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!

Weren't we the lucky ones with a weather forecast updating from thunder and lightening to no rain at all! I'm pretty sure this is also why our numbers swelled from 5 sign ups at midday to 13 when we were arriving in Queen Square, sadly minus Vaguely Northern Darren as he was poorly. But everyone there had signed up, so Melanie didn't need to hunt for any email addresses, revealing embarrassing nick names when personal email addresses were created!

It was great having very experienced GoodGymmers (from back when it all began in Bristol) alongside our newer members and this was a firs time to Brunswick Cemetery for Freya, James and Bruce, with all the health and safety warnings that are needed.

Paul led his band of runners who arrived just as the walkers were staring to take up tools with our target being the disappearing (from being found by GoodGym) spiral path, with errant weeds to remove edges to be sought, teams taking on the challenge at the top, middle and bottom of the spiral whilst Di from the Friends group continued the dogwood-bindweed clearance and Bruce tried his hand (and bare arms and legs) at nettle-bindweed clearing until it all got a bit too tingly.

Someone had nicked the empty dumpy sack we'd hidden in the park just a couple of hours earlier, so we were back to black sacks and the rubble bags pre-purchased in a Brilliant Exhibition of Forward Planning (BEFP). And the rubble bags are a nice blue colour, so that's all good.

Everyone was very industrious as we even saw a bit of blue sky celebrating our achievements at, yes, finding edges and making the gravel look much more shiny, with top stomping by Freya who'd been practising the previous week in Totterdown.

When we'd had enough (running late as we're SO committed), we headed back to Workout and ClubHaus for our July GoodGym Eats whilst supporting Valè through the difficulties of France's early goal against Spain in the men's Euro 2024 semi-final, ordered some lovely burgers despite ClubHaus being a bit busy with football fans and continued the general chat about Very Important Things, sat outside by the water.

We really are very lucky people (vlp).

Let the chips fall where they may I hear them say. At the end of the day we made our way

To Totterdown to dig a hole That was the goal

No hole to dig It was already quite big

Chipping was laid Water was sprayed

Trees in the ground That’s where they’re found

Soil was shifted Our spirits lifted

Brambles trimmed on the bank, what rhymes with bank? I've drawn a blank...

The task was done That was fun 🙂

It was back to Hannah More Primary School this evening to have a tidy up of the playground, field, front of school, chalk boards and veg patches during the "Spring" half-term in predictable rain showers.

We welcomed James to his very first GoodGym task and he joined the walkers whilst Richard B led the runners over the bridge and (not very) far, far away.

Ruth was there to greet us with litter picking, chalk board cleaning, veg patch weeding (is this one a weed?) and sand sweeping all happening with GoodGymmers scampering all over the school's outside space.

As ever, we were on the hunt for treasure and before long top picks were a buried dinosaur (top archaeological excavating or litter picking, whichever it was) and a plastic cake which was added to the general sense of celebrations for Melanie's 1000th good deed - all surpassed by the amazing 1000 badge hand made by the lovely Richard G who'd had the foresight to waterproof it to save us all being covered in glitter. His graphic design skills are, as ever, second to none.

Vaguely Northern Darren set about capturing photographic evidence of all that was going on...

It turned out most of the chalk boards were undercover - surely being exposed to the rain would make them self-cleaning, if utterly impractical for ever drawing on - Valè and James made short work (they were having to kneel down to get the bottom of the low boards) of turning them very black indeed, whilst nearby Caroline was sweeping with the small broom which she much preferred to the bigger one on offer.

Runners turned litter-pickers Richard B, Ed, Gareth and Ryan resisted the urge to play on the outdoor equipment whilst scouring the grounds - how do they do that? Multiple bags were collected ready for the skip later and added to by Team Weeds - starting with the quite obvious couch grass (although that did prove not so simple by the onions) before progressing onto flatter weeds, Jason, Frances, Jo and James left the beds looking much tidier than when we'd started, and most of the actual vegetable plants still in place.Richard G moved on to the edges of the planters and expertly replanted some cornflowers to a raised bed instead of clinging on to the planter edge for dear life.

We were soon wrapping up as the rain re-started and moved on to the newly painted and furnished staff room (courtesy of some corporate volunteers) where we had the luxury of wash-hand basins before Ruth delighted us with coffee and walnut cake, more chat and a celebratory photo to mark Melanie's 1000th.

Running and walking back, and finding no speed dating at Workout, we were able to enjoys pots of tea (other drinks are available) and more celebratory cookies and our traditional party rings with Paul and Danica who'd called in to say hello. James was well and truly inducted into the random conversations of Bristol GoodGym.

See you next time?