Happy New Year to GoodGymers everywhere!

Lots of Colchester GoodGymers got out on a very cold ❄ New Year's Day for a run or a walk.

Anna joined us for her first session with GoodGym Colchester. A very warm welcome Anna from all of us.

We were also joined by Melanie and Darren from GoodGym Bristol, lovely to have you both with us.

Well done to everyone for getting out of the door on New Year's Day.

Let's hope that in the year ahead we can be together again and continue do some good.

As ever Ian

Tonight's community mission was all about helping make an area smarter and more presentable to the vistors at Firstsite.

Eddie gave us the brief of going round the large room and painting over any areas on the walls that were in need of a bit of TLC.

We set about the task with our usual GoodGym gusto.

Everyone was pleased to see each other and catch up on each other's lives.

We are blessed to have such a fine group of people in GoodGym Colchester.

Thank you to Catherine for the the title of the report and Rosalind for taking some of the photos.

Finally thank you everyone for coming this evening and helping making a difference.

Regards,

Ian

What an absolutely beautiful September Sunday morning to be out with your fellow GoodGymers.

Colchester GoodGym now has its very own radio personality after Tav appeared on Actual Radio this morning just after 8am to talk about all things GoodGym and this mornings litter pick. You can listen again via the link on the Whatsgroup . Well done Tav.

We met outside Philip Morant School and headed towards Blue Bottle Grove. Bluebottle Grove is a former Iron Age-era fort with walking paths through scenic woodlands & pre-Roman burial sites. It a popular area with local people, but sadly there is often quite a bit of litter in the Grove and the paths leading up to it.

There was the usual good humour and chat while we did good.

I had the pleasure of listening to Naomi and Rosalind sing a few lines from the Carole King song 'You Gotta A Friend'. 😊

After an hour of thorough litter picking we headed back to Tav's car.

Thank you all for coming today.

We met on a especially fine July evening.It was Katherine's 50th Good Deed with Colchester GoodGym .Well done Katherine !! 😀

We also welcomed back Ben for his 2nd time with us,good to see you Ben.

Abbey Fields is very popular,well used area of our town,with a wide variety of people taking advantage of the space and is popular at all times of the day.

On this particular evening Abbey Fields was especially busy,which was lovely to see.

Since the lockdown has eased the area seems to have become even more popular ,but sadly associated with this, there has been an increase in littering in the area.

It was an excellent turn out of GoodGym members who as always are happy to see each other and ready to do lots of good.

We split into 2 groups to try and cover as much of the area we could in the time available.Abbey Fields is a large area so sadly there's the potential for alot of rubbish.

We ended up with 6 full bags of rubbish,which was a great effort on our behalf,it's just sad it gets dropped in the first place!! 😥

Thank you.

As lockdown and Coronavirus hit the UK one of our last tasks we did was to plant trees along a fence border of Dedham Therapy farm. Circumstances dictated that we could not come back and admire our work until now but it was worth the wait. The trees are doing well, and in a similar way to when we see the flowers around Colchester from Colchester in Bloom, there is a sense of pride and satisfaction.

We were met by Katie who gave Ian and Vanessa the list of jobs and ensured all of the COVID-19 precautions were known and adhered to.

Our tasks included weeding a delightful plot and spreading manure ready for a new crop or bloom to flourish...one of the residents commented “cockadoodle-do-do” which nicely summed up the efforts made.

Additionally, there were plenty of nettles in the paddocks which needed to be removed and the Shetland Pony seemed pleased about that when he discovered the fresh grass hidden underneath the clearings!

I was stationed with Detti and we were amused by the 3 billy goats gruff. The smallest one had the largest horns and a deep bleet and the tallest goat had a high pitched bleet not befitting her stature!

Although the animals were more interested in there brunch than us, I am sure they appreciated having a few less weeds and nettles. And the clients of the farm will hopefully be able to spend some quality time with them as a result.

Never have we had such fun shovelling and wheelbarrowing poop!

Big thanks to Megan and Katie and the other volunteers who helped us with our questions!