Another beautiful evening for the DEMOCRACY that is Bristol GoodGym to get together and inflict some good somewhere in the city. With the fabulous progress in de-sycamoring Brunswick cemetery last week, there was a golden (sunlight) opportunity to get a lot more of this time-sensitive task completed. Although every time you turn around another sapling-to-be has emerged from it's underground seed. Much chatter ensued, etymology of words and comparisons with other languages was a hot topic, inspired by the unexpected finding of a really-quite-posh baguette amongst the undergrowth. We left it, in case it was useful, and all headed off to Ciao Amici for GoodGym Eats, it being the first Tuesday of the month - great food with quick service - just what we needed!

Daylight! Sunshine! Smiles all round for our first light evening Group Run/Walk of 2026 after what’s felt like the longest, darkest, wettest winter ever.

Happy GoodGymmers set off to Brunswick Cemetery for Operation Sycamore No More to collect as many sycamore seedings as possible from the thousands that are sprouting. One sycamore tree is enough, thank you!

Left, right and centre, GoodGymmers were crouching, squatting, kneeling and, in Richard B's case, elegantly lounging to gather their bouquets of sycamores with a bit of stickybud to surreptitiously attach to a fellow GGer. Ieva, returning for her second good deed, was definitely the sinner of the biggest bouquet, mainly because the more experienced GGers wither made a pile or speedily bagged their offerings. There may be a prize giving ceremony next week.

Phill and Emma gave some of the tomb-covering ivy a trim whilst Vaguely Northern Darren ferried the trimmings yo the assigned green waste collection point.

The sign that everyone needed a good stretch was a group of GGers standing tall and happening to be chatting, naming no names Caroline, Richard G, Jason, Ed, and Dushyant!

A lovely stroll/run back as the sun set was followed by more chat at Workout whilst the football was on with a few if us continuing to practise our Japanese. More again next week?

A beautiful evening for a run/walk to a new task beneficiary - well, new for Tuesday evenings, it's one we've been visiting on the last few Sundays.

The Green House is owned by the Council but they'd had to pretty-much abandon the building due to costs. It's an eco-friendly, green-roof wooden building that's now leased to Xquisite Spaces who have big plans for community events as well as renting out the studio and other indoor space. They've spent the winter repairing the inside (including rotten wooden floor and many leaking pipes) and for Spring have turned to the outside space which had become incredibly overgrown.

Also part of the lease are six parking spaces and hedge line, two of which have been used as a dumping ground for building waste and the holly bushes have thrived on neglect. This bodes well for the future, just with a little more taming!

Lifting, shifting and brutal cutting back are GoodGym Bristol key skills and over 60 minutes the unloved-looking spaces were transformed into actual parking/utility spaces with plants that can thrive and years of leaf mulch skillfully chucked under the bottom of the hedging plants/trees. Lots of very old litter was also pulled out of the now-quite-a-lot-thinner holly and sorted for recycling or actual litter and the green waster was added to the pile for collection.

Then the rocks - from the builders' rubble dump, lots of bits of tarmac, concrete and a few bricks to lift and shift, some braving heaving lifts with spades (newly acquired by Lou from Xquisite Spaces from a second-hand tool search), others grabbing handfuls and the system leading to the Rock-Queue - thank to Frances for the pun, I'm sure Jason is jealous it wasn't him but pretty confident he'll find ways to get it into conversation over the next week or so.

Having wowed Lou with our ability to get weird things done whilst having a good time, we were off to Workout or, for those feeling a bit peckish, Rosa's Thai for our monthly Eats - a local eatery that doesn't mind a group of sweaty runners turning up for a quick bite and a lot more chat. Possibly the speediest service we've ever had, and NO RAIN AT ALL - more of this, please!

We couldn’t go to Sparks but we could celebrate an evening of NO RAIN by getting out and making our streets sparkling, or at least litter-free.

Runners set off for the Malago Greenway to help the watercourse and the walkers strides away to the edges of the City Farm (Friday morning Community Mission venue) to tackle the litter-catching hedges then along by the very swanky looking new student accommodation which seems to be by a culvert none of us have ever seen before.

As well as hauls recycling (clear bags) and litter (green bags) the walkers added a pair of boots, a pair of very soggy trainers and a sodden hoodie/hoody (?) and a shopping trolley which was duly returned to ASDAs/ASDAl and discussion ensued about Sainsburgs.

Everyone regrouped at Workout for pots of tea and an egg incident. Just your standard Tuesday evening

We have made so much difference to the winter view of the Burial Ground - lots of the previously-hidden gravestones can now be seen as soon as you enter the green space as the bramble forest has been cut to just a few inches - now to see what happens in Spring...

We were joined by Jen for the first time, a recruit from Greville Smyth junior parkrun volunteering, who quickly joined in the chopping mission to find the ground as well as the gravestones. Operation Find The Wall is now underway, having successfully cleared all the way to the far path.

Soundtrack for the evening was mostly experiences of volunteering at Glastonbury (trying to stop festival-goers contaminating the watercourses by encouraging them to use the provided loos) to childhood experiences of being blamed for things which a sibling had done, including sibling's graffiti-ing walls or windowsills in a less-than-sophisticated way. But also times the GoodGymmer had been the sibling causing the mischief...

Lots of chat and lots of chopping, Richard B as ever getting as much done in their Solo spot as the rest of us put together. The Whirling Dervish of Bristol GoodGym.

Time to pack up and move out, Vaguely Northern Darren went back to look for Melanie's missing non-gardening glove which was mysteriously found under the now quite soggy lights in her bag - if only there was a light on whilst putting the lights in the bag...

The rain and chill had lessened considerably for the journey back and we were lulled into a fall sense of dryness and warmth at Workout as we enjoyed our post-run/walk tea, hot chocolate, chai or pint. Until we were putting soggy hats, gloves and jackets back on. Roll on the bramble-growth of Spring but also warmer rain!