We were back at Jimmy's this evening for our monthly dinner service. On the menu this week: shepherd's pie & veg, with chocolate cake & chocolate custard! 😋

Keen to make the most of the sunny evening, Christopher, Catherine and I met beforehand for a 3km jog around Parker's Piece. Despite the surprisingly bracing wind, it was a delight to enjoy the last of the sun whilst we caught up and discussed about the task ahead ☀️

Energised by our run and raring to go, we were soon stopped in our tracks: the pies weren't hot enough! And so began the waiting game, checking periodically and hoping for the magic 75 °C. Entertaining ourselves with a game of 'guess the probe', it finally reached 78 °C - not quite the monumental effort of 97 °C the night before, but it was what we needed! Forming a slick 3 person production line, I dished up the pie, Chris served veg and gravy (sometimes a little too enthusiastically) and Catherine was on dessert. We soon made up for lost time and after a decent shift, had everything cleaned up! 🫧

Fantastic work again, team. It took a little longer than usual but we pulled together and did it with a laugh and a smile - as per the GoodGym Cambridge way! 🙌

We had a mighty cru for our visit to SIN Cru's Definately Real Build site for this week's group session, and Lucy had a plethora of tasks ready for us.

After some great relief all round at slightly delayed meeting time Alice, Beth, Chris, Kate and Scott were on route to Arbury. I was held up, and had to run double speed to arrive on time, only to bump into the group (quite literally) round a corner on route. Soon after, we were passed by Becky and Caroline whizzing past on bikes 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♀️

We were serenaded by the beautiful huskies as we arrived, which is always a treat 🎶

With a good group and many tasks, we divided and conquered:

🪏 Kate, Chris and Beth got straight to weeding, finding the marrow particularly stubborn. It called for spades, loppers and a hoe.

🪻Becky was weeding the wildflower patch and sowing new seeds, delicately trampling the soil to embed them.

🌱 Caroline was put in charge of heavy machinery and set about mowing the lawn. She then had fun aerating it - there's something very satisfying about stabbing the ground repeatedly with sturdy garden tools.

🍂 Alice and I were turning the compost and disposing of green waste. Thankfully we had proper spades rather than the kitchen forks we nearly ended up with after a little misinterpretation.

🪚 Scott was in his happy place with a saw in hand. In the space of 45 minutes he'd turned discarded pallet planks into planters. They were a sight to behold!

The site was a hive of activity and the time flew! We just had time before heading back to capture some excellent group shots featuring Scott's planters and a very photogenic dog 📸

Movement, good deeds, dog fussing and plenty of laughter, all in all a great evening. Well done team 🙌

We were back at Gale Street Organic Community Garden this week, where the plants had very much enjoyed the rain with squashes looking very healthy and new grass sprouting already.

Future Leader Mason led the welcome and briefing before handing over to Nassaba who shared our tasks for the evening, providing a proper strength workout 💪

First up was to move the 10ft polycarbonate tunnel, which needed some military style planning. After some deliberation, we agreed to move from the inside with all 6 of us spaced around the edges and in charge of a leg each. On the count of 3 we lifted and shifted a few feet at a time, eventually placing it in its new temporary home.

Next up was evening out the placing of the feet, which required more strength work, carrying large stones and rocks across the site to prop the feet up and weigh it down. Within 10 minutes we'd secured it - confirmed by Nassaba's push test. All in all a great show of collaboration!

The third task of the evening needed yet more strength to drag bags full of green waste over to the trenches that will eventually be used for planting (under the polytunnel). The aim is to improve the nutrient quality of the soil. The giant bags were no match for our strength expert, Kim. Once they'd been emptied, Mason made light work of the raking to even it out.

As if that wasn't enough, we finished off the evening with a litter pick to remove a lot of plastic and glass that had been accumulated on site. We certainly left it much clearer than we found it 💚

Leaning on nature for support we attempted some (fully risk assessed) jumping shots across the trenches. Mason's was definitely profile picture worthy 📸

We were treated to a fiery sunset to round off a very satisfying and productive evening. Great work all round 🙌