A surprisingly mild evening led 9 Goodgymmers to the Greenhouse Project, a multicultural play and arts project on Lodge Lane in Liverpool. Sophie & Aatefa ran and beat everyone else to the task, arriving first, whilst most of us took a more leisurely approach and walked to the task. We were pleased to welcome Michelle back who returned for her second task - great to see you again Michelle! And our Goodgymmer of honour, Jo, quite rightly arrived on a chariot – well, a bike – and we headed inside for our task briefing, introductions and announcements.

And what an announcement we had! This evening marked a phenomenal achievement from Jo – it was her 200th task! Jo joined Goodgym in 2018 so has been a dedicated member for over 8 fantastic years. And it’s a family affair, both Jo’s daughter Roz and son Ben are members, and have done tasks together with Jo, Ben having joined the Ealing chapter too. And Goodgym is just one feather in Jo’s many-feathered-cap, she’s a devoted volunteer and dedicates time to other organisations including but not limited to Foodcycle, providing free community meals and reducing food waste. The team presented Jo with a card, some gifts to take home, and some chocolate pastries to share at the end of the task in her honour.

After our congratulations it was time to dive in. This time our task was split in 2: covering the fence with tarp to provide some much needed privacy to the children’s garden, and adding leaves back on to the plastic bushes which decorate the yard. Sophie gave some great ideas on technique for covering the fence before heading over with the team to the bushes, and Naser, Jo and I worked on the fence. Once we’d established approach, which involved weaving the tarp at intervals to help keep it in place, and attaching from the top at regular intervals, it was steady work to cover the whole thing. Jo’s idea of how to weave ended up being exactly the right decision and soon the fence looked great, secure and private.

The leaf task sounds unusual (putting leaves back on a bush?!) and is surprisingly therapeutic. The little leaves on the plastic bush can fall off, so our job was to reattach them so it continues to look nice and full and doesn’t have empty patches. With 6 pairs of hands working methodically, the bushes were soon returned to their former glory.

After admiring the result of our hard work, we headed inside for the group photo and the all important chocolate pastries to celebrate our Bicentenarian Jo. Much to our surprise we were then presented with a very kind card from the Greenhouse Project, thanking us for our hard work and support over the years. This was a lovely gesture and we were very touched to receive it. We had a quick debrief, with a busy Saturday coming up with Parkrun Sticker Saturday, followed by a lovely task at the Bombed out Church planting daffodil bulbs to prepare for a beautiful display in Spring. And it was time to head off back into the mild evening for home. A nice task where we could clearly see the impact we’ve made in such a short space of time, and a great opportunity to celebrate our lovely Jo and her dedication. Huge well done and congratulations Jo, what a huge number of hours doing good things for the community in Liverpool.

Chappell Roan might’ve sung about a pink pony club but she’s obviously never been to Park Palace Ponies on the Dingle where the residents are gorgeous and utterly strokeable. We were lucky enough to have this pleasure tonight in our very first task at this special place. It was a night of firsts as Aatefa did her first turn as run leader from the suitcases. She did this adeptly with runners old and new, assisted by experienced run leader Liam. It was a first for Linda who ran from suitcases, it was a first for goodgym tourist, Steph from Ealing who also ran and it was a first for Maryna who cycled. Aatefa, Liam, Linda, Steph, Laura and Sophie joined Myself, Nasser and Bekah outside the venue. Heetu and Maryna followed shortly after. Faye from Park Palace ponies gave us our instructions and directed us to the tools, past the ponies in their sheds who got royally fussed over. They were so beautiful and very friendly. Bekah organised this session and knows all the ponies by name, there were six in total, Malu, Jessie, Moses & Deejay were the ones I remember but I’ll have to namecheck with Bekah for all six. Our task was to level out the indoor riding arena. As Faye explained, usually this would be the job of a tractor but as this is a small city based charity there are no such options so it was down to us with rakes and forks to bring the sand from the sides and level out the area. The building used to be a theatre so has a very ornate ceiling and some of the original features are still visible but now it is a venue where children from the city can learn to ride and trot around this sandpit riding arena. There was some discussion over the difference between a horse and a pony; for clarification, a pony is a small horse but not a baby one. We finished slightly early but made that time up by going for a second fuss of the ponies, we had to get our group shot with a pony and Nasser has the skills to get that shot. Steph also thought of a great pun for the report; ‘Only Fools and Ponies’. And as the lyrics of that title song state - ‘why do only fools and horses work?’ Well in our case it’s because we love it! Can’t wait to go back and support this amazing charity again.