A gorgeous evening for a run/walk over to Windmill Hill City Farm, one of our two City Farm good deeds of the week (St Werburgh's City Farm Wednesday evening).

Having triple checked which beds were for digging and which were absolutely not to be dug under any circumstances, we were on to our task to make the toddler "mud digging" zones easier to dig as the mud had become very compacted. It's basically going to be a training ground for future GoodGymmers and part of our 15-year plan.

Big forks (and one border fork or "ladies fork" in old speak) and spades were put to use in the sunshine and masses of bindweed cleared from the space next door revealing a long-lost trowel - it might not be golden but was treasure for us. It was probably our second biggest digging workout of the year so far, since Jordan attacked the pond-to-be with a pick axe on the pouring rain.

The deepest hole was soon being edged and backfilled with large lumps of soil (and soul) which were then broken up to resemble a "fine till" per Gardeners' World parlance and even raked over.

Zone 2 had been a bit more weedy but was also levelling up (no politics here) well, albeit not quite so fine, but a whole lot better than when we arrived.

With barrowloads of bindweed cleared from the neighbouring patch, the sun was still shining as we tidied up, returned all the tools to the shed and said goodbye to the rabbits on our way out - perfect.

Tea, cider and hot chocolate was the order of the day back at Club Haus at Workout. Not all in the same cup.

As well as lots of good deeding, the group run was once again the venue for deep philosophical debate involving the past tense of strimming and therefore the present tense of strumming. Hot topics indeed for the four walkers to start debating whilst the runners, led by Richard B, snuck (sneaked?) in a harbour loop before arriving at the Community Garden of Redcliffe Children's Centre.

We think the tasks were * top soil onto 8 of the planters after weeding * woodchip onto 6 tree planters and top of 8 weeded, top-soiled planters * strimming raked * litter picked * path weeds hoe-d * path swept * tools placed in school playground WITHOUT PLAYING ON THE ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND * key returned * padlock locked

The main issue was remembering all the tasks...

It was a bit of a step workout as GoodGymmers opted to climb over the seating bench rather than via the highly secure gate, with Small Spade or trowels full of woodchip whilst the Big Spades, mainly moved top soil within the gated garden to the planters. There was quite a lot of it.

The Centre can now continue their work with UWE's Bee-line to increase pollen for pollinators across the city to encourage, erm, bees. Bristol Bees.

Having avoided being burned by lit cigarettes discarded from the balconies and windows above, and only one GoodGymmer being hit by spittle from above (fortunately onto glasses not straight into an eye, the area was tidy until kids started throwing litter from a balcony - hopefully they'll join in with the Community Garden becoming a lively space to spend time.

More litter was picked (pucked?) on the way back to the bit of Queen Square we could still see whilst the Comedy Garden takes place. Then the beat bit of all - the found Maths Word Search challenge whilst we carried on chatting at Club Haus in Workout.

Anyone know that film - the one with the man in the hat and the doors?

Brunswick's brambles, buttercups and bindweed were our target for a rearranged group run where we were joined by Elaine, Teodora and Mike for their very first GoodGym session and Tim for his first Bristol task having decided Bristol was the place to be. Great to have you all with us, all joining the running group led by Ed and backmarked by Nik.

With the three Bs (buttercup, bindweed and brambles) already in our sites, an Unexpected Extra Mission cropped up as a dog-walker asked if we could find a very special lost pink frisbee - a great focus for some ground clearance.

Team Bramble tried to protect the knees of all their fellow GoodGymmers so they could search the undergrowth for the missing frisbee whilst revealing and freeing up lovely grasses that should be in the Cemetery. Gareth showed a particular skill for jumping in the sack to squash the weeds without scratching his knees at all, Freya specialised in pulling the surprisingly big roots out with top theatrics and Ryan unwound lots of bindweed to avoid strangulation.

Frances did her best to get caught in the brambles whilst clambouring deep into their mass on the hunt for the pink frisbee but, alas, no frisbee was found.

With the dumpy sack full to the brim it was time for a quick photo and exit from the runners with the walkers helping take the tools to their locker and heading back for an excellent GoodGym Eats at Burger Theory, with Vaguely Northern Darren's pet snail along for the ride.

Fence painting next week?!

It was back to Hannah More Primary School this evening to have a tidy up of the playground, field, front of school, chalk boards and veg patches during the "Spring" half-term in predictable rain showers.

We welcomed James to his very first GoodGym task and he joined the walkers whilst Richard B led the runners over the bridge and (not very) far, far away.

Ruth was there to greet us with litter picking, chalk board cleaning, veg patch weeding (is this one a weed?) and sand sweeping all happening with GoodGymmers scampering all over the school's outside space.

As ever, we were on the hunt for treasure and before long top picks were a buried dinosaur (top archaeological excavating or litter picking, whichever it was) and a plastic cake which was added to the general sense of celebrations for Melanie's 1000th good deed - all surpassed by the amazing 1000 badge hand made by the lovely Richard G who'd had the foresight to waterproof it to save us all being covered in glitter. His graphic design skills are, as ever, second to none.

Vaguely Northern Darren set about capturing photographic evidence of all that was going on...

It turned out most of the chalk boards were undercover - surely being exposed to the rain would make them self-cleaning, if utterly impractical for ever drawing on - Valè and James made short work (they were having to kneel down to get the bottom of the low boards) of turning them very black indeed, whilst nearby Caroline was sweeping with the small broom which she much preferred to the bigger one on offer.

Runners turned litter-pickers Richard B, Ed, Gareth and Ryan resisted the urge to play on the outdoor equipment whilst scouring the grounds - how do they do that? Multiple bags were collected ready for the skip later and added to by Team Weeds - starting with the quite obvious couch grass (although that did prove not so simple by the onions) before progressing onto flatter weeds, Jason, Frances, Jo and James left the beds looking much tidier than when we'd started, and most of the actual vegetable plants still in place.Richard G moved on to the edges of the planters and expertly replanted some cornflowers to a raised bed instead of clinging on to the planter edge for dear life.

We were soon wrapping up as the rain re-started and moved on to the newly painted and furnished staff room (courtesy of some corporate volunteers) where we had the luxury of wash-hand basins before Ruth delighted us with coffee and walnut cake, more chat and a celebratory photo to mark Melanie's 1000th.

Running and walking back, and finding no speed dating at Workout, we were able to enjoys pots of tea (other drinks are available) and more celebratory cookies and our traditional party rings with Paul and Danica who'd called in to say hello. James was well and truly inducted into the random conversations of Bristol GoodGym.

See you next time?

It was lovely and summery when we met at Queens Square, welcoming Will and Osama to their first ever group run plus Ryan and Ruben back for their second.

The 8 runners set off, led by Richard B who bravely made sure there was some health and safety to go with the pick axe we were trusted with and remembered to take a before photo - thank you!

The 3 walkers were hot on their heels and really impressed with the pond digging as they set about distributing woodchip to the paths and bricks artistically laid around the planted areas otherwise lost among the tall grass - well done, Jason.

Caroline and Valè joined our four newest GoodGymmers shifting the soil, stones and bricks out of the newly designated pond area after Jordan had made short work of pick-axing the somehow-still-dry ground to loosen it up and make the mounds for landscaping.

Two good reasons for tidying up were to get out of the rain and to eat lovely cake and admire all the hard work.

Richard G and Melanie got totally soaked on the walk back despite Richard's very big umbrella.

Well done, everyone - I'm pretty sure the pond would be full by now with this rain if we'd had a pond liner!