 90’s film, rather than anything else…