☀ 26 excellent GoodGymmers gathered for our third and final bank holiday group run of the month. And a lovely sunny evening it was too.

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Michaela for her first group run, and to see Louise who’s visiting up from London.

🦸‍♂ Sadly, I completely forgot to bring the cape for Ed’s very impressive 300th good deed so that glorious moment/photo op is yet to come. Well done though 👍

🥔 We named, numbered and warmed up with a slightly ad hoc question (which fit with my slightly disorganised mind this evening). In honour of it being whitsun weekend, we offered our favourite comedian and/or potato dishes. There were some very reputable comedians cited but personally, it also just reminded me how many great ways there are you serve potatoes (dauphinois, hash browns, croquettes), which in turn made me pretty hungry.

🍎 Ed led the run to Holgate Community Orchard where we marvelled in the progress that’s been made in the 18-ish months that we’ve been coming here. The first part of the patch is blooming with wildflowers so we got stuck into the second. One job there was to lop nettles, dig brambles and remove bindweed. Meanwhile, another group got stuck in removing stones from a stony patch.

🧲 A third group were on random metal object extraction duties. Door handles/hinges and horseshoes were among their finds, with some impressive digging to get them out. More natural finds were a potato plant by Charlotte (which Helen thinks must have been there for decades) and a frog by Bernie. We can’t wait to see how this part of the orchard turns out and we’re particularly excited to hear more about the bee initiatives there 🐝

🗻 Some excellent work was done during our time there tonight, before we headed to Windmill Rise for some hill reps. We did these in pairs and included a warm up and cool down plus three higher intensity reps in the middle.

🍻 With that, it was time to head back to base and home/on to the pub.

🌺 We’ve got a few sessions coming up this week, including this one at North Street Gardens on Wednesday evening with Barbara so do sign up and join us if you can.

🍫 21 excellent GoodGymmers gathered for our weekly group run. The final Raleigh chocolates were distributed, with the ultimate fairness. Laura led a party pace group and the rest of us named, numbered and warmed up 🥳

🎺 In honour of National Buy a Musical Instrument Day, we discussed our musical instrument experience (and rediscovered just what a talented bunch we are). From ukulele to ocarina (with some slightly more conventional flutes and guitars in between), we could make quite the band 🎶

🏃🚴‍♀It was soon time for the rest of us to head off, with a good-sized cycle group leading the way. Ed led a brisk (if not quite direct) running group across Hob Moor, avoiding cows as we went 🐮

👋 We soon reconvened at Acomb Wood where we were met by Beki from the council environment team, along with plenty of rocky stuff (hardcore) and sandy stuff (hoggin). Everyone got to work quickly, splitting into shovellers (or spaders for the hardcore), barrowers and rakers.

💪 So efficient was our work that we were able to distribute all the material in no time (so Ed and Max sat in the van for a chat whilst the rest of us finished off). Debate arose as to the best way to manage almost-empty bags, with the conclusion being a 4-person drag. There was just time for a quick team dance while we stomped the final hoggin down (Paul Kelly had a particularly good technique for this) before a group photo and heading off in our various groups.

🍻 Whilst some people split off en route, lots of us headed back to base for stretching and pub. Thank you everyone, good work 👍

💪 Four GoodGymmers, strong of arm and heart, gathered this Thursday evening to aid the moving of a new fairy house from its place of construction to the Foss Fairy Trail.

The task was completed successfully, and then it was time for the pub 🍻

🧚 Hopefully the fairies will be happy with their new home 🏠

☀️ In contrast to the torrentially wet weather for last Monday’s group run, tonight was pleasantly sunny. 26 of us gathered, bound for West Bank Park.

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Iñaki for his first GoodGym session, and Beth for her first group run. We hope you both had fun!

🦸‍♂️ We were also delighted to celebrate Paul Kelly’s 300th good deed, giving him the honour of wearing the special cape of joy (and celebrating further with him at the pub at the end of the task!)

