Wow! 19 lovely GoodGymmers take on the checking of New Things donated to the new Library of Things in Bedminster - a brilliant project that lends Things to people for projects so they don't need to buy and store them!

What looked like a small pile of New Things donated needed checking and cataloguing, plus some painting of the back-of-the-shop kitchen and loo.

The pile was deceptive. Sooo much to sort through, big and small, clean and in need of a clean, working or needing repair, the mission to start sorting began.

Joined by Ellenand Rohan for the very first time, it was a bumper group of GoodGymmers old and new with a fantastic reappearance of Shreena who went to Australia for a year nearly two years ago and is back for a visit, Clowho's now normally only in Bristol on Wednesdays, Emma who's normally working but was on leave and the Godfather Dave who pops in every now and again. There was a fair amount of screeching and hugging pre-run.

Not to mention it being Valè's 50th good deed, but sue hasn't brought cake yet so we wont mention it.

For the first time, GoodGymmers had their hands on power tools (not just lawn mowers and strimmers) to check they worked and everyone still had all their fingers and linbs at the end if the task.

Kids' things, DIY things, cake tins (just saying, Valè), camping things plus the only tape measure for cataloguing item size was a donated imperial one so unexpected Maths skills on show.

Whilst items that had been checked, measured and photographed were being booked in to the catalogue, and paint rollers were being cleared up, the mammoth task was started - a ten-people tent donated, in three bags plus a carpet, bigger than the shop premises, but thankfully looking like it had only ever been a demo tent indoors so very clean, all working and the fitness/Tetris challenge of getting it all back into the bags. Obviously GG Bristol made short, if a tad stressy, work of this so another HUGE item ready for lending. Anyone for camping?

Items stored, finish photos snapped, treats eaten, the runners and walkers headed back to Queen Square and Workout for aome riverside drinks at ClubHaus plus the Ozzie snacks Shree had brought with her.

Perfect GoodGymming, team!

Weren't we the lucky ones with a weather forecast updating from thunder and lightening to no rain at all! I'm pretty sure this is also why our numbers swelled from 5 sign ups at midday to 13 when we were arriving in Queen Square, sadly minus Vaguely Northern Darren as he was poorly. But everyone there had signed up, so Melanie didn't need to hunt for any email addresses, revealing embarrassing nick names when personal email addresses were created!

It was great having very experienced GoodGymmers (from back when it all began in Bristol) alongside our newer members and this was a firs time to Brunswick Cemetery for Freya, James and Bruce, with all the health and safety warnings that are needed.

Paul led his band of runners who arrived just as the walkers were staring to take up tools with our target being the disappearing (from being found by GoodGym) spiral path, with errant weeds to remove edges to be sought, teams taking on the challenge at the top, middle and bottom of the spiral whilst Di from the Friends group continued the dogwood-bindweed clearance and Bruce tried his hand (and bare arms and legs) at nettle-bindweed clearing until it all got a bit too tingly.

Someone had nicked the empty dumpy sack we'd hidden in the park just a couple of hours earlier, so we were back to black sacks and the rubble bags pre-purchased in a Brilliant Exhibition of Forward Planning (BEFP). And the rubble bags are a nice blue colour, so that's all good.

Everyone was very industrious as we even saw a bit of blue sky celebrating our achievements at, yes, finding edges and making the gravel look much more shiny, with top stomping by Freya who'd been practising the previous week in Totterdown.

When we'd had enough (running late as we're SO committed), we headed back to Workout and ClubHaus for our July GoodGym Eats whilst supporting Valè through the difficulties of France's early goal against Spain in the men's Euro 2024 semi-final, ordered some lovely burgers despite ClubHaus being a bit busy with football fans and continued the general chat about Very Important Things, sat outside by the water.

We really are very lucky people (vlp).

Hot. Very Hot. The walkers outnumbered the runners but Vaguely Northern Darren was everyone's best friend when he arrived with boxes of mini Calippo to share out. Ursula was ready for us, the runners arriving first by more time than usual as the walkers were held up with a bridge swing at Princes Street Bridge, holding us up from making a wildlife bridge to encourage creatures transitting the city.

We split into Team Dead Hedge and Team Watering with TDH annihilating a live hedge which will form the basis of a dead hedge at low level and allowed to be a live hedge above. This was made possible by much "skilled pruning" and an ambitious movement of a dumpy sack full of sticks from one side of the 5-foot wire fence to the other by managing to lift and balance it on a wheelbarrow - welcome to GoodGym, Bruce!

The detail watering of shrubs along a new hedge line (a live hedge line, this one, not a dead hedge line) was completed speedily so it was on with tying in willow to the willow dome (decidedly unshady in its youth but hopefully a bit more shady next year!) and the invention of GG Bristol's Willow Club, complete with matching tying-in bracelets - rocking the look, Danica, and Darren.

TDH were also going great guns with the dumpy sack of twigs added to the greenery chopped from the live hedging and the pallets brutally kicked apart by Phill and skillfully shoved down by Caroline, Richard, Paul, David, Jason, Janka, Marianne and Frances. The team soon moved on to creating a sacrificial mud pie zone (or maybe a rockery) by layering cardboard then soil brought down from the top of the park, surrounded by a stone circle in a nod to the Summer Solstice.

Great work, team, and thanks for the drinks and biscuits!

Back in time for the match, which wasn't worth it!

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!

The Scrapstore needed our help, and 17 GoodGymers answered the call! We welcomed Ryan, Ruben and Kieran to their very first Group Run this evening and we hope they enjoyed their warm welcome this evening.

12 runners ran, 3 walkers walked and Frances and Jade appeared, worked hard, then disappeared back in to the night!

We split in to 3 teams, Ryan, Ruben, Richard G, Richard, Helen, Frances and Nell set about rolling up coloured pre-cut materials, and much debate was had about the relative density, likely uses (pirate hats, capes and yoga mats for people who abhor comfort) before filling barrels and barrels full of them!

Valè and Jason were the cutting crew. Valè proclaiming that one of the sheets reminded her of the smell from baby dolls in Argentina in the 1980's!...unpleasant! The final job was re-attaching handsets to phones. The staff had a little wager on how many we could do, and the team of Phill, Nell, Gareth, Jordan, Freya and Sebastian, surpassed their expectations, reattaching, according to Phil 'a billion!'.

We left the Scrapstore dazzled by multicoloured scrap and hope to be back soon, but also with the promise of indoor winter tasks!