🌦️ 17 GoodGymmers braved the risk of rain for our group run this evening. We were thrilled to welcome Louise back from London and hear about her GG and parkrun adventures down there.

🏃‍♀️🏃 Ed led half the group to Huntington and with a 4k run to get there, they set off swiftly. Here’s what Ed had to say about what they got up to:

🌱 After a lovely run along the river we were greeted by Maria from St Nick's who set us off raking up and disposing of nettles from the side of the river bank. Whilst everyone else armed themselves with rakes, Leanne and Ed became the resident drag act and shifted the nettles on sheets of tarpaulin to nearby wildlife areas. Several nettle stings later, we made our way back to the Priory Centre just in time for a spot of fitness.

🫘 Meanwhile, the rest of us named, numbered and warmed up (in a spot of drizzle) while naming our favourite beans. Baked, haricot, broad and jelly all featured.

🌉 Soon, it was our turn to head off, this time in the direction of Millennium Fields. A river route was chosen as the most desirable and most pleasant it was too.

🌺 We were greeted by Maeve who explained our task - removing all the hay that has been piled up, by putting it into bags/onto a big tarp and dragging it to the compost area. She helpfully explained the reasoning behind this, that leaving it on top of the grass would encourage the growth of docks and nettles rather than the wildflower meadow that is the aim.

✌️ With this understanding, we swiftly set to work with Martin C and Martin B (Martin squared?!) forming a particularly effective team.

🐹 Different approaches were taken to the task, with more or less hay ending up in the bag-holders faces. Debs had an effective rolling method, almost generating bales that were then shoved into the bags (with assistance as Debs basically turned into a walking hay bale and could no looker see said bags). Meanwhile, Abi perfected the flattening approach, lying on the hay to make space for more to be piled on top. She basically took one for the team as it didn’t look the most comfortable surface to lie on. Maybe Abi was experimenting what it feels like for her guinea pigs to lie on hay (whilst also regretting being unable to take it home for them so seeing if she could smuggle some into her pockets?!).

🐶 Not long before finishing, Debs uncovered some dog poo (and unleashed its incredibly strong smell), causing all of us to check our gloves and hands for any that we may have accidentally gathered.

🪿 There was some chat about how geese descend while flying. Most of us didn’t believe Dom’s fact that they turn their bodies upside down while keeping their heads upright, until he provided some evidence of the concept of “whiffling”. So now we’ve all learnt something.

💪 In a trick of perfect timing, we were able to finish moving all the hay at just the right time to finish the session. There was time for a group photo before heading back to meet the other group near our base for some fitness games. After a quick bean game and another of rock, paper, scissors (win you run, lose you lunge), it was time to head back to base and on to the pub.

🙌 Thank you everyone, see you again soon!

🥵 15 GoodGymmers braved the (very) warm evening for our group run this evening, supporting St Nick’s in two of their projects.

🥥 We named, numbered and “warmed up” (we were already pretty warm) by discussing what product we’d love to be able to grow on demand. From the exotic coconuts to the more local plums, there were also wine grapes and other such pleasures.

✌️ We split into two groups and here’s what Ed had to say about the Millennium Fields gang:

🐝 We arrived at the task and split into 2 groups. Mitch and Max were on raking duties whilst Claire, Charlotte and Laura got to grips with digging over the compost, with Ed splitting his time between the 2. Whilst Mitch and Max introduced a dance routine to their raking, the diggers were doing a dance of their own to ward off the wasps and mosquitos. Unfortunately the goodgym crew proved just too tasty and ended up with a fair few bites and even a wasp sting to show for all their hard work. Dan and Joanna arrived and soon got stuck into the raking before our time was up and we headed back for a brief fitness session.

🐠 Meanwhile, at “the fishy triangle“ (blame Dom for that particular nickname), we were met by Jonathan who’d already got stuck in with the digging. We were provided with spades (except for Vicky who got lucky and got a fork) and similar got digging. Our task was to dig out the weeds that were persisting. The plan is for this area to be woodchipped and for wildflowers to be planted there, to create a lovely low-maintenance area.

🌺 Jonathan also gave us some good news about the new wildflower area at the top of Millennium Fields that we dug/turned the turf for. Apparently it looks lovely now and the bees love it, which is great news.

🦟 The lowlight of the evening was probably the bug bites that we were also subjected to - apparently GoodGymmers are just too tasty for our own good.

🤭 We all got a giggle when Paul Kelly and Amy tried to helpfully point out the soil whiskers on Vicky’s cheeks. Only to be greeted with Vicky’s bum - which cheeks?!

📸 Soon, it was time to pack all our weeds into bags (which Jonathan declined to cycle over to Fulford in this heat), take our group photo and head back towards base.

💪 We started a quick fitness session before the other group arrived, focussing on knee-strengthening (though avoiding floor-based exercises for fear of more bites). Then it was time to head back to base for a stretch before heading to the pub/home.

👏 Thanks everyone, see you again soon!

Another month, another booksale at the library. We enjoyed the usual task of putting out more books, taking our time to nosy around the wide range of subjects - with Leanne spotting a familiar view in a book on England's cathedrals.

We were also entrusted with picking out the least sellable books to be boxed up for salvage, leading to a discussion on what the good people of York may or may not enjoy reading (history fans should definitely get themselves down to Tang Hall for some bargains).

This one is definitely too sticky ! Ellie

Result: Everything set out for a bumper booksale and more valuable funds for Tang Hall library.