An intrepid team of Goodgymers gathered in light rain to commence their journey to the Blundell Road Recreation Ground where some trees had taken hold in between the pavilion and its fence.

On arrival at the task the rain had turned to a mere drizzle and luck seemed to be on our side!

🌲 🪚 We set to work sawing away at the trees to clear the space and make it usable by the football team to store their goalposts and equipment.

However luck was not on our side, as we dragged the last of the trees and branches across the park the heavens truly opened with a deluge of biblical proportions.

🌧️ 🌧️ Where there had been puddles there were now lakes, toes were definitely soggy. We made haste and left the park in search of hot showers and warm fluffy towels but first, the return journey!

The streets of Bury Park were awash with white-water streams running every which way, waterfalls pouring from rooftops 🌊, pavements turned into water features ⛲ and roads become waterways ⛵. It all certainly felt more adventurous and epic than usual!

Before too long we had all made it to our goal and were warm and dry 😺🚿

We met up at the town hall for intros and a warm up before we set off with a mix of walking, running and biking through the sunset to our task at Kingway Recreation Ground.

The 61 Football club were waiting for us with a fresh pot of brick red paint, with just enough brushes to go around we were able to get everyone painting the walls of the clubhouse and during the session we almost finished off the whole 5 litres!

Darkness set in during the task reminding us all that its time to bring headtorches out on group runs from now on, its only going to get darker and we never stop!

With the paint all on the walls we made the return journey back into town for all important stretches and goodbyes.

Before this weeks group run 4 of Goodgym Luton's heroes dropped in at Azalea to help with the relocation and removal of some white goods and an old filing cabinet. Amir, Fredy and Assine got stuck in straight away carrying a fridge freezer up 2 flights of stairs, to its new home on the second floor. Before the guys caught their breath we were carrying an old filing cabinet back down the stairs to be taken out for collection at a later date. This was followed by some juggling of appliances a minor plumbing task (isolating the water supply) and the removal of a shelf. A quick tidy up later and after loading an old washing machine in to a car bound for the tidy tip, the awesome foursome said their goodbyes to Azalea and met up with some more of the Goodgym faithful for their weekly run. Great work gents.

Today we were out in force again to support ABCD and Luton Council in a clear up of Bury Park in preparation for the first home game for Luton Town Football Club this season. And while the team were expecting a fair amount of litter, none of us had been prepared for the vast numbers of cigarette butts littering the pavements and roadside. They really are a pain in the butt to retrieve with a litter picker, but we did our best to clean up our section on Dunstable Road. Amir and Abim got really efficient with the broom and dustpan, while Assine , Ashkan and Abdulkarim had got retrieving all sorts of debris from the grass down to a fine art. It was great to have additional help from Bakari, who assured us that he wasn't part of GoodGym, but it's only a matter of time before we get him as out next recruit, with Abim's powers of persuasion.

The morning started out so well, despite it being a Bank Holiday the weather was fine and the team met at All Saints to complete the work started on Saturday. I would say there was a hive of activity, but under the circumstances of what happened later, that may be a pun to be avoided. Musa was back on path clearing duty and Assine did a marvellous job. Jelena started work on clearing the litter from the pavement and inside the grounds then joined Abim on cutting back some more of the shrubs. Yasin soon got busy cutting the bits of holly and ivy that had protruded through the fence to the pavement with Ehsan getting busy with the secateurs and broom. Although a late arrival Assine was brilliant at moving the mountain of cuttings, with Amir taking charge of the barrow. So that just left Gill who really should have stuck to her weeding and raking. Unfortunately she decided to help out with the secateurs and inadvertently cut into a large wasp nest. And boy were those wasps resentful of the intrusion - not content with attacking Gill, they started on Ehsan and Jelena too. But it was Gill who took the brunt of their ire. The rest of the group became a SWAT team, doing their best to swat the wasps off their companions. By the time the task ended, despite her hubby bringing antihistamine tablets and cream before taking the rubbish to the tip, it was clear that she and Ehsan weren’t too well. After driving home Gill was then treated to another Bank Holiday outing - by ambulance to the hospital to be treated for anaphylactic shock!!! Despite the drama, our team of Busy Bees did an amazing job of clearing and tidying, and once the vicar has got someone to exterminate the wasps, this will again be a lovely space for community use.