On a cold (but dry!) December evening, 14 GoodGymers made their way to the tool library in Kemptown. Once there they were greeted by a cheery Gary and approximately a hundred crates of random tools in various states of rust.

The team soon got to work sorting the various items into boxes, and slowly but surely the room was transformed from a junk shop into a workshop.

Stefania then led us in a few rounds of squats/lunges etc., and then we went off into the night - some to the pub for taskforce strategising, others to a well-earned dinner.

Welcome new member Claudio!

Seven Good Gymmers and Angela’s partner George ran, walked, cycled and took the bus to the recently re-opened Martlets Hospice on a cold but sunny Saturday morning. We met head gardener John and he told us that before the hospice was off-sited for 18 months so it could be re-designed and improved, he managed to save all the garden furniture, pots and planters. However the regular gardening volunteers were unable to lift them and move them into the right place. This was where we came in so with eight of us there, and a couple of wheeled trollies, we figured out how to safely move the items and worked as a team to do it. We were very grateful to Angela’s partner George who helped Rosie and Rebecca to manoeuvre the heavy planters on to wheels, while Frannie, Rosie, Ben, Tabi, Angela and I moved the pots. Then all of us, together with John moved the garden furniture to the back of the hospice. We also learnt from Rosie a new word, apricity (meaning the warmth of the sun in winter) which we have been using ever since!

A grand welcome was given to new members Sarah and Stefan at yesterday GoodGym’s session at the Fitzherbert hub helping the Real Junk Food Project.

A running stroll on the seafront and high knees step ups the stairs enriched our fitness session on route to the venue. And once there, … surprise! We found some construction work-in-progress but, regardless, the unstoppable Brighton GoodGymers managed to clean safely all the exposed surfaces, swept and mopped all the floors in a blink of an eye, by equipping themselves with helmets – not these ones not 😊, but yes indeed with all the available brooms, brushes, dust pans, backets and mops!

We also extended the job to the neighbouring Brighton Table Tennis Club to make our cleaning session more fulfilling. It was a grand group, so with no surprise we finished off everything very quickly to get ready for the follow up entertainment: The Quiz night at the Kempt pub.

Yesterday afternoon the sky cleared just on time to provide us with good conditions for our autumnal gardening session at Manor Paddock, one of the senior residential housings that we served in Brighton & Hove. As usual, resident Luc welcomed us well prepared and massively thankful for the GoodGym superpower offered – without which the job would take him ages to do!

Several were the tasks needed, all done within less than an hour at the light of our powerful (more or less) headtorches! Planting bulbs, reshaping lavender bushes, weeding scrubs, collecting foliage, pruning buddleias and taking care of tomatoes plants’ beds.

Whom's running, whom's easy pacing because a doggy knee or cycling because of a stiff back pain (me, sigh!) … all we came and went off in full action!

Something to add to my gardening culture: Buddleia, also known as butterfly bush, is a perennial, semi-evergreen plant. Once it has flowered, it only loses its foliage for a short period of the year. The flowers of a buddleia generally appear from July to October. It's a robust shrub but can quickly become untidy if not pruned, with the flowers appearing so high that only the butterflies can enjoy them. Annual pruning keeps it in shape and helps produce more flowers, lower down.

Let’s see the results of our “pitch-perfect” buddleia pruning and lavender shaping next spring, shall we? 😊

Ten Goodgymers ran, walked and cycled the 6k to Vale Park in Portslade. We met the hardworking volunteers from the Friend of Vale Park Group. Today Jane completed her 50th session and Sherman celebrated his 6th year of being a GoodGymer!

Making the most of the evening sunlight we got to work clearing the bindweed and brambles from the rose beds. All the wet then hot weather had meant that the weeds had taken hold. Luckily the bindweed had glowing white flowers and was easy to see in the dusk. We employed our destructive gardening skills and managed to clear some of bindweed.

Vale park is now ready for hosting the Halloween games 🎃 for the children and the scouts of the local area.

A very satisfying task where we made a visable difference!