It was a Great Moon, but was it really a Super Moon?

Our regular corner of Queen Square was a bit congested with filming happening nearby AGAIN (Young Sherlock?) and we even had our own security guards who were Very Chatty Indeed. Not convinced it was just the caffeine from the Monster can talking...

We set off for a lovely sunny walk or run to Dame Emily Park with lots of other people out and about enjoying the warm evening. Melanie found a phone before we'd even left the square, and that will shortly be posted off to it's owner who'd been on a visit day to Bristol from Swindon. Obviously the phone preferred Bristol, who wouldn't?

The next find was a highland cow badge, but like Jason by the M Shed, it set my camera focus to "obscure" to avoid publicity.

At the park, the runners had just beaten the walkers and Ursula was explaining the wildlife work of the evening - cutting back an overgrown hedge that was also home to a tall sycamore trying to take over, finding the bulbs and rescuing the pollen-y plants that had been trampled, clearing the tarmac waster, salvaging the wood and digging over another trampled flower bed and having loads of fun in the process.

• The hedge was soon looking smaller (I'm not sure about tidier...), with some high wielding of long-handed shears and loppers by Caroline, Vaguely Northern Darren, Ed and Jason
• Ciaran took the saw to sort out the sycamore and was joined by Marianne who relinquished her colour-matched secateurs to make sure the big branches weren't falling too far from the tree
• A few bulbs and some salvaged plants were set aside by Azzurra and Kim and the soil sieved to remove errant rocks
• A big pile of wood emerged from the tarmac and rocks and neither Richard nor Roddy fell in the small pond - the wood will be great for making the bug and hedehog hotels

And we created a new job of transforming the fallen sycamore into whips that can be used to weave a low level wildlife-friendly hedge around the pond (which, I stress, no one fell into).

As the lovely sunlight faded, the moon was looking HUGE and we later discovered it was a Super Moon - but we liked it before we knew it had a posh name. We loved the lemon and ginger tea and biscuits Ursula had carried over with her, and offered to help put away all the tools but we think Ursula may have wanted some peaceful time to enjoy the Super Moon herself, and probably wanted everything put away in the right places...

Off we trotted, walking and running back to Queen Square and saw the security guards had moved a bit and it was different guards on duty so we snuck past them and headed on to Workout where we avoided being dragged into the Speed Dating and the Liverpool supporters were sad when AC Milan scored in the third minute. But all came good in the end.

A democratic vote for the destination of choice this evening and the recently renovated Chocolate Path was the winner with the six runners running around the harbour to start at the furthest point and the five walkers staying closer to home and working our way towards the runners.

Anastasia joined us for her very first good deed and wowed us with her news of Lativian successes at the Olympics* (Latvia didn't quite make it onto the medal table). Welcome!

With one pair of secateurs per group and a set of litter pickers or two, we were soon tidying the path in a classic pincer movement, trying to keep put of the way of fellow runners, walkers and cyclists revelling in the glorious summer weather**

We were soon creating new Olympic sports of lobbing stick-like weeds into the gorge to either reach the water (javelin-inspired at a very low tide), pseudo planting said spiky weeds root down on landing in the very thick mud and artistic-depositing-of-litter, mastered by Nick. We hope Ed takes all these ideas with him whilst he's volunteering at the Paralympics (we look forward to seeing all his new kit) and Frances can decide which sport she's going to concentrate on for selection to Los Angeles 2028.

Richard B had joined the walking group for a change, having earned a new 100mile-plus run at the weekend to join up three local ultra routes all in one go, with no sleep. He was chief secateur master if the walking crew. Paul was also with the walking group but that was more to do with the runners having already left when he arrived...

The rain started to get a bit heavier and we barely recognised Danica with her coat covering most of her face as the runners met up with the walkers and we all cheered through another 30-or-so runners (and one cyclist) who came past our group and thanked us for our plogging.

More chatting on the way back, discovering Caroline is probably working with Anastasia this week, and watching some of the goings on a Workout's ClubHaus for our post-run cup of tea/hot chocolate/pint of cider/glass of water where Ed didn't order any food - weird!

Latvia didn't quite make it onto the medal table *it might have rained a bit

Wow! 19 lovely GoodGymmers take on the checking of New Things donated to the new Library of Things in Bedminster - a brilliant project that lends Things to people for projects so they don't need to buy and store them!

What looked like a small pile of New Things donated needed checking and cataloguing, plus some painting of the back-of-the-shop kitchen and loo.

The pile was deceptive. Sooo much to sort through, big and small, clean and in need of a clean, working or needing repair, the mission to start sorting began.

Joined by Ellenand Rohan for the very first time, it was a bumper group of GoodGymmers old and new with a fantastic reappearance of Shreena who went to Australia for a year nearly two years ago and is back for a visit, Clowho's now normally only in Bristol on Wednesdays, Emma who's normally working but was on leave and the Godfather Dave who pops in every now and again. There was a fair amount of screeching and hugging pre-run.

Not to mention it being Valè's 50th good deed, but sue hasn't brought cake yet so we wont mention it.

For the first time, GoodGymmers had their hands on power tools (not just lawn mowers and strimmers) to check they worked and everyone still had all their fingers and linbs at the end if the task.

Kids' things, DIY things, cake tins (just saying, Valè), camping things plus the only tape measure for cataloguing item size was a donated imperial one so unexpected Maths skills on show.

Whilst items that had been checked, measured and photographed were being booked in to the catalogue, and paint rollers were being cleared up, the mammoth task was started - a ten-people tent donated, in three bags plus a carpet, bigger than the shop premises, but thankfully looking like it had only ever been a demo tent indoors so very clean, all working and the fitness/Tetris challenge of getting it all back into the bags. Obviously GG Bristol made short, if a tad stressy, work of this so another HUGE item ready for lending. Anyone for camping?

Items stored, finish photos snapped, treats eaten, the runners and walkers headed back to Queen Square and Workout for aome riverside drinks at ClubHaus plus the Ozzie snacks Shree had brought with her.

Perfect GoodGymming, team!

The runners were outnumbered by the walkers two to one for the adventure to St Werburgh's Community Centre with Vaguely Northern Darren and Ed already hard at it when the walkers reached the "King/Queen of the Castle" bridge from Riverside Park.

The walkway around the building was one of the many areas that's seen an explosion of weeds with the warm(-ish) and decidedly wet weather. We were soon widening the walkways again and having many-a deep philosophical discussion including how to spell "doolalley", whether it stems from doodle-alley and why small creatures seem to take an aggressive bee line for Richard G. We slso all learned more about msle and female courgette flowers as well as poppies and their similarity to some sort of banana - the name escapes me.

A quick tidy up and end-of-task photo followed, including Frances who wasn"t in the pre-task "we're actually all in red t-shirts" photo, suggested by Jason. For the record, Frances was also early to the meet up, just not quite as early, and we set off at 6.25 as it's "a bit of a way" even without the lively tour checking out future potential GoodGym tasks, which was really enjoyed by everyone.

Top work and great chatting!

*in depth research post-run shows its actually doolally with dubious empire roots%2C%20ultimately%20from)