12 GoodGym-ers came together on a Saturday morning to provide some extra pairs of hands for the Groundlings theatre following the recent break-in.

We were happy to help out with one of our favourite tasks, painting! Instead of the usual walls and benches, our more artistic skills were put to the test to help produce the some of the stage props; a lovely mix of clouds, leaves and rainbows!

We split up into two main groups; there was a production line cutting, shaping and painting the green leaves (for the magic beanstalk perhaps?), and those with the more advanced painting skills took on the rainbows (red-and-orange-and-yellow-and-green-and-blue!) and the fluffy clouds.

After running out of drying space on the floor, and paint-free areas on our fingers, we left to rest up ahead of the running/ cheering/ recycling at the Great South Run on Sunday.

See you soon Groundlings, we are keen come back for the panto! (oh yes we are!)

Jack and the Beanstalk runs from 4th December to 5th January :-)

The sun shines on the righteous runners of Goodgym. 3 runners, one local councillor and 2 dogs met to help the Great Salterns Preservation Society in Portsmouth. It was a warm and sunny day and we set to with great enthusiasm. There was a lot of the usual bottles and some carefully removed broken glass put into the black bags. Also a fair few crisp packets. We were surrounded by interested doggies who were out on their walkies. One guy was impressed that we were doing it without being forced to. When we returned to the car park we all agreed that there seemed to be a lot less litter this month. There was also a lot less take away food wrappers. In the group I was in none! Have people of Portsmouth become better at disposing of rubbish carefully or did the recent wet weather prevent people from going out? The story will continue next month. (Sorry it's taken time)

A beautiful September morning saw 8 of us head back to a local social care charity to ‘finish what we started’ after our Dirty weekend in Southsea in July. Three of us headed from Parkrun via the local beach café to meet up with the rest of the group outside. We were all looking forward to this one as it was a painting task (which we love).

A great welcome back to Carolyn who arrived with her painting cap on and gloves at the ready. Also a fantastic well done to Mel who has reached 100 good deeds and gets her wings. We look forward to seeing you with those on our next group run.

Our task today involved painting the wall, painting the fence and building two new storage units. Prior to starting we realised that we needed some more screwdrivers and tools for the job and Jo headed back home (not far away) to collect some extra screwdrivers. We were kindly offered, teas, coffees and also they had made a delicious cake for us. We’ll definitely be heading back there if there is anymore work to be done.

The Flat Pack

Angela and Maxine took on the challenge of the storage units, these were two large plastic units that would house some of the wheelie bins stored in the garden. This was tough job as it involved screwing it together without any pre drilled holes whilst also keeping the structure of the unit tight. Angela sustained a small graze to her knuckles when screwing some of the unit together and will now be known as Angela ‘Knuckles’ Chick. Maxine had a few close calls when clicking the parts together to make sure her hands weren’t caught.

The Masonry ‘paint’ position

Katie, Judy and Sarah tackled the painting of the side wall in the garden. This was originally where the smoking shelter was which we dismantled in July and the wall needed a refresh of paint before the storage units could be placed there. After removing an old wall hanging and the flower holders they cleaned the wall then grabbed their paint brushes and did a brilliant job.

The De-fence

Carolyn, Mel and Jo took on the more messier of the tasks which was the painting of the fence and we did manage to get most of the paint on the fence panels. Mel did a great job of getting a large amount of paint on herself (good job the 100 t-shirt will be arriving soon) and Jo did a great job of arriving with less freckles on her arm than when she left (thanks to the paint).

One the walls and fence were painted, Carolyn, Judy and Mel cleaned the garden and moved some of the furniture around and the rest of us helped to build the remaining unit. We all went over the time of the task but as we wanted to finish everything and didn’t have to rush off we made sure it was all done before we left.

Seeing the garden transformed after the painting was amazing it’s a great task when we can really see the difference that Goodgym makes to our communities.

We were joined this morning by a new runner, Carolyn, looking fresh from her run up from Fratton. Maxine had foregone her lie in and decided that good deeds just had to be done instead and Jo & I were fresh from our trip to the GoodGym Olympics yesterday, complete with temporary tattoos which were still very much in tact even after showering!

As usual we all delved into the big back pack and grabbed litter pickers and gloves to ready ourselves for a walk around Great Salterns. Jen had brought extra help (or maybe hinderance) in the form of her daughter who armed herself with a beach bucket and assisted with finding litter including the excitement of some Frozen related rubbish!

Our most interesting finds were a sweater, a tent peg (now rehomed with my tent pegs!), a metal fork and a few barbeques - when they say disposable it doesn't mean just throw them in the bushes people! There were the usual assortment of cans and glass bottles, crisp packets, sweet wrappers and cigarette butts. However, we think there was slightly less rubbish than the last time we litter picked here so perhaps some behaviour change is happening locally.

There were also a lot of amazing blackberries, so grab a pot and get picking! Tracey and Jen have already started. The apples are also looking good but not ready for picking yet.

Thanks to all who came out to lend a hand today. We will be back again on 1st September at 1100, sign up here. There is also a water based social that afternoon (thanks Rachel for the reminder!) so fingers crossed for some good weather.