A few years ago Worcester Environmental Group built a natural play area in a corner of Perdwiswell Park using a collection of interesting logs. With North Worcester Primary Academy nearby it was popular with the children to climb on before or after school. Unfortunately it has been left neglected with the nettles, thistles and undergrowth making it less than appealing to play on. Parent and councillor, Katie Collier asked if GoodGym could give it a good tidy up so of course we said yes!

It was a short run from Perdiswell Leisure Centre which suited most of the group who had tired legs from racing at the weekend. Armed with secateurs, loppers and gloves we cut and pulled our way through the weeds and soon the logs were emerging from the undergrowth and the whole area looked more presentable. The offcuts were gathered to form a dead hedge which will be popular with rodents, birds and invertebrates.

Once we'd finished, there was just one more important task: testing it! Ruth and I demonstrated our balancing skills by walking and jumping along the log run with the obligatory 'tree pose' to finish.

It should be a nice surprise for the children to find after school today.

It's a good sign that the reputation of GoodGym Worcester is gathering pace now that organisations are coming to me to ask if we can help without the need to search them out. That's exactly what happened with this week's task when an email arrived from Connor of the Wildlife Trust to ask if we could help with a wildlife garden project next to Ghulevelt Park. The fact that the project was for a cafe called Kyndfolk sealed the deal. Kyndfolk are exactly what GoodGymers are!

The now familiar path alongside Pitchcroft provide our pre-task run from the Hive then the 5 of us were greeted by Connor and Julie from the Wildlife Trust and the team from Kyndfolk. Gloves were issued along with warnings not to remove fingers with the secateurs then we were let loose in the brambles. The aim was to allow access to the garden area next to the cafe that had clearly been neglected for many years. Many pallets, various kitchen units, lots of litter and a huge heap of tangled undergrowth were quickly tamed by the combined GoodGym, Wildlife Trust and Kyndfolk crew. There will be a time lapse film of the work coming shortly but in 40 minutes the whole area was transformed and with all digits left intact!

Julie and Connor now have a blank canvas to start planning ponds, bog gardens and retreats for all creatures great and small. Seb from Kyndfolk explained that he hopes the area can be enjoyed by the local community including the nearby primary school and will make sure that an accesible path will be in place for wheels and feet to get around safely.

The famous five GoodGymers included Bertie and Ruth who clearly enjoyed last week so much they came back for more! A welcome return for Alison after a few weeks off and my sister Juliet was dragged along after carelessly planning a visit to Worcester on a Tuesday evening!

Thank you everyone for another great job completed!

It was a nice (and very familar for parkrunners) run round Pitchcroft racecourse to get to the Community Garden on Tuesday. We were there to build a flood garden but arrived to find another volunteer group had beaten us to it. The job was already done! Luckily the Community Garden is never short of jobs for people so we were quickly assigned some new tasks to keep us busy. It helps that Alison is a regular volunteer at the gardens so knew her way around and showed us the ropes, or in this case the chips! In front of us was a large pile of wood chips that was cluttering up the entrance to the wildlife garden and needed to be bagged up. Soon we had a fleet of wheelbarrows queued up and Kirsty, Fiona and Liam armed with shovels and ready to fill them up with the chips. Meanwhile Alison and Marcus were set to task cleaning up a bench in the wildlife garden and a kitchen sink unit that will be used...well we never found out what it was for! After 30 minutes of shovelling and scrubbing the whole place looked neat and tidy again with the chips in the bag and everything swept. We finished our lap of the racecourse to get back to The Hive and had definitely worked up an appetite for some chips of the potato variety!

Mid afternoon I receieved a message from Carry from St Wulstan's Church to ask if we were still coming given how hot it was forecast to be. I said of course but suggested we might be moving a bit more slowly than usual!

In the end we all met at the church with a gentle cycle ride for some instead of a run and as usual Carry met us with a smile and stack of cups ready to keep us hydrated. Alison and Kirsty took up the brushes and the grey paint to give a bench a new lease of life while Marcus was given the task of painting a well used picnic table. They should dry in no time! Half an hour of our time saved Carry 2 hours of her time and we all enjoyed an evening in the sunshine.

Great work GoodGymers!