After running to St Anne's, myself, Julie and Lexi were about to refuel at the local cafe; when we get a message from Zdeni saying she's inside, where are we... It turns out she's at a different cafe across the road! It was worth swapping anyway, you should see Zdeni's huge pancakes..

Anyway after being refreshed we thought we should probably go start some work. So off we go through the squelchy muddy woods to find Mary from the Friends of Brislington Brook who is very pleased to see us. They do a brilliant job at tidying up St Anne's Woods and Nightingale Valley Woods and it was a pleasure to help them.

They wanted help to bash/cut back the brambles to help widen the pathway on the slope. This would mean people would no longer have to slide down the muddy slope but could walk down on their feet.

Hannah soon joined us and did a cracking job with the slasher. Fi had unfortunately been taken a long way round on her bike but still arrived with a smile. Shortly after, I look up the hill and see Chris running down who took great enjoyment using the slasher! After talking and walking, bashing and slashing, cutting and throwing the brambles far away, Mary suddenly shouts, we must stop for the day. Looking up we could see everyone had done an amazing job.

I had a lovely morning which flew by so fast it was as if someone had pressed fast forward.

On the way out of the woods Super Mel runs in towards us! Mel had been to Wales for a parkrun and because she's so committed to goodgym, she had then run over to meet us but unfortunately she had been stuck behind a fence like a prisoner so she was unable to help us. (I really hope that wasn't my fault) Great effort though Super Mel, we love your spirit!

FoBB have their next working day on the 9th Feb to clear more of the brambles, hopefully we can join them again.

It was looking like a rather compact and bijou group at Mud Dock this morning as four or five of us grabbed a pre-run coffee but somehow we managed to leave Queen Square with 17 runners. Add to that the six others who joined us at the task and it was a very respectably sized mob of red T shirts that finally descended on Nightingale Valley.

This was good news, as the Friends of Brislington Brook were hoping for lots of pairs of hands to join them in tackling the Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera - a relative of the Bizzy Lizzy) growing up the side of the valley. Our host Mary gave us a quick run down how to identify this invasive species - light green leaves, celery-like stalk and virtually no root. This last aspect meant that it was very straightforward to pull up, making for a satisfying and productive half hour eradicating the invasive intruder from its adopted home. Patrick even took on a bonus assignment; wielding loppers to remove some sycamore.

All in all this was a very pleasant way to spend a morning with Goodgym'ers scattered all along the bank above the brook and sheltering from the worst of the heat under the canopy of the trees that line the path.

And finally a brisk run back to base meant hopefully everyone got fit and did good today - well done all!

Massive Saturday turn out today for our trilogy of tasks. Big thanks to Dave, Alice and Matt for helping out so we could cover all the bases and spread the red round all todays projects.

A warm welcome to Beth too for coming all the way from WorthingWandsworth to visit us in Bristol - hope you had fun!

Bear Pit Community Action Day

Our headline attraction was participation in the Community Action Day that was taking place in the Bearpit. Sadly, times have been pretty tough for some of the folks down there in recent months. In fact its been so tough that the independent businesses are having to move out after years of working to shed the space of its 'no-go' reputation and create a genuine community feel to the place. One of our longstanding hookups with Incredible Edible is also situated there - one of their flagship areas of urban edible planting.

Rather than go out on a low, all the stakeholders decided to stage one last community action day to give place a general spruce up and clean. We joined them with some weeding around the planters (which we originally painted together with Bearpit Social) and in the edible bed itself. We also had a compost team working hard to rotate the contents - and its nice to hear they managed to make this competitive with Caroline and Hugh turning their section first!

It was pretty chilly today but the morning sunshine meant this was a very pleasant way to spend a morning and we warmed up at the end with a (rather chaotic) three-way running train race around Queen Square which seemed in keeping with todays triple theme.

Shed Smash Part Deux

A second group headed off to finish off the shed we began demolishing last month. By all accounts this was also a very pleasurable way to spend a Saturday morning - especially as it involved a sledgehammer. Kudos to Dave for coming back with an empty accident book!

The shed was rather derelict and needs to be removed so Emmaus can make the very best use of the house in their work with previously homeless people.

Willow Weaving - Taking a cake from it all

Finally, Matt and Alice led a group back to Hannah More primary to finish off the willow weaving we began last weekend. This turned out to be the perfect choice as there was apparently cake on offer and Matt has history here.

