We had bumper turnout of 27 GG Yorkies tonight as we came back to tackle the wildflower meadow at Clarence Gardens. But before setting off we had a couple of things to celebrate. Well done Michael who completed a 20mile race in Czechia that i won't attempt to spell! And an even bigger well done to Jane who was completing her 50th Good Deed. Jane joined us midway through the January Challenge and has been a regular ever since. Great work Jane 👍

Our warm up was inspired by Paul Kelly's dedication to seeing Radiohead at the weekend after securing last minute tickets and jumping straight on a train to London to just make it to the O2 in time! So we named the great lengths we had gone to for an event or a thing. Turns out a lot of us have travelled a very long distance just to get dumped! 💔

We then set off with Vicky leading a walk/run group, Ed leading the main run and Lucy backmarking. Upon arrival we were greeted by task owner Iain and future task owner Rachel who has just joined the council's eco team. We then grabbed some rakes and got cracking, scarrifying (no idea how to spell it, sorry) the ground ready for it to be seeded. The GG crew formed an almost perfect line other than one head torch which could be seen in the distance raking their own corner of the meadow. Turned out our lone raker was Bec who, not wishing to conform, had decided to rake a different spot

Meanwhile, Alex, Nikki, Mitch, Paul and David were busy with their own task which involved clearing quite a large amount of green waste and shifting it over to the skip. There are few things certain in life other than death, taxes and seeing Mitch on top of a skip when we need to create more room!

Over with the rakers, Jan and Nicola were doing an excellent job of gathering up the arisings and shifting them to the skip giving Mitch more to jump up and down on!

Before long it was time to down tools and start our fitness session, which this week involved teams competing against each other to jump forwards with a cone and then sprint back to their team for then next person to sprint out to the cone, jump and then sprint back. The result of the race was too close to call, so they had to go again to decide a clear winner, which I think ended up being Leanne's team, although possibly with a little bit of cheating

We'll be back at Clarence Gardens in a few weeks to finish the job

What a great turnout for tonights task - thank you!

We welcomed back Joanne tonight who brought along her partner Ben to his first task, but hopefully first of many!

We quickly set about the job of cutting strips of paper into the specified size, then wrote some questionable jokes on the back! There were different methods- Ben had an efficient way of cutting, whilst team Babs and Claire divided into odds and evens.

Time flew by, and fueled by pizza, we managed to make 6 sets of 50 ready to be sent off to CAMHS to support young people in hospital at Christmas.

Great work for a great cause.

On a miserable cold and wet Friday evening, 9 GoodGymers were out raking it in for the good of Heworth Community centre. A squad armed with rakes and tarpaulin cleared a freshly cut grass area and provided much needed mulch for the growing woodland, while another break away group did their best to lay a woodchip path while a storm raged around them

The social option after task was taken by a few happy to brave the short journey to the pub and found a warm and bustling atmosphere along with a pint and some hearty pub grub.

A greatful Community Centre left behind and some good pub banter complete, they all headed off for some warm and dry clothing to watch the storm rage by.

Storm Claudia was visiting, but she couldn't curb GoodGym York's enthusiasm. Michal was magnificent, providing hot tea & cookies to warm us up pre & post task. We planted daffodil bulbs on a virtually vertical steep grassy bank. It rained all day, we arrived soaked so the continuing rain didn't dampen our spirits as we chatted. We dug holes & planted bulbs, but our bags just didn't seem to be emptying. Sam had a lightbulb moment & so we increased the number of bulbs per hollow - otherwise we'd still be there! Nikki won the accolade for muddiest but hardiest as she was clad in running shorts. Hopefully we may return on bright sunny spring day to see, "A crowd, a host of golden daffodils" as a famous poet once said.