This evening we were back helping The Slough Refugee Support with a gardening task.

We met at 6:30pm in Salt Hill Park for the task brief and warm up. As the task venue was also in the park we decided on hill sprints as our 'run to' session! I say we, I mean me!

With the sun shining down on us there was only one way to do… UP! and boy was there some competitive sprinting going on!

It was great to have Eoin join us today on his first Slough task!

With the hill sprints completed we headed to the other end of the park to the task location.

On arrival Keriann was there with tools at the ready to give the garden a makeover. With a good sized group tonight we divided into two teams to cover the side garden and back garden.

Dr was straight away on the lawn mower - he fought the lawn but the lawn won, though to be fair, Savi did a great job!

Sandy took her little patches and weeded them into nice little spikey piles - she did her good weed for the day.

Jean was loving being in the rose bushes, she cut back the ones that were turning ‘wild’, who knew roses turned wild? But these are the types of things that Jean always knows about - just one of rose things

Lauren and Eoin were busy sweeping, weeding, working out what were weeds and what were plants - they used a bit of trowel and error to get there in the end.

Simmi didn’t moss around. She was straight into the flower beds de-weeding. Then cutting back the hedges with her newly WD40’d tool - we always have cutting hedge technology!

And finally we had Pam who always can’t herb her enthusiasm on gardening tasks. Pam was helping out here there and every where.

There is never a dill moment with us around and amazingly in just 45 minutes we had given both gardens a lovely makeover!

Giving us enough thyme to do lamppost to lamppost sprints all the way round the park, and finishing off with some leg strengthening exercises.

Next week we are over at Ryvers school. It will be a walking task as we need welly boots and long sleeved clothes on!

We were back at The Artful Hub this evening helping Eva and Jess with a couple of prep jobs for their new town Centre premises. The Artful hub opened a few weeks ago and have since then been providing the community with a lovely space to get arty.

We’ve helped them now on around 5 occasions and each time it gets brighter and a more beautiful space. Slough is lucky to such a lovely venue for its residents to be creative in.

Our meet up point was at Sainsbury’s where we did the task brief and brief warm up! Followed by a short jog/walk to Queenmere.

On arrival Eva and Jess where there to greet us and provide us with the task lowdowns.

So into two teams we went…

Team Blank Canvas and Team Sandy Pallets

Team Blank Canvas consisted of Nimi ant Simmi and their task was to paint the small office in the main shop floor area with a splash and a dash of pure brilliant white.

Team Sandy Pallets consisted of Savi, Pam and me. We had the task of sanding down two large pallets.

Savi had the bright idea of putting the pallets on the stack of tyres to prevent us from bending down too much! Fantastic idea for a tyresome job!

Thanks to everyone for coming along tonight. Next week we are at the allotments but on Tuesday evening over our usual Monday night.

6 runners met by Thames Hospice, Charlotte had our area with bags ready laid out to sort. Helen/Simmi was our colour co-ordinator, Pam on labellling bags whilst Jean/Savi and Sut sorting out which colour goes where.

Thank you for all your help

Next Monday we return to Artful Hub Project: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/rolling-in-paint-85e7ced1-82c4-4282-bad1-b8e46e0d7311

It was lovely to be back at the allotments helping Home Slough with their therapy garden project (a wellbeing project that helps expectant and new mums with a safe space to get together and watch their seeds blossom)

As usual we met on Shaggy Calf Lane where we did the task brief and warm up. The warm up was a round circle where each participant offered the next exercise. We swiftly moved on after Savi suggested burpees!

On route to the allotments, Pam kindly back marked for us as we chatted and ran/walked our way to the location. We always have good chives at the allotments so we were looking forward to this task.

Sarah our task owner had asked us to tidy up plot 5. On arrival we worked out which one was plot 5 (the one we had last turned over maybe a year ago and was in dire straits again!), so although we had bean there done that we really didn’t mind spending the thyme to do it all over again.

The weeds were almost as tall as us but we cracked on with sheer effort and enthusiasm to get the job done! We always like to take it to the limit but tonight Savi was on a rock n roll (not only for the puns - thank you for that) but also for cutting back the hedge to create some space to move around the plot!

Tonight’s effort really was all about :-

We fought the lawn and the lawn won … some of these weeds are just staying alive staying alive ah ha ha staying alive!

Just take a leek at the before and after photos to see the difference we made!

When you want a job done… get the GoodGym team in as we always

stand by your plan!

After finishing the task in a record 45 minutes we had plenty of thyme for a fitness session based on agility!

Plenty of single leg hops, lateral shuffled, in/in/out/outs and lateral hops to keep us in slim trim shape!

Next week we are helping Slough Refugees with their garden space! Come and join us if you are free?

Scoping it out

This was our first task helping our local Scope shop with a charity donation bag drop off to local residents. The task came about by a fellow vaccine centre volunteer who was now the deputy manager of the Scope shop in Slough High St. Debz had remembered all the good stuff we do and put in a task referral for some help!

And of course, we were only too happy to help - nothing is too out of scope for us!

The shop itself, when I went to collect the bags was very busy so it’s good to see that the extra donations that hopefully will come their way after our task tonight will help them to keep up with the demands.

The warm up

We met at Upton Court park at 6:30pm hoping that the rain would stay away and let us have a wet free session! It was great to have Eileen join us for her first session.

After the task brief, we did our warm up of head, shoulders, knees, cones, tribe and knee tag … I let the team do the hard work whilst I took the photos on my iCone!

The running part

We then slowly jogged to the motorway hill for some hill sprints. Nothing like ‘running up that hill’ to get the heart rate up.

We then made our way around Upton park to the Kings Reach housing area, where we were going to do the task.

The Task

We split into pairs to deliver the 155 bags. We abided by the No Junk rules and steered clear of the barking dogs and within 20 minutes we were done so back into the park we headed for a fitness session.

A nice n easy task for a Monday evening.

The fitness bit

The fitness session consisted of 5 exercises:-

• 10 squats

• 8 lunges

• 6 press ups

• 4 star jumps

• 2 burpees!

And then reverse! … I know the team enjoyed the burpees, I could just see it on their faces.

Finally finishing off with the round the world single leg burner! A great little leg strengthener and glutes burner.

Thanks for getting involved in this task. Debz has said she may need our help in August when the shop needs a revamp! Keep an eye out for that task

Next week as it’s bank holiday on Monday we will be doing our session on Tuesday at Black Park