Well, that’s the song that David quoted to us when another two of his tools got broken this week by two overly enthusiastic Goodgymmers! But I am getting ahead of myself… Five Goodgymmers, Daryl, Roger, Caprice, Keith and Lea, turned up for another session of attacking shrubs in the church garden. That “attacking” was obviously taken too literally by Keith and Daryl… one managed to break a fork and the other managed to break a spade within ten minutes of having started! David Jokes, no, not joking, was none too pleased, although in the end he did manage a joke about it, doing justice to his name. Lots of stuff removed again, lots of barrows wheeled again, but no cutlery was found this week! We must have done a thorough job last week. All looking pleasant enough, even though it was getting too dark to see. Our next session therefore will have to wait till the spring. Pity, we had fun while working hard.

3 Goodgymers (Keith, Daryl and Janet) met at the Men’s Shed in Winton Rec on a lovely sunny Saturday morning. Straight to work dismantling the pallets, after being shown some tips and new tools by John. Some of the pallets were more difficult to separate than others, especially the ones where staples had been used! A number of techniques were deployed, but by far the most satisfying was swinging the hammer onto wedges that then pushed the planks apart. Now the Men’s Shed should have enough pallets to keep them going for a while so they can produce more planters and bird boxes during their sessions.

Five Goodgymmers, Mohammed, Roger, Paul, Keith and Lea turned up at St Aldhelm’s church for some more weeding of the church garden. Forks aplenty. As well as grasses galore, ivy galore and ….. cutlery galore?!?!?! We kept on finding teaspoons…the vicar came to say hello and luckily cleared up the teaspoon mystery: they wash their cups etc after coffee mornings, but as the church has no sink, they throw the water in the bushes. The phrase: don’t throw the baby out with the bath water comes to mind, or rather: don’t throw the cutlery out with the dishwater. Anyway, definitely lots of done again with a very happy David, the gardening volunteer. Lea, however, was not so happy when she got home: oh horror… no after picture 😱😡😢! Maybe next week we can take one, as well as another before picture because we will be tackling the invasive holm oaks. If you want some hard graft, do turn up next week. Holm oaks are notoriously stubborn!

Four Goodgymmers, Sarah, Roger, Keith and Lea, turned up at St Aldhelm’s Church to meet up with David. No weeding like last time, no, the big stuff today! Roger wielding a pitchfork to take a self seeded big (whatever it was) bush out, Sarah happily lopping away at huge laurel and rhododendron bushes, with Keith attacking holly, laurel and a strawberry tree with a vengeance! And Lea… on wheelbarrow duty! Luckily Roger joined her after uprooting the whatever bush and together they wheeled 28 barrows around the corner past a group of non-budging people and a rather badly parked van into and beyond the memory garden. All that gardening work resulted in a huge pile… and a happy David, hoping that we will manage at least one more session there. Thanks everyone for your hard work.

Lea,Keith and Daryl meet at the Henry Brown Community Center to put the final coats of paint on the walls and woodworkthe fridge room know looks nice and bright.The management are so pleased with the work we completed,its been a pleasure doing this mission this week the center looked after us so well and so greatfull for the work we have done.

Daryl Lea and Keith helped to start the decorating of the fridge room in the Henry Brown Community Centre we sanded down all the wood work and filled many holes by lunch time we had started to under coat the wood work as it was black gloss we soon had this done and I shall be back to paint the gloss in the morning