🌦️ 17 GoodGymmers braved the risk of rain for our group run this evening. We were thrilled to welcome Louise back from London and hear about her GG and parkrun adventures down there.

🏃‍♀️🏃 Ed led half the group to Huntington and with a 4k run to get there, they set off swiftly. Here’s what Ed had to say about what they got up to:

🌱 After a lovely run along the river we were greeted by Maria from St Nick's who set us off raking up and disposing of nettles from the side of the river bank. Whilst everyone else armed themselves with rakes, Leanne and Ed became the resident drag act and shifted the nettles on sheets of tarpaulin to nearby wildlife areas. Several nettle stings later, we made our way back to the Priory Centre just in time for a spot of fitness.

🫘 Meanwhile, the rest of us named, numbered and warmed up (in a spot of drizzle) while naming our favourite beans. Baked, haricot, broad and jelly all featured.

🌉 Soon, it was our turn to head off, this time in the direction of Millennium Fields. A river route was chosen as the most desirable and most pleasant it was too.

🌺 We were greeted by Maeve who explained our task - removing all the hay that has been piled up, by putting it into bags/onto a big tarp and dragging it to the compost area. She helpfully explained the reasoning behind this, that leaving it on top of the grass would encourage the growth of docks and nettles rather than the wildflower meadow that is the aim.

✌️ With this understanding, we swiftly set to work with Martin C and Martin B (Martin squared?!) forming a particularly effective team.

🐹 Different approaches were taken to the task, with more or less hay ending up in the bag-holders faces. Debs had an effective rolling method, almost generating bales that were then shoved into the bags (with assistance as Debs basically turned into a walking hay bale and could no looker see said bags). Meanwhile, Abi perfected the flattening approach, lying on the hay to make space for more to be piled on top. She basically took one for the team as it didn’t look the most comfortable surface to lie on. Maybe Abi was experimenting what it feels like for her guinea pigs to lie on hay (whilst also regretting being unable to take it home for them so seeing if she could smuggle some into her pockets?!).

🐶 Not long before finishing, Debs uncovered some dog poo (and unleashed its incredibly strong smell), causing all of us to check our gloves and hands for any that we may have accidentally gathered.

🪿 There was some chat about how geese descend while flying. Most of us didn’t believe Dom’s fact that they turn their bodies upside down while keeping their heads upright, until he provided some evidence of the concept of “whiffling”. So now we’ve all learnt something.

💪 In a trick of perfect timing, we were able to finish moving all the hay at just the right time to finish the session. There was time for a group photo before heading back to meet the other group near our base for some fitness games. After a quick bean game and another of rock, paper, scissors (win you run, lose you lunge), it was time to head back to base and on to the pub.

🙌 Thank you everyone, see you again soon!