This week we were back at The Greenhouse project with a slightly less festive task than last time - slotting leaves back onto the hedge outside. Not as strange as it sounds! The artificial hedge seems to shed it leaves like the real thing so we were tasked with replacing the leaves to cover some of the balder spots.

As there were a good bunch of us, we split into two teams, one team tackling the hedge outside and the other scrubbing some chairs inside. The outside team were quickly finished and came inside to lend a hand.

After a good scrub the chairs were gleaming! Sadly we forgot to get a before picture, so you don't get the full effect, but we certainly left the place a little brighter.

Well done everyone and particularly to Dike who came on his way to work. That's true goodgym dedication!

Sallyann enticed us all to come to parkrun by announcing that if you attend all 12 Goodgym parkrun sessions in the year, as a runner or volunteer or even a breakfaster, there will be a mystery prize. This drew lots of us in, including Liam even though he was setting off for Costa Rica later in the day! Sallyann, Lucien and Pauline came to cheer on and photograph Liam, Bekah, Ellie, Julie, and Sian who joined a huge crowd of enthusiastic runners, numbers probably swelled by New Year Resolutions to a total of 669. It was Goodgymmer Eileen's 100th session as a parkrun volunteer, an amazing achievement. A special shout-out also goes to Heetu who wasn't able to join us as she was doing a trail run on the Llyn Peninsula. After the run we went to escape the cold in a cafe for brunch, arriving at Espresso on Park Road moments before the shutters went up for the day so that it felt like it was opening just for us. We're experimenting with a new nearby cafe for brunch each month, and February might see us heading to Lodge Lane. We had a lovely chat and catch-up and are looking forward to the next task!

On Thursday a gang of Goodgymers met at Crown park armed with litter-pickers and a plan. Unlike previous similar tasks in the past, this time we decided to mix up the fitness and the cleaning in a relay format, with different groups taking turns to either pick litter or do fitness exercises, switching every 10 minutes or so. Prepared with resistance bands as well as our running shoes, Sallyann led us with some great strength exercises, and by the end of the session we had gathered two full bags of litter...pretty good considering the light conditions. We even had a few attempts on the local gym equipment, with some hanging, and pull-ups to round off the session.
A fun new take on an old Goodgym formula, I'm sure we'll try more sessions like this in the future, especially as the days grow longer and warmer..!

Snow and ice had stopped us in our tracks over the last few weeks. so it was with great delight we donned our summer clothes at a balmy 6 degrees and headed out for our 1st session of the year.

Grant Gardens former site of Liverpool Necropolis is a large green space in the midst of a built up area. it sits nestles into the corner of a busy road junction and only when you walk in the gates you realise that this is a big plot of land. Last time we were here we were head high in swathes of wild flowers. This time we had two tasks bulb planting and litter picking and we set to the tasks with great joy and goodgym vigour.

Some people used a special tool to carve out plug shaped holes to drop the bulbs in (a clod cutter perhaps?) others planted the many many bulbs whilst others picked up the litter to return the space to its natural beauty. as always the time passed quickly as we worked amidst the remnants of snowmen under a clear sky and the rising wolf moon.

This was our Pauline's 975 task.... we look forward to celebrating the big one with her this year.and we can't wait for spring to see all the bulbs flowering a reminder of a warm winters night.... OK so maybe the temperature wasn't that warm but a Monday night with a crowd of Goodgymers makes us all feel a little warm inside.