After a week of dreadful weather, the stars - or rather, our one big closest star, the sun - aligned to make a gorgeous morning. It was bright, and positively mild, such a treat after the wind and the rain. Spring was in the air, as was excitement at Goodgym Liverpool... It was Sticker Saturday, hooray!

12 of us turned up for 9am on a Saturday morning to Princes Park ready to take on the course. Miriam kindly turned up to cheerlead and take pictures, and it's always so nice to see a friendly face waving as you go round the course. Some sprinted, some ran, some jogged, some speed-walked, and we met at the finish line congregate for the group photo.

We then headed to fan favourite cafe Maw on Aigburth road, where we met Ellie and Anjie who joined us for breakfast (always allowed - you still get a sticker for coming to breakfast!) and Steph, who'd had a head start after meeting us earlier and then done her morning walk. Despite the lack of hash browns (not that I'm still going on about it or anything) Maw has an extensive menu ranging from a full vegan fry up to beef quesadillas, so everyone was happy (mostly. I'll get over it 😉).

The nice weather had inspired the runners and talk turned to upcoming runs. Thanks Vicki and Clara for some lovely ideas we might have to explore - watch this space! Whilst there we heard from beloved member Lucian who is undergoing an operation today. In a speedy attempt to catch him before he went in, Liam recorded a group message of support which we hope made him smile - good luck with your recovery Lucian, we're all thinking of you and sending our best wishes.

After much chatter and catching up, we slowly started to drift out to get on with our days after a lovely morning. Ongoing and heartfelt thanks to our fabulous Sally Ann, whose continual efforts with Sticker Saturday meant 15 people got some fresh air, exercise, and social time this morning. It's really captured our imagination, and the enthusiasm shows no signs of letting up!

The cafe for next month will be decided very shortly and the listing is available now to sign up. See you there!

11 goodgymers headed to Pagoda Arts Centre on Henry Street on a cool night. It felt like there was a hint of spring in the air. The front of the centre had a snake decoration around the doorway for 2025 and in a couple of weeks the Chinese luna calendar will usher in the year of the fire horse. There were many tasks to take on to get the centre ready for the celebrations. Ellie and Sallyanne cleaned inside the centre, Nasser moved boxes and put up pictures, Liam and Laura cleaned and cleared the entrance, Bekah, Leo and Jess did some up hill gardening and litter picking, me and Sophie cleared the car park of leaves and litter and Steph got to grips with a pile of papers that needed shredding in a temperamental shredder. All while a tai chi class was in progress which we tried hard not to interrupt. We were rewarded after our tasks with Chinese tea and chocolates.

Well Miriam and I turned up in perfect timing to get just enough minutes of gardening with just about no rain!

We made use of our precious dry minutes to get weeds cleared from under windows and patio with that lovely scraping spade to concrete sound! Which I’m sure none appreciated but we could see the benefit after.

Miriam was handy with the lawnmower to get the grass cut right down and we brushed up so that we could see the patio we had uncovered before. We also uncovered first signs of spring with a rose flowering.

We also presented some excess soil to another building plant bed which was better than binning it. So in the end we did harvest 4 bags of weeds to give Miss J garden the January clearance required ready for the spring!

I have done a few sessions on Mr K’s garden and I’d been looking at the pictures with the pots at the edge of the lawn and thinking what might be nice is to plant some bulbs in them for some spring growth. I went to The Range in the morning and they had daffodil and crocus bulbs reduced so I snapped them up. The weather in the morning was wet and overcast so I was a bit worried it might be a washout. It cleared up at lunch and the sun even came out! I told Mr K about the bulbs and he was very grateful. I set about planting those first then I went to tackle the front paving. Mr K had his usual arsenal of fine tools which were perfect for the job. It was a great workout and Mr K seemed really pleased with the results. I can’t wait to go back in the spring and see if those bulbs have come through.