Immense! A new Saturday record of 40 Goodym'ers turned up for our bonus Christmas Eve Eve run today.

Extra special thanks to our Cardiff and Bath friends for coming all the way over to join us today - it was lovely to have so many members of our GG West family over for Christmas. We should definitely meet up more often next year!

The original plan was to help out at the Christmas shelter, but they had been so well served by volunteers during the week that they really only needed a handful of people today. So rather than put all those good deeds to waste we split into 6 groups and spread out around Bristol. (Some of the details and photos may be a little sketchy for now - the group leaders are welcome to add to their sections as they see fit!).

Time fliers pie as Charlie out reaches herself to all points central

Charlie led her group of runners around central Bristol, distributing fliers from the Christmas shelter to anyone sleeping rough on the streets. Each flier was accompanied with the offer of a mince pie, sadly without cream though.

Lisa and Graham pushing the envelope to reach All Hallows Church

Lisa and Graham kindly took on delivery of a bunch of shelter fliers to All Hallows Church in Lawrence Hill meaning that if you were to run the whole perimeter covered by our groups today you would have been taking on a 14 km run around Bristol (see photos)

Dave turns over a new leaflet at Southville

Dave's gang headed out to Southville to place GG mission leaflets at cafes and shops along North Street. The hope is that this will mean lots more elderly people will find out about Goodgym and we can brighten up their January and February by helping out with a bit gardening or simple jobs around the house.

On the way back they gave out a couple of fliers from the homeless shelter

Maria experiences St Peter's Hospice-tality as she helps out at the Broadmead branch

A last minute call to our friends at St Peters Hospice this week meant that we were able to set up yet another task for a group led  by MariatoMtoto help out at their Broadmead branch.

Matterhorn goes native-ity in epic 9K to St Albans church

Of course it had to be our very own ultra-running Matt (check out his new badge) leading the longest run today out to St Albans church in Westbury. This task to set up the Church for Christmas (including a nativity scene) proved very popular, especially when the possibility of some mulled wine was discussed.

Saving Private Room Paul to take a group to the shelter

And finally yours truly took a group out to the shelter itself where a couple of us helped out around the kitchen while the rest of us attempted to re-organise the dormitory and pass a very important message about a potential flood back from the Quakers meeting hall. Thanks to Alex once again for helping out during my more scatterbrain moments.

200 Good Deeds!

Thanks to all my group leaders and photographers. And last but not least, huge congratulations to Richard for hitting 200 good deeds today. He's too modest to make a big thing out of this, but I think everyone at GG Bristol values his kindness and loyalty - and of course enjoyed his fabulous Canal Run earlier this month!

Happy Christmas everyone - this is now genuinely the very last group run before Christmas, see you in the New Year!

Our first Saturday meeting at our new start point - Mud Dock café. We were given a warm welcome, enjoyed a coffee or two and were allocated a couple of lockers for bags so all in all a very nice start - thanks Mud Dock!

We also had FOUR new runners today which was fantastic - welcome Jane, Heather, Alefiyah and Lauren! Hope you had fun and will come back and visit again soon!

Our warm up on Queen Square was accompanied by the news that Bristol is currently so well off for volunteers that our planned task at the Christmas homeless shelter now required only 6 people to sort donations. We agreed to divide this up and have one group tackle the first half hour and the other the second.

So we set off on a 2k run to the shelter, only to find that we had been beaten to it by the unexpected arrival of yet another band of donation sorters; a young offenders group. Ed our host had quickly put together an alternative mail-out task so with the help of Jack and Maria (and their Google map apps) we were able to dispatch a couple of small groups to deliver those. Thanks to my Run leaders for co-ordinating a few lunges while I was gathering up the envelopes!

The rest of us took a little fitter-litter tour around St Paul's. Starting at Portland Square with some meet-and-retreat, and a dash of running train we proceeded via Brunswick cemetery gardens with some press-ups and then on to Brunswick Square, collecting up litter as we went. It may not have been planned, but the local squares certainly benefited from our diversion as everyone managed to collect a lot of rubbish (including a pair of rather damp shoes).

Meanwhile the postal parties had managed to do their deliveries although there was apparently a little confusion over the location of the Wild Goose café, leading to Maria's lovely pun.

Thanks for being adaptable everyone - we still did plenty of good today and most of us managed a good 5k of running too!