GoodGymers met at the lovely Golden Hill community gardens on a sunny Saturday morning. Golden Hill community gardens were organising a fair for the afternoon so we came along to help them get set up. Todays tasks included putting up pretty bunting around the gardens, moving plants to the tables and arranging them, cutting up mint/lemon balm and other herbs in order to make a sensory path. It was lovely meeting everyone and being out in the sunshine whilst doing some good. Well done everyone!

When we started our third session of gravel shiftting and saw the solitary remaining sack it literally looked like the task was in the bag.

And indeed it was when after an hour of hard graft lugging more buckets up the hill, the last of the gravel was finally out of it.

The remaining holes in the forest path had been filled and we can now look forward to a diversion to the orchard next month, where I'm sure the brambles eagerly anticipate our return!

Martin has asked me to pass on "bags of thanks" for all our efforts the over the last couple of months 😁 - and I'm sure our arms and shoulders will thank us too ... in a couple of days ...

Welcome to Hayley who is based back in Bristol after hanging out with Cardiff GG for the last year or two, we look forward to seeing you back soon!

We've past the halfway mark in the January Challenge, and we're still raring to go. So, tonight, 14 goodgymers got together to finish off a task that had been niggling (mostly me) since last year. The buddleia at St. Andrews Forget-me-not Cafe had become so large during the lockdowns, that during our first mission to tackle it we had to stop due to the thickness of its branches.

Not Tonight

We were determined to finish the job, 8 runners met in the City Centre, warmed up and then ran 1.5 miles to our second meeting point for the walkers. This was the first time that we had split like this, but it seemed to work for us on a bit of a longer run that may have been too far to walk in the allotted time. From here, we made our way together - it wasn't far until we were at the Church grounds.

The wonderful Kathie was waiting for us, all wrapped up for a warm welcome. We had a quick chat as we tried to figure out the split of groups for the tasks to be done.

1. Sweep the pathways of leaves to make it safer,
2. Clear the leaves from the back of the Church,
3. Move the potted Christmas tree around the back,
4. Cut down the buddleia (of course),
5. Cut the holly growing over the fence,
6. Trim any overgrown plants in the alleyway.

A lot of work, just the way we like it.

Whilst we pondered the split, Alice got straight to work with the brush and was making her way over the path. Nathan joined to clear the leaves, so the rest of us made our way to the side garden to begin the pruning.

We made our Best Bud (leia) team of four, first to take down the main branches and then to cut smaller for the green waste. Hard at work ........ we put all our effort in and ......... "saw it" off.

Hayley and Estelle got to work on some Holly Modification.

Whilst Llion and the Shauny Seans, hit the alley with a flood light, which brought dog walkers over with many a question of who we were and why we were there.

30 minutes went by in the blink of an eye and many a camera flash, it was time to down tools and decide where we were going to have our final picture. Energised and celebrating a completion of the task, the runners and three of the original walking group decided it was time to complete a quick lap of the local 'Rec'. It was a lovely added mile to the exercise tonight, every little counts......(other supermarkets are available).

After our final farewells, the walkers and the runners went their separate ways - with so many challenges a good stretch was needed at the end of the run tonight, followed by a small social and chat about a proper social in February to celebrate our January Challenge.

Our Second group task of the year and a return to Samye Foundation. Today 15 of the goodgym Cardiff Crew got together for the task at hand. We split into our two groups, the walkers making their way straight to the task, whilst Michael led the runners a longer way around to make up their KMs.

We soon made our way to Samye and were welcomed by the lovely Lorraine, with water ready to quench our thirsts. Tonight we were;

• Cleaning under the gazebo and weeding so that it would be spruced up ready for the locals to be able to sit under there.
• Weeding the back yard space, again to allow the locals to use the enjoy the space and get it Spring ready.
• Finally after all the green finger work it was more green finger work - panting the shed a nice green.

Speaking of green fingers.......Who has ever seen this wonderfully weird character...........Green Claws

But I digress, the lights were put out so that each team could see their task at hand. Those at the front swept, weeded and made it all look as good as new. All the leaves swept were put into the planters to keep the bulbs that were sprouting nice and warm. Out back we were going feral on all fours as any weed between paving slabs were removed and bagged up, whilst the painters got to work turning the shed from Red to Green.

Tools down - it's time for some soup to warm us up and get us fuelled up to head back.

The Shed will need some additional work - I feel a repeat task coming UP...

Looking for something to do this Weekend? Why not join in and help us with the goodgym January Challenge.

Saturday 10:00 We will be helping the new community space at Riverside Medical Centre by loading turf into a vehicle from up the road in Canton

Saturday 12:00 Back to StarGarAllot again to help take down a greenhouse and make space for their new polytunnel....and I hear Camilla may be bringing soup

Sunday 09:00 We will be helping out at Junior parkrun

Get clicking and sign yourself up to a task or two.

NEXT TUESDAY - sees us returning to Church of Saint Edward to help finish pruning the buddleia and weed the raised beds ready to be used by the 'Forget Me Not' Cafe regulars come Spring. Sign Up HERE