Wow! 19 lovely GoodGymmers take on the checking of New Things donated to the new Library of Things in Bedminster - a brilliant project that lends Things to people for projects so they don't need to buy and store them!

What looked like a small pile of New Things donated needed checking and cataloguing, plus some painting of the back-of-the-shop kitchen and loo.

The pile was deceptive. Sooo much to sort through, big and small, clean and in need of a clean, working or needing repair, the mission to start sorting began.

Joined by Ellenand Rohan for the very first time, it was a bumper group of GoodGymmers old and new with a fantastic reappearance of Shreena who went to Australia for a year nearly two years ago and is back for a visit, Clowho's now normally only in Bristol on Wednesdays, Emma who's normally working but was on leave and the Godfather Dave who pops in every now and again. There was a fair amount of screeching and hugging pre-run.

Not to mention it being Valè's 50th good deed, but sue hasn't brought cake yet so we wont mention it.

For the first time, GoodGymmers had their hands on power tools (not just lawn mowers and strimmers) to check they worked and everyone still had all their fingers and linbs at the end if the task.

Kids' things, DIY things, cake tins (just saying, Valè), camping things plus the only tape measure for cataloguing item size was a donated imperial one so unexpected Maths skills on show.

Whilst items that had been checked, measured and photographed were being booked in to the catalogue, and paint rollers were being cleared up, the mammoth task was started - a ten-people tent donated, in three bags plus a carpet, bigger than the shop premises, but thankfully looking like it had only ever been a demo tent indoors so very clean, all working and the fitness/Tetris challenge of getting it all back into the bags. Obviously GG Bristol made short, if a tad stressy, work of this so another HUGE item ready for lending. Anyone for camping?

Items stored, finish photos snapped, treats eaten, the runners and walkers headed back to Queen Square and Workout for aome riverside drinks at ClubHaus plus the Ozzie snacks Shree had brought with her.

Perfect GoodGymming, team!

The runners were outnumbered by the walkers two to one for the adventure to St Werburgh's Community Centre with Vaguely Northern Darren and Ed already hard at it when the walkers reached the "King/Queen of the Castle" bridge from Riverside Park.

The walkway around the building was one of the many areas that's seen an explosion of weeds with the warm(-ish) and decidedly wet weather. We were soon widening the walkways again and having many-a deep philosophical discussion including how to spell "doolalley", whether it stems from doodle-alley and why small creatures seem to take an aggressive bee line for Richard G. We slso all learned more about msle and female courgette flowers as well as poppies and their similarity to some sort of banana - the name escapes me.

A quick tidy up and end-of-task photo followed, including Frances who wasn"t in the pre-task "we're actually all in red t-shirts" photo, suggested by Jason. For the record, Frances was also early to the meet up, just not quite as early, and we set off at 6.25 as it's "a bit of a way" even without the lively tour checking out future potential GoodGym tasks, which was really enjoyed by everyone.

Top work and great chatting!

*in depth research post-run shows its actually doolally with dubious empire roots%2C%20ultimately%20from)

As well as lots of good deeding, the group run was once again the venue for deep philosophical debate involving the past tense of strimming and therefore the present tense of strumming. Hot topics indeed for the four walkers to start debating whilst the runners, led by Richard B, snuck (sneaked?) in a harbour loop before arriving at the Community Garden of Redcliffe Children's Centre.

We think the tasks were * top soil onto 8 of the planters after weeding * woodchip onto 6 tree planters and top of 8 weeded, top-soiled planters * strimming raked * litter picked * path weeds hoe-d * path swept * tools placed in school playground WITHOUT PLAYING ON THE ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND * key returned * padlock locked

The main issue was remembering all the tasks...

It was a bit of a step workout as GoodGymmers opted to climb over the seating bench rather than via the highly secure gate, with Small Spade or trowels full of woodchip whilst the Big Spades, mainly moved top soil within the gated garden to the planters. There was quite a lot of it.

The Centre can now continue their work with UWE's Bee-line to increase pollen for pollinators across the city to encourage, erm, bees. Bristol Bees.

