Last week we were worried about the heat and this week we were worried about thunder storms! Luckily the clouds lifted and we were gifted with blue skies as we ran from Perdiswell up to St Wulstans church via a few paths and alleyways that were new to the group. We were greeted by Carry who quickly issued us with forks, shovels and scrapers but not before teasing us by showing us the squash and biscuits that we would be rewarded with when we finished. Alison took on the sanding job to prepare a garden bench for painting. Kirsty and Sam turned the nicely mulched compost while being careful not to disturb the unknown residents in one of the heaps 🐀. Marcus grabbed a fork and shifted a pile of leaves into the newly emptied compost bins. It was quite the production line and we all worked hard for those biscuits! 🍪 As we worked, Cary was already extending her list of jobs that we can help with so we'll be back in two weeks to help some more. The run back was another mini adventure down a narrow tunnel below the railway before emerging onto the canal and past a family of swans and cygnets. A nice warm up for Sam who is racing at Kinver tomorrow. Good Luck Sam! 🏅 More great work by the GoodGym crew!

On the hottest day ever recorded in May the thought of a task by the river sounded appealing. Perhaps we could carry out a swimming litter pick? Unfortunately the task was very much land based but slightly unusual. Marilyn from the Swan Food Project had been in touch to ask if we could help collect silt from some steps down by the river off Hylton Road so that they could then take it down to the Swan Sanctuary to help rebuild the river bank. A classic case of removing something that wasn't wanted in one place and making use of it where it was very much needed. Four intrepid GoodGymers turned up for the task and. after a short run from the Hive met Marilyn and began digging. In just 20 minutes we'd filled 14 sacks with over a quarter of a ton of silt! We loaded up Marilyn's car to the limit of it's suspension and then had a nice walk down to the Swan Sanctuary. Nice apart from the last few sacks and all the tools weighing us down! All good strength training though folks!
Once we'd unloaded at the other end Marilyn gave us an overview of the Swan Food Project while we watched the beautiful swans with the Cathedral bathed in evening sunlight behind. She told us that we'd saved at least 2 hours of work for the usual volunteer team who could now concentrate on using the material to repair the bank, A swan-tastic evening's work!

History was made once again on the famous Fort Royal Hill when the very first GoodGym Worcester session arrived at the park to help out Karen, one of the Environmental Rangers . The original job of watering trees had already been kindly completed by mother nature but there was always going to be plenty of other things to be done. Alison and Fi grabbed the litter pickers and tidied up the park, Sam and Abi grabbed the brooms and swept the yard, Liam and Marcus grabbed some rocks and placed them in a flower bed. Meanwhile the best dressed runner of the night Ed grabbed the leaf blower and created a blossom storm! Karen was thrilled with the rapid results saying it would have taken her volunteers so much longer to achieve the same results. Great work team! The task sat in the middle of a scenic 4km run along the riverside to and from the park with Douglas the dog putting the tail into tail runner. We'll be back at the river next week for some silt shifting so hope to see you all again, along with some new faces! https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/removing-silt-from-the-river-steps-to-help-rebuild-the-river-bank

Have a great bank holiday weekend in the meantime.