This week we walked and ran from the town centre to the Ferndale allotment on Dallow Downs.

Many of the plots have been out of use for some time and needed a clean up to remove all the old debris, bits of old wood, plastic and metal littered the site but we gathered it all up, sorted it into piles for later collection by the council. We may have munched a few ripe blackberries and raspberries while we were there!

With a big team combing the site we got it all clean and tidy in just a single session, leaving the place looking much more attractive and less like a rubbish tip (or will do when our pile is collected and disposed of! Now its clear and clean the council will be able to advertise the vacant plots to people wanting to grow their own vegetables! 🍆 🥒🥦🌽🥬🧅🥕🫛🫑🧄🥔

This week we were massively boosted in number as newbie Reza brought loads of friends along to try out their first GoodGym session!

With expected numbers doubled we had an army of people heading across town to help the 61 Football Club get their clubhouse and grounds ready for the start of the new season.

Runners arriving first got started on the first task, raking up the fresh cut grass, while later arrivals were issues with gloves and paint brushes to paint the stand walls red, then we had a team painting the posts around the pitch bright white, and finally our man Musa was given the job of blue gloss on the new railings.

With so many people going at the tasks they were getting done super quick and we could move them on to new areas to get even more good stuff done.

When our time was up the place was visibly much cleaner and brighter and Cliff and Richard were as grateful as ever, offering much welcome crisps and drinks around before the return leg of the journey back into town.

This week's group run/walk had two tasks. Runners were sent off to take on the long distance task, painting the hand rail at Holy Trinity church. Walkers took a more sedate journey to the Riverside meadow, hunting for invasive plant species.

Runners were met by William at the church who got the team set up with paint and brushes. Before too long the hand rail leading up to the church was green and so were many of the painters fingers!

Meanwhile over at the Riverside meadow, the efforts of previous years in pulling out the invasive canadian Goldenrod plants had paid off hugely, there was hardly any to be seen, native plants had regained their territory here. After a bit of hunting some young shoots of Goldenrod were found springing up from the roots left behind after a pulling session a few weeks ago. These were pulled up to stop them taking hold again and then a couple of small patches of tall goldenrod about to flower were spotted in the long grass.

Checking further along the river a lone stem of Himalayan Balsam was found and removed before it went to seed.

Calling victory in the battle for native wildlife and painting railings, we all headed off home quickly to catch the second half of England's Victory over the Netherlands 😄🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🥅🇳🇱🥲