An intrepid team of Goodgymers gathered in light rain to commence their journey to the Blundell Road Recreation Ground where some trees had taken hold in between the pavilion and its fence.

On arrival at the task the rain had turned to a mere drizzle and luck seemed to be on our side!

🌲 🪚 We set to work sawing away at the trees to clear the space and make it usable by the football team to store their goalposts and equipment.

However luck was not on our side, as we dragged the last of the trees and branches across the park the heavens truly opened with a deluge of biblical proportions.

🌧️ 🌧️ Where there had been puddles there were now lakes, toes were definitely soggy. We made haste and left the park in search of hot showers and warm fluffy towels but first, the return journey!

The streets of Bury Park were awash with white-water streams running every which way, waterfalls pouring from rooftops 🌊, pavements turned into water features ⛲ and roads become waterways ⛵. It all certainly felt more adventurous and epic than usual!

Before too long we had all made it to our goal and were warm and dry 😺🚿

Six of Goodgym's finest turned out on Sunday morning bringing their energy, agility and enthusiasm to the slash-and-burn party that is the hallmark of a Luton and Dunstable Conservation Volunteers session on Bradgers Hill, Luton.

We welcomed Rachel who came along to join us on her first Goodgym task

Tooled up with loppers and hand saws the team steadily worked through the prickly and tangly overgrown and thorny (astonishingly, no blood was shed) scrub, to open up a clearing and let in more light for the grasses beneath to grow and thrive.

The bonfire exceeded all expectations as was evidenced by some rosy complexions and sweat beaded brows. Tea break with biscuits and home baked apple cake went down a treat.

We met up at the town hall for intros and a warm up before we set off with a mix of walking, running and biking through the sunset to our task at Kingway Recreation Ground.

The 61 Football club were waiting for us with a fresh pot of brick red paint, with just enough brushes to go around we were able to get everyone painting the walls of the clubhouse and during the session we almost finished off the whole 5 litres!

Darkness set in during the task reminding us all that its time to bring headtorches out on group runs from now on, its only going to get darker and we never stop!

With the paint all on the walls we made the return journey back into town for all important stretches and goodbyes.

On this warm sunny evening we headed out to the ⚽ 61 Football Club to paint the clubhouse walls and the ironwork on the stand. There were loads of us so it took some time to find everyone a task to do but we got everyone scraping and painting in the end.

We also met two new guys keen to join us, Ashkan and Amir, the team keeps on growing!

Before too long the slightly scruffy clubhouse walls were looking much smarter with a new coat of brick red paint and the ironwork was shining bright blue too.

With all the hard work done, we settled down on the pitch to refresh ourselves with a nice cool Athletic Brew alcohol-free amber ale 🍺, before we began our journeys home.