This group of 9 gifted joy to Camden's older residents this week!

Our lovely group of Londoners – Charlie, Danny, Gosia, Jackie, John, and Steve – welcomed 2 very wonderful Cardiffians – Dylan and Rosie – this week! It was brilliant meeting you both!

In humid and warm climes, our friendly group started the night with a swift meander through Camden and Kentish Town, and we arrived at Cressfield Close Sheltered Housing in happy spirits :)

Popped between Gospel Oak and Kentish Town, this cul-de-sac hides many a wonderful surprise – some like to visit the city farm (and their friendly goats) and others (like us yesterday) like to explore the (beautiful) communal garden for older residents.

We met our favourite hosts – Marie and Michael – and they were prepared with water and tools, as well as tasks aplenty.

Charlie and Danny turned a patch of planting soil – making it wonderfully ready and waiting for summer bulbs!

Dylan and Rosie tackled a square of weeds and grass – and made the heavy work appear light, leaving it clear and ready for planting!

And Gosia, Jackie, John, and Steve didn't let the hedgerows become obstacles – they crawled and knelt and reached and dug – and they turned a weed-filled patch into a silky-smooth area fit for a flower show!

Thank you, everyone! It was lovely to see you!! And we hope to see you again, Dylan and Rosie!!

Tonight was an evening of celebration.

We welcomed our newest member to the group Jessica

CROESO JESS

Another goodgym baby on the way, we can't wait to meet them Sophie.

And finally, introducing the new Lucy, now with wings....

Happy 100th Deed

Our walkers set off first, a direct route to the task, whilst Michael took the joggers on a slightly lengthened route to the task.

A nice evening for a run, with a good breeze. Once we arrived it was straight to work, the gloves out and the tasks explained.

It has been a while since we were last here, and the genes had certainly bounced back since their last trim. This was the first job for Lucy, to contain the growth and stop it encroaching onto the pathways.

Everybody else, over to the fence, it is time for a fence painting frenzy.

There was no stopping us, even a slight bit of rain fixing halt us. Thankfully the rain passed by quite quickly, so the painting continued along with the conversation of the task.

Have you got your own dabber?

Bingo, well that's the next social sorted then...

Lucy had moved on to dead heading roses and the painting crew had nearly finished the second large fence. No leaving until this parts complete. It was a quick run back, so we stayed on a little longer than usual in order to finish the fence.

Quick group photo, then off we popped.

Next week we head over to global gardens , join us for some active fun.

What a celebration, goodgym CYMRU, we hit our EIGHT anniversary. Starting back on May 23rd, 2017, running to a community garden space, and here we after 8 years running to one of our regular community growing spaces Global Gardens.

We are very proud of how many community green spaces we have helped over those 8 years, and hope to continue the fight to keep Cardiff as green as possible.

Our groups tonight had cyclists, walkers and runners all making their way to Global Gardens. It was a great run through the park, a great way to spend our celebration run before the weather changes. Michael had both his goodgym and global gardens hat on tonight, as he got everyone into the site and ready to volunteer. Although the weather was due to change, there was still plenty of watering to do. The polytunnel needed a good soaking, as did plenty of potted new plants that were dotted around. We also had a second group tooled up and ready to get back to the removal of brambles and bindweed, people on wheelbarrow duty to run the weeds back and forth to the designated compost pile.

We had some returns tonight as we welcomed back Benjamin and Lucy, with the lovely baby Eliza and goodgym bunny. (is this a new mascot?)

After 30 minutes of volunteering (and baby holding), we were done and it was time for our group photos. We made our plans for afterwards to continue the celebrations with a few drinks and some food, and a catch up with each other.

You gotta roll with it - You get take your time - You gotta say what you say - Don't let cricketers get in your way.

10 wonderful goodgymers got together to help our lovely community orchard. You can see their facebook page here, originally set up as a response to park vandalism this project will hopefully be one for future generations to come.

As we are still going through one of the driest Springs for decades, goodgym made the plan to help the orchard trees survive, some planted only last year and some more recently this year. Michael went to speak with the wonderful Mel in her Cafe - The Secret Garden about the task and pick up some aqua rolls.

To increase the challenge, we asked runners to try part of the run with the aqua rolls - Darren was nearly rolling in the deep, as Emily rolled straight past him. Jonathan was certainly ready to let the good times roll.

Each aqua roll holds 40 litres of water, and as the tap for the orchard use was 350m away from the orchard, these would make the task at hand a lot easier. With nearly 50 trees to water this would take a spectacular 500 litres of water to get enough down into the scorched soil. Thankfully the trees are all mulched so the water won't evaporate easily.

We split into teams of water runners and water givers, two aqua rolls, watering can and a lot of energy. With 5 trips back and forth, three people each time, we covered a total of 5km alone on the task and over 500 litres of water. Each runner had a break whilst the team got to watering the trees, and importantly remembering which trees had been done.

After a lot of strange looks from the cricket teams playing in the field, and some questions from them as we left, the task was complete and we were making our way for a catch up in the local.

Yes..... There is something about Imy, she has wings.....

congratulations on your 100th deed

Of course the celebration called for the finding of the old fairy wings, which Imy wore with 'pride'

We made our way to our task tonight, painting the never ending railings. Perfect weather for painting though, and a new beautiful jogging route along the river, much better than the Winter option.

We did a bit of extra time tonight, doing 40 minutes volunteering, whilst chatting about the upcoming birthday celebrations of goodgym, Llion and the Welsh language songs from our resident Eisteddfod favourites, Imy and Andrew.

Join us next month as we celebrate community gardens and on the 20th May we have our 8thbirthday

Get your wings...