😁 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 met on a lovely November evening for an autumnal classic - leaf-clearing.

🎇 Ed led the group to Glen Gardens, which was locked and dark on our arrival. We soon heard from our task owner Iain that he’d gone to Clarence Gardens by mistake so he quickly headed over to join us at Glen. In the meantime, we did our fitness session first (which proved to be a popular option!), which was a belated (and tenuously-linked) bonfire bonanza. Thus followed sparkler skipping, toffee apple squats, Catherine wheel side crunches and rocket sprints. These sprints were then extended to the different entrance that Iain arrived at with the van.

🌬️ We got to work quickly and split into teams to tackle different parts of the park. Neil took on the blower challenge, moving between the groups to blow leaves in the right direction to be raked, leaf-handed then bagged/barrowed. Meanwhile, the leaf bin crew were tackling the three bins, moving the compost that was already there to make space for the new leaves. There was even space for a small amount of fun, including the moment (captured on camera) when Ed may have dropped some leaves on Max's head...

🥳 In no time at all, we’d filled the bins and the paths and grass area were both noticeably clearer of leaves than when we arrived. Iain was very grateful and will be ready at Clarence Gardens when we go in a couple of weeks for more leaf-clearing action.

⏰ It was soon time to head back to base and on to the pub for most of us while others headed home.

🙌 Thank you everyone, and hopefully see you again soon!

💨 Well, this evening started with various weather-related dramas and changes but all came together in the end, thanks to some tremendous teamwork of the 11 GoodGymmers who braved the stormy weather to attend anyway. (It also didn’t actually rain on us and wasn’t as windy as expected, which was a win!)

📖 One of our two tasks was cancelled due to high winds then my train was thoroughly messed up so Ed and Mitch took the reins for the intro and warm up, which seemed to involve some communal story-telling.

🍎 They then also led the run down to Holgate Orchard and got cracking with some digging. The aim was to dig and level off a patch of ground for a shed and some raised beds to be built once it’s ready. The team got to work, with some folk digging, some raking and others on barrowing and quality control, identifying areas that were not quite level and therefore needed filling. Leanne noticed a particularly large dip in the corner and set to work filling that. In what felt like no time, Helen was happy that the job was done so the tools were taken back to the shed (including the rake, which wasn’t actually meant to go back, whoops!)

🗻 Mitch then led some hill reps on Windmill Rise while some of us walked back to base. We regrouped at CVS and headed to the pub for some good chats (and an exclusive peek at the 2024 pub dog calendar!)

👏 Thank you everyone, we’ve had a few additional tasks added this week (Thursday evening and Sunday morning) so do join if you can.

🎬 *Pun is related to a certain “classic” 90’s film, rather than anything else…

🌧️ 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!