Ten GoodGymers managed not to melt while helping look after the community garden in Broomfield. Nine of us arrived in the heat to find Jess already slaving away at our mission of moving a tonne of bark and watering the flower beds. Sallyann, Joel, Richard, Jess and Laurie were soon shovelling the wood chippings into buckets, while Andy, Rich, Leanne, Ben and Martin spread it over the ground and watered the plants. By the time we finished the smouldering mound of bark had been reduced to a mere mole hill. Well done everyone!

food was delicious. we missed Martin. great value with half price card!

more socials to come next month!

On what seemed to be the first day of summers evening, 6 of us met at HQ outside the Old Factory Gym ready to have a lovely chatty slow jog up to Broomfield allotments where we would meet Sallyann and Jess. There we would turn over a plot for an elderly gentleman, ready so he could start planting in. Leah was running late from work and as she lived nearby said she'll meet us enroute or at the task.

So we set off, with Ben leading the way and explaining how his sore shoulder actually turned out to be broken 🤯, but all healed now🥰. And as we passed a man watering his garden Jane exclaimed from nowhere "Nice tulips" to his and our surprise and also Jen's giggles.

We arrived still in sunshine ( it really makes all the difference) and set to work on the plot with fork and spade and a tool that you twist to break up the soil... which i have now learned is called a Tiller ( as being demonstrated by Jane in a photo). Chatting as we worked, Joel took some great photos and videos for the socials, one of which if you zoom in, looks like Jess is shouting at Leah but she promises she wasn't 😂

With a job well done we packed up and set off back to HQ as the sun set. Thanks for coming guys, it really makes a difference to the people we help. As Joel pointed out, 9 people doing 30 mins work = 4.5 hours for a single person. So well done all.

We'll be back at broomfield allotments in 2 weeks, but next week David will be leading us to an allotment closer to base for Age Concern. So if you are free next Wednesday come along for more chatty tilling.... ( look at me getting all horticultural 😂)

until then

RUN HAPPY 🥰

Rich

We started today with some excellent news - our award winning DJ Andy announced he had joined social media!

This evening, we met in the light and did our usual slightly longer way round along the bunny walks as our task was only on the High St.

Fay and Jess were ready to go, so Edith told us the plan and everyone engaged their biceps for moving shelves and stock from the old store to the new, followed by other items upstairs into storage.

Jen and Ben put on high vis, and wheeled a couple of large units outside and up to the storage area; presumably Joel and Russell helped, but the photos suggest less heavy lifting by them.

Excellent task and workout everyone! Best of luck to the Art Place team for moving into their new space ready for opening on Saturday.

See you all soon,

Laurie

We almost left Ben behind, but thankfully we waited just long enough to collect him along the way and ran a slightly longer way round to our task.

Andy and Joel wasted no time in getting a drink, and we joined the others to fold leaflets.

We could see that Fay was keen to tell Andy to stop talking, but we did such an expert job of folding the leaflets that there wasn't really enough to tell him off for.

Disappointed that Sallyann didn't get a pint of wine.

Looking forward to Jen and Jess putting a summer social together, potentially in Baddow!

Next week, Rich is leading you to deliver our leaflets.

See you all soon,

Laurie