🇪🇺 We named, numbered and warmed up while saying our favourite European country (in honour of Eurovision so Australia featured, obviously!) Spain, Italy and Ireland were popular choices, along with Yorkshire (of course it should be a country).

🏃‍♀️🚲🚶‍♂️We then headed to West Bank Park, on foot or bike where we were greeted by Kristina who had a plethora of tasks for us.

👑 We split into two main groups for pond vs pruning. The pruning was due to be around Queen Victoria, to uncover her. So the first question was “Where is Queen Victoria?”, followed by “Where is her nose?”, followed by “When’s her next bath?” (not for a while yet apparently as she had one last year and is likely to go fully green before her next!) Anyway, the team cracked on with some pruning, very efficiently, so they were soon finished and onto the next task.

🌼They then headed to a lovely meadowy area, with strict instructions to take care of the two bluebells there. There were various jobs in there, including pulling up dock leaves (which means we got to hear about Carl’s delicious-sounding stuffed dock leaves, and then Kristina’s equally delicious-sounding wild garlic birthday risotto!) The other job was trimming the new hedge/border back, using the 3 Ds principles - pruning dead, damaged and diseased in that order.

🐸 Meanwhile, the pond area was a hive of activity (literally - the pond itself was teeming with life, which was lovely to see - frogs and tadpoles galore!) The GoodGymmers were pretty busy too, weeding the dreaded ground elder from the flowerbed edges. Pete took his shoes and socks off immediately and waded into the pond (I’m not entirely sure why, possibly to retrieve a plant that needed moving?)

🌿 Another group were doing complicated manoeuvring with some wie to protect a newly-created hedge. Meanwhile, Beth, Leanne, Martin B were busy chopping out something beginning with P (we quickly forgot what) from within a large holly tree. They made a huge difference very quickly and then moved the cuttings to create a barrier for the pond.

💪 SO much got done this evening so thank you very much to everyone. And that was before the fitness! We did triple jump-based relays where everyone had to run, hop, skip and jump in turn to see which team could do it the fastest. There was some incredibly impressive stuff and thank you everyone for getting stuck in with what was a slightly more hardcore fitness session compared to some recently.

📸 As it turned out I’d forgotten to take the group photo, we did that then, and headed back to base. Once there, we cooled down, stretched off and parted ways. Oh, and we even avoided the brooding threat of rain that was lurking for the run back 🥳

🙌 Thank you everyone, I hope you have a great week and hopefully see you soon!

*Credit to Carl for the pun 👍

☔️ 7 incredibly dedicated GoodGymmers gathered on a rainy (coronation) bank holiday Monday evening for this evening’s group run. We were thrilled to welcome Sheila for her first group room and Dan for his first since 2019 👋

🌳 I was also able to share some incredibly exciting news about a Tiny Forest that we’re hoping to get started soon, having just had a meeting about it.

📜 Anyway, on to the task (literally) in hand, which was leafletting for the Community Furniture Store. They’d left an incredibly hefty box of leaflets for us to distribute to various studenty locations across the city 👩‍🎓👨‍🎓

3️⃣ We split into three groups:

🎒 Abigail, Martin and Sheila covered the city centre and walked an impressive almost 4 miles, with somewhat mixed luck as some accommodation blocks (apparently the fancier ones) declined their kind offer of leaflets. Abigail and Sheila managed to offer theirs out whilst Martin kindly carried the spares in his backpack.

🏃‍♀️ Lucy and Jenna jogged east to Tang Hall and also had somewhat mixed luck, more related to some possibly incorrect addresses that had been provided.

📚 Dan and I headed towards York University, where we left lots at the Information Centre (though sadly had less luck at the library). We also stopped at various places on the way there and back.

😁 It stopped raining eventually and we gathered back at CVS, soggy but (impressively) still smiling! And full of ideas of where to distribute the remaining leaflets.

👍 Incredible work everyone, leafletting on a rainy bank holiday evening may not be everyone’s idea of fun so you’re absolute troopers 💪