😁 21 brilliant Goodgymmers gathered for this evening’s group run, cited as possibly one of the most random and/or mudtastic yet. More on that later though.

🌧️ Sadly, the weather wasn’t quite as good as we might have hoped but we’ve never let that put us off!

🍮 Ed led the warm up where we got our mouths watering discussing our favourite puddings, in honour of national cream pie day. Winter classics such as crumble and sticky toffee pudding (with a variety of accompaniments) made the cut, along with some inspired by recent baking activity (cinnamon buns or white chocolate and ginger cheesecake, anyone?)

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️With our legs warm and our stomachs rumbling, Ed led the running group to West Bank Park whilst Abi led the walkers.

🌹 On arrival, Kristina gave us our expected compost-shovelling instructions for the new flowerbeds in the rose garden, along with some unexpected bonus tasks. Martin and Stef leapt into the skip to start shovelling from there into the first barrows. Meanwhile, Kristina took a few people with her to construct temporary barrow paths with cardboard.

⚽️ She also sent some people to the goalposts on the football pitch with tampers to commence one of our more unusual tasks, something that was fondly named “wet mud flooring” (as opposed to dry stone walling). Once the barrowers had dropped off their compost at the new flowerbeds in the rose garden, they collected “turf” (mostly mud with the odd blade of grass) and barrowed that back to the football pitch. The ground around one goal mouth in particular was particularly sloppy so Team Tamp were charged with laying/tessellating the pieces of turf and tamping it down to form a new (and slightly less sloppy) layer on top.

🤔 Whilst some doubt was expressed when some water started soaking upwards through the new layer, Kristina reassured us that this is a tried and tested technique that will improve the ground. Whilst our housemates may not have appreciated the next level mud attached to the tampers’ trainers, hopefully the footballers will appreciate their efforts.

💪 Soon, it was time to down tools and do a quick couple of rounds of “Meet and Retreat” for fitness before we headed back to base, stamping mud off en route.

🙌 Thanks everyone, and don’t forget that Kristina’s kindly letting us have the final compost scrapings for our Tiny Forest on Kimberlow Hill. So if you’ve got any spare time 11-12 on either Thursday morning or Friday morning please join Claire to help gather this invaluable resource!

🌧️ 18 excellent GoodGymmers gathered for our weekly group run. The rain may have been present when we first arrived but it quickly absented itself for the rest of the evening, which was greatly appreciated.

🎇 We named, numbered and warmed up by discussing bonfire night. There were some fans and some not-so-fans (mostly for pet/environment-related reasons, so fair enough). We did learn that it took Lucy’s family 17 matches to light a sparkler though, which is pretty impressive!

✌️ We split into two groups, with Mitch leading the way to Holgate Community Orchard. Here’s what he had to say about their task:

🧱 At Holgate Orchard, we were tasked with clearing a large area of ivy, transferring the soil pile into this section and flattening it. The idea is the area will have a shed, shrubbery and raised beds on it by spring. With that in mind we had no time to lose! A few of us got to work clearing as much ivy and roots as possible, whilst the largest group were digging up a large pile of soil and laying it over this section. There was even time for some litter (i.e. brick) picking.

🍎 After making progress, we came to our two main obstacles. Very large roots and old carpets. We needed to remove these before we could transfer any more soil. So through teamwork (driven by a determined Carl) we removed the roots and carpet.

👌 We made a large headway on this task, and will definitely be back soon!

🌹 The rest of us headed to West Bank Park, Ed leading the running group while four of us cycled. We knew the drill and quickly got to work. Ed and Stef were appointed skip-based shovellers while the rest of the gang shuttled wheelbarrows of compost to and from the rose garden. With one more barrow than barrowers, we were able to maximise efficiency this time (though some people were sad they didn’t get a break between barrow-loads!)

🐾 Kristina has brought cardboard and plastic sheets to try and protect the ground from getting any more muddy and Penny (and Wookie!) did a good job of directing everyone on their first trips there!

💪 It was certainly quite the workout, with tonnes (maybe not literally) of compost moved, miles covered and muscles built. Good work everyone, and if you missed it, don’t worry as we’ll be back there next week.

🗻 After a quick group photo, Mitch has invited us to join their group for some hill reps on Windmill Rise. So without further ado, the runners headed there while the cyclists helped Kristina pack up (ensuring the wheelbarrows were appropriately tessellated and the little stuffed pig that appeared from nowhere found a home!) It was soon time to head back to base and onto home or the pub.

👏 Thank you everyone, see you again soon!

The first Saturday of the month meant we were back at the Acomb Community Clothes Swap.

As usual we were tasked with keeping the stock rotating by getting the newly donated items out onto the rails and generally keeping things neat and tidy. The swap was incredibly busy with people queuing out the door for most of the morning.

Whilst Leanne was unable to find a suitable party dress for the festive season, Jenna went home with a beautiful velvet garment to rework into a cape for her upcoming drama production.

4 good gymers made light work of putting away the tables and chairs and tidying up at Planet Food this week!

👻 18 excellent GoodGymmers gathered for another two-task Monday evening, the evening before Halloween. The rain had (basically) stopped so we were raring to go. Neither task was particularly close so Ed’s Heworth group and Vicky’s party pace Foxwood group both set off promptly. The rest of us named, numbered and warmed up while hearing about our favoured trick and/or treat. Treats varied from whisky to bonfire toffee while tricks involved clothes pegs and (fake) dog poo!

🖐️Here’s what Ed had to say about the Heworth five:

🍁 The slightly longer run team set off promptly from Priory Street to meet task owner Roger at Heworth Community Centre. We armed ourselves with rakes and made our way round the corner to a field that will be familiar to many GoodGymmers after several previous raking trips over the years. We soon got to work raking up the leaves and cuttings, gathering them on to sheets of tarpaulin and then disposing of them in a nearby copse of trees. After several full loads of tarp, we made our way back to the Priory Centre with a quicker pace because I don't think Tristan could have lasted too much longer without eating his tea!

🌺 Meanwhile, in Foxwood, we were provided with bulbs and dibbers if you were lucky or a fork/spade if you were less lucky. Mitch was probably the least lucky, being given a smaller-than-average fork with a rotten handle that broke halfway through the task.

🌼 The group swiftly divided and set to work, digging holes and planting bulbs. There was some discussion about how best to split to cover the area required and distribute the bulbs fairly. This seemed to be resolved as all the bulbs were planted pretty speedily, good work team.

🕸️ There was a lot of love for the dibbers, which made the process very simple and efficient. Maybe we should all get a dibber?! We then enjoyed a team photo in and around the suitably-spooky-spider web climbing frame (until Mitch got stuck fairly near the top of it!)

🎃 Our team was so efficient that there was plenty of time for everyone to participate in some Halloween-based fitness. The party pace crew did one circuit of monster/zombie etc based exercises before heading off while the rest of us did a second set. It was soon time to head back to base, meet up with the other group and head home/to the pub.

👏 Thank you everyone, see you again soon!