This week, determined to keep the intro speech as brief as possible, due to the long run to The Bevy, I totally forgot my manners and did not welcome Fiona to the group for her first Goodgym experience! My apologies, Fiona, you are very welcome!!

Two tasks tonight to return to two great projects we have previously worked on where there is still much to do!

Six of us headed to One Church, where Ben told us about some of the great community work they do to support both young and old. They took over the building about 5 years ago and its a challenge to stay on top of the huge amounts of maintenance a building like that generates.

So our task was to get to work on the railings we had started to sand down a few weeks ago. As any painter and decorator worth her salt will tell you, it’s all about the prep so this time we went in with a more systematic approach. Starting from the south we washed, scrubbed, brushed, sanded, wiped and filed away the grime and rust and flaky paint. Just when we thought we were ready to start undercoating we found more flaky bits of rust and dust to file and sand. This is one tough job but we found it strangely satisfying to peel away the layers of grime and rust and there is now a section of the railings we can file under…ready to paint! More visits needed but we will not be failing at renovating the railing! After tidying up we headed to the Level for a speedy lap of the park and stopped for some core work in the gardens of The Pavilion.

Meanwhile over at the Bevy …Helena led the rest of the crew on a 4km uphill run, thanks to Martin for back marking. We love going to The Bevy, because its such a great project, it’s created a great inclusive community hub for all generations to enjoy. There’s always so much going on there and we always get a great welcome. We were back on bindweed watch tonight, That stuff grows quick, maybe even quicker than the rust grows on the railings at One Church! But more great work was done to both the kitchen garden and the pub garden before the slightly easier downhill run back to base.

A few of us stayed behind to enjoy a drink for our monthly social. These happen on the second Tuesday of the month so the next one will be on 10th October. Put it in your diary!

From now on we will be keeping the group together so next week we will all be heading to a Grace Eyre Foundation property to do some tidying up and gardening. I have just purchased some fantastic new lights to keep us working in the dark so we can keep the doing good going over the winter months.

A big thank you to Beth for coming up with this week’s pun, I had nothing…you saved the day! And to Louise for The Bevy pictures.

Keep on running!