Having avoided being burned by lit cigarettes discarded from the balconies and windows above, and only one GoodGymmer being hit by spittle from above (fortunately onto glasses not straight into an eye, the area was tidy until kids started throwing litter from a balcony - hopefully they'll join in with the Community Garden becoming a lively space to spend time.

More litter was picked (pucked?) on the way back to the bit of Queen Square we could still see whilst the Comedy Garden takes place. Then the beat bit of all - the found Maths Word Search challenge whilst we carried on chatting at Club Haus in Workout.

Anyone know that film - the one with the man in the hat and the doors?

Brunswick's brambles, buttercups and bindweed were our target for a rearranged group run where we were joined by Elaine, Teodora and Mike for their very first GoodGym session and Tim for his first Bristol task having decided Bristol was the place to be. Great to have you all with us, all joining the running group led by Ed and backmarked by Nik.

With the three Bs (buttercup, bindweed and brambles) already in our sites, an Unexpected Extra Mission cropped up as a dog-walker asked if we could find a very special lost pink frisbee - a great focus for some ground clearance.

Team Bramble tried to protect the knees of all their fellow GoodGymmers so they could search the undergrowth for the missing frisbee whilst revealing and freeing up lovely grasses that should be in the Cemetery. Gareth showed a particular skill for jumping in the sack to squash the weeds without scratching his knees at all, Freya specialised in pulling the surprisingly big roots out with top theatrics and Ryan unwound lots of bindweed to avoid strangulation.

Frances did her best to get caught in the brambles whilst clambouring deep into their mass on the hunt for the pink frisbee but, alas, no frisbee was found.

With the dumpy sack full to the brim it was time for a quick photo and exit from the runners with the walkers helping take the tools to their locker and heading back for an excellent GoodGym Eats at Burger Theory, with Vaguely Northern Darren's pet snail along for the ride.

Fence painting next week?!

It was back to Hannah More Primary School this evening to have a tidy up of the playground, field, front of school, chalk boards and veg patches during the "Spring" half-term in predictable rain showers.

We welcomed James to his very first GoodGym task and he joined the walkers whilst Richard B led the runners over the bridge and (not very) far, far away.

Ruth was there to greet us with litter picking, chalk board cleaning, veg patch weeding (is this one a weed?) and sand sweeping all happening with GoodGymmers scampering all over the school's outside space.

As ever, we were on the hunt for treasure and before long top picks were a buried dinosaur (top archaeological excavating or litter picking, whichever it was) and a plastic cake which was added to the general sense of celebrations for Melanie's 1000th good deed - all surpassed by the amazing 1000 badge hand made by the lovely Richard G who'd had the foresight to waterproof it to save us all being covered in glitter. His graphic design skills are, as ever, second to none.

Vaguely Northern Darren set about capturing photographic evidence of all that was going on...

It turned out most of the chalk boards were undercover - surely being exposed to the rain would make them self-cleaning, if utterly impractical for ever drawing on - Valè and James made short work (they were having to kneel down to get the bottom of the low boards) of turning them very black indeed, whilst nearby Caroline was sweeping with the small broom which she much preferred to the bigger one on offer.

Runners turned litter-pickers Richard B, Ed, Gareth and Ryan resisted the urge to play on the outdoor equipment whilst scouring the grounds - how do they do that? Multiple bags were collected ready for the skip later and added to by Team Weeds - starting with the quite obvious couch grass (although that did prove not so simple by the onions) before progressing onto flatter weeds, Jason, Frances, Jo and James left the beds looking much tidier than when we'd started, and most of the actual vegetable plants still in place.Richard G moved on to the edges of the planters and expertly replanted some cornflowers to a raised bed instead of clinging on to the planter edge for dear life.

We were soon wrapping up as the rain re-started and moved on to the newly painted and furnished staff room (courtesy of some corporate volunteers) where we had the luxury of wash-hand basins before Ruth delighted us with coffee and walnut cake, more chat and a celebratory photo to mark Melanie's 1000th.

Running and walking back, and finding no speed dating at Workout, we were able to enjoys pots of tea (other drinks are available) and more celebratory cookies and our traditional party rings with Paul and Danica who'd called in to say hello. James was well and truly inducted into the random conversations of Bristol GoodGym.

See you next time?