4 GGs met at our weekly farm task on a beautiful morning. This week we brushed and cleared weeds near to the wheel barrow zone. With a sieve we separated foliage and recycled the lovely soil that had accumulated in the cracks in the path. Then a treat to see the new geese who were a bit over eager to see us but we were able to gander them into the encloser with the help of the animal warden. A final gandering photo and we we took flight 🪿

On a perfect evening we gathered like excitable meerkats outside Workout. The chief meerkat briefed us on our mission this evening and we headed off.

A return visit to Hebron Burial Ground, this time to work on clearing back the brambles to the fence. The usual eclectic mix of topics were discussed this evening. The most controversial perhaps being whether Edward Scissorhands is misnamed as he actually has knives for hands? Edward Knifehands sounds a bit too sinister maybe? Whatever, he would have been quite useful this evening in our topiary mission. We are in prime bush snacking season at the moment so we nibbled on the berries to keep us energised while we snipped away. In a New York 40ish minutes we downed tools and headed back with only a few battle wounds to nurse.

A special mention to Paul who delivered leaflets in Easton this evening. Well done 🙂

Until next time…

It wasn't meltingly hot! Hooray! In contrast, those GoodGymmers who had "splashed" out on rain jackets had the first opportunity to wear them and found they're excellent at being waterproof.

Elliot joined us for his first ever Group Run/Walk having come along to a double community Mission back in Spring - we're hoping it won't be too long before he comes along to another session.

The school soon had us busy with cutting down brambles with tools of varying success - long loppers, short shears and a variety of methods to get the clippings into wheelbarrows to take downhill to the compost heap, better known as the old pond that we'd lovingly cleared if brambles a couple of years ago... At least we can come back in a couple of years to move it all again!

As ever at a GoodGym Bristol task, specialists in the doffetent tasks soon emerged - deep de-brambling by Richard B, tidy trimming by Elliot, taste testing by Frances , fork-filling wheelbarrows by Dushyant and Richard G, wheelbarrow wanderings by Ed and Vaguely Northern Darren (who also sawed some stuff he saw) and deep digging by Caroline.

Soon a small, skilled team ventured into the Forest School to dig up rogue brambles growing in there, and not to play around at all. Wheelbarrows were flying (not flying) down and up the hill to be re-filled and re-emptied, tools were lost and found, the rickety fence was revealed and James, one of the school's governors was really impressed with how much clearer the space was, for the last week of term. With many fewer blackberries as they'd either been eaten by GoodGymmers or sent down to the compost heap.

Intermittent rain was very welcome compared to the heat of the last week or so, and the browned grass will soon be lush and green, just in time for the school summer holiday!

Looking forward to clearing out the compost heap/pond when we're asked to de-bramble that, and hoping there're as many berries to eat. Until next time...

Beating the impending heatwave (number 3 of 2025), we gathered in the shade at Workout (except Roddy who was determined to stand in the evening sun) and set off in two group - the runners with Richard now as a fully-fledged Fitness Leader (taking charge of the requisite First Aid Kit) and the walkers where no-one's really in charge and conversations are many and varied.

We had a plan, we knew we were preparing table cloths and decorations for the Festive Friends lunch on Friday, and watering the planters that were very dry. Except none of the decorations material shad been left out, so we kept ourselves busy with watering and weeding the edges of the building and front/side walls so he outside would look lovely for the Festive Friends. At least there wasn't a big pile of bunting to untangle!

There are planters of herbs and many fruits - a fig tree that's looking amazing (note to self - ensure we have a visit in 5 or 6 weeks' time when they should be ripening nicely), raspberries, gooseberries and wineberries where scientific sampling was carried out.

Then the Top Excitement of the evening overshadowed all other finding, conversations and puns as a little hedgehog was spotted and we ensured it found a quiet, shady spot to curl up. I say ensured, when we went back to check it had found itself a good temporary spot, but we're happy to take the credit as we COULD have helped if it had been needed.

We discussed a fitness session as the foot/cycle bridge is quite high, steps and slopes so lends itself, if only there'd not been an impending heatwave, and the pollution levels from the motorway below are possibly not ideal...

Soon we were climbing and descending the bridge just the once on our way back to Workout where it was the perfect evening for sitting out on the terrace.

Fantastic GoodGymming, Bristol!