It was back to West Bank Park tonight to carry on with last week's task of emptying the compost bins into wheelbarrows and running them over to the skip in the car park.

Before setting off we gave a round of applause to Vicky and Helen who had completed the Wensleydale Wander at the weekend and also welcomed Becca along for the first time. Give her some cheers 🎉

After a quick titanic themed warm up, it was the off to the task with Ed leading the run out and Nick leading a walk/run group which, by all accounts, was mire run than walk!

At the task we were greeted by Kristina from the council's eco team who got us to focus on one area rather than the 2 we were spread across last week. Mitch and Vicky were our designated skip people to help with coordinating the inbound wheelbarrows.

I want to join the Red Barrows - Leanne

The tactic of sticking to one area seemed to work and the crew got into a good rhythm with their shovelling and barrowing. So much so that they started to get creative whilst running with the wheelbarrows, with Nick being very keen to show off the first ever outing of the GG 'Red Barrows'.

As the task drew to a close there was just enough time for Michael to completely empty his compost bin. He was so proud of this achievement that he demanded we got a photo of it. Well done Michael 👏

For fitness, the group split into two teams and picked cones with either a set of exercises or an "egg" underneath them. The team with the most eggs would be declared the winner. Although thanks to a lot of luck and a little bit of cheating from Lyndsey, it really wasn't much of a contest at all!

Our last head torch group run for a while saw a bumper 26 GG Yorkies turn out for the choice of either soil inversion at Rowntree Park or prepping a flower bed at Southlands Church.

Knowing full well how difficult it can be organising a group of GGers (what is our collective noun?) at the end of a task, tonight started with a warm up which saw Ed introduce some of the exercises the gang would be doing later on as part of the fitness session. We then set off a steady group led by Nick to Southlands church, whilst Laura backmarked the bigger group which headed to Rowntree Park

After the brief run across we met Vicky at the task who had been left instructions by task owner Christine, who unfortunately couldn't be there tonight. Whilst Vicky is confident she got the details about the task correct, we're bot entirely sure that the tools were quite right as there surely must have been better options for shifting wood chip than a small bucket and two children's wheelbarrows! To her credit, Charlotte did make the most of the only full-size barrow, even if it was pretty broken

Whilst one group tackled the wood chipz the rest of the Rowntree Park crew cracked on with soil inversion at two designated areas. One proved significantly easier to get the spades in than the other so there were a few grumblings from Nikki when she was moved over to the tougher area, although her suffering didn't last long as she was handed a tiny wheelbarrow and joined in with the wood chip spreading

Over at Southlands Church....

The two groups came together at the end of the night for a fitness session (with some of the moves we'd rehearsed earlier). The workout featured 10 exercises, with 20 seconds rest between each one, and with each exercise being done for 30 seconds. Vicky was so disappointed that there was no can-can as one of the exercises that Ed caved-in and added a bonus exercise at the end. And this time we were determined to get it right. So after a quick tutorial from Leanne, everyone lined up, linked arms, and performed what felt like a perfect can-can. Although the video tells a much different story!

As run leader for the first time in a while, Leanne finally realised her ambition of getting everyone to name and number off and name their favourite number - tenuously linked to Paul Kelly finally getting to wear the cape for his 400th good deed... (which is a big number). Though initially as chaotic as it was designed to be - the team rose to the challenge and quickly got into the swing of things. Ben's imaginary number and Paul Kelly's π even sparked some maths chat on the run out.

Tonight's Goodgym adventures had the Yorkie crew heading out to Hull Road Park to help out with some (flower) bed shuffling. The route there included multiple traffic light stops which meant that the age old GG York tradition of traffic light selfies could be reinstated (A tradition now so old that barely anyone remembered it!)

Right next to our meeting point, there was an upended bin. Where some of the group saw it as a fun hurdle, others treated it as a bonus task and immediately put it back in its rightful place, clearing the way for those who were less confident on the hurdles.

We had a quick briefing from our task owner, Kristina, who split us into two groups:

💥Team destruction got the more familiar task of completely and indiscriminately clearing one of the overgrown flowerbeds in preparation for some transPLANTing later on in the task.

🌱Team finesse had the more challenging job of being careful about what they dug up from some raised beds, ensuring that specific plants remained in tact so that they could be replanted.

💪 There was some bonus carrying heavy bags of soil, which Vicky allocated to anyone who looked like they were getting a bit cold part way through the task.

At the 5 minute call, it was all hands on deck to get everything that we'd dug up replanted in Team Destruction's freshly cleared beds.

We finished up with a quick musical 'follow the leader' fitness session. About half of the group claimed to have no idea what was going on... Curiously, it did seem to be the same ten people who insisted they were all needed to dig 'one last hole' when the call to join the fitness session was made... make of that what you will. At the very least, it warmed everyone up a bit in preparation for the run back to base where we could all bask in the even warmer glow of another evening of doing good.