The King’s Guide walk across Morecambe Bay, raising money to help save the Grange Lido was fully booked and there was 500 people in attendance. Bekah, Miriam, Sallyann, Jo and Vikky drove up from Liverpool and Ellie joined us driving from Yorkshire. We parked in Arnside, where the walk was starting from. We grabbed a coffee, Bekah was really pleased to find a matcha iced latte! The local cafes were pleased as punch that 500 people had descended on Arnside as they said it was their busiest day ever. The weather was absolutely perfect, glorious sunshine with a cool breeze.

Michael the King’s Guide gave a safety speech at start point. Don’t feed the dog, walk when the whistle blows and stop when the whistle blows and whatever you do, don’t stop for anything when crossing the river.

We started out over the rocky headland, then we took our shoes off to walk across the sandy bay. It felt so nice. Then the first part of the river. The many dogs that were in attendance barked excitedly. There was a tiny sausage dog who turned out to be an amazing swimmer.

The King’s Guide marked the area for us to cross and we waded in. The water coming up to our knees. We all crossed safely and stopped for a bite to eat. We walked on to the second part of the river, another safe crossing. We walked towards Grange Over Sands and just as our feet were drying in the sand, we came across oily clay, very slippy and our feet got covered. We arrived at Grange and tried to wash off the clay and put our shoes back on. Sallyann was keen to walk back across the bay but thought better of it. We bought some merchandise to support the bay team. We then walked to Grange station and got a train back to Arnside.

An amazing walk, we absolutely lucked out with the weather. As every walk is different it was something that we will never experience again.

Photos generously provided by Andrew AB Photography, official event photographer

On Sunday Goodgym returned to the Palm House at Sefton park to help out at Liverpool's Arab Arts Festival, a wonderful day of events put on every year, organized in part by resident Goodgymmer Afrah. This year our team was set the tasks of staffing the merch tent, collecting surveys, and lending a hand at the children's story tent. As we set up there were rumors of a storm rolling in in the afternoon, but the day set off to a great start with many families showing up from near and far to take part in the various festivities, with craft stalls, fresh food, and of course a range of amazing musical acts in the Palm House itself.

As the weather held up the day passed without a hitch, right up until the final hour, when the dark clouds finally rolled in...the storm broke with gusto and there was some confusion as people fled to gazebos for shelter from the deluge, only to be hurried out due to the risk of lightning strikes. Thankfully no major harm was done in the end, although it did unfortunately bring the festival to a premature close for the day.

While the day's festivities were cut a little short at the end, anyone who attended will be sure to tell you that it went down a storm..!

Goodgym Liverpool are frequent supporters of The Choir with No Name, mainly due to the support given to both by our fabulous area activator Ema.

Today was the CWNN fundraising Abseil at Liverpool Cathedral. Around 17 brave souls took the plunge - so to speak - including two Goodgymmers Steph and Steph! The event is so lovely that two bystanders were inspired to join, and took on the abseil there and then for a donation to the charity (shout out to Charlie & Terri!)

The choir serenaded the 'danglers' with themed classics such as Rod Stewart's "We're Abseiling" and Enya's "Abseil Away (abseil away abseil away)", and were supported by the Bebbington Bitterman who kindly took over during the choir's well earned break.

It was positively blustery, but that didn't stop our abseilers, nor the crowd from forming to watch and admire. We saved several critical pieces of paperwork from blowing into the ether, and frankly I doubted the MC's claims that due to a micro-climate, it was completely calm and still at the top of the drop. Lucien was proactive in abseil registration, gift giving and furniture moving, and I was on photographer duty making sure I captured the moment the abseilers gratefully reached dry land.

Well done to everyone who took part in this fabulous event and raised money for such a great cause, and huge round of applause and respect to the abseilers who braved the drop, it really is no mean feat.

Same time next year!

Mrs D greeted me warmly and welcomed me in, she'd been referred to Goodgym for some help with weeding the garden. She used to be a keen gardener, growing tomatoes and looking after raised plant beds, but recently ill health has meant she's struggled to keep on top of it.

It was a lovely south facing garden and she enjoys sitting out in it, but the overgrown weeds were dampening her spirits so I was happy to get to work to clear it up for her.

We were soon joined by Ellie, Mrs D's beautiful cat, who kept a keen eye on me and my progress, frequently checking the bag of weeds to ensure I was doing the job properly.

We went through the list of requirements: weeding the paving stones, cutting back some plants, weeding the paths and pots, and Mrs D was delighted to see the progress I'd made in a relatively short space of time. I even had time to remove a large plant from a pot which had recently died, freeing up the pot for another plant for Mrs D's next trip to the garden centre. We got to chatting and before I knew it it was time to leave to get to another Goodgym task, supporting the Choir with No Name at their fundraising cathedral Abseil - but that's another report...

Mrs D commented how lovely it was she was able to see clearly to the other side of the garden, and I left her glad she could enjoy sitting out in the fresh air. It was lovely to meet Mrs D - and Ellie the cat - thank you for the warm welcome. Hope you have some purrfect summer's eves sat outside together.

On a particularly humid Monday, a crew of Liverpool Good Gymers headed to The Greenhouse Community Centre on Lodge Lane with the aim of doing some good! Heetu led the run from the suitcases with her usual enthusiasm, meeting others at the task. Sian even perserved with a broken single-pedal bike to get there on time!! We were all very excited to find out that this tasked marked 150(!!!) good deeds performed by Sally Ann!! A fantastic achievement, truly worth celebrating. So grateful and proud to have her as part of Good Gym Liverpool. Some of the team soon got stuck in weeding around the greenhouse centre whilst others started the arduous task of shoveling and transporting mulch to various areas around the building. By the end of the task a large part of the grounds was well-weeded and covered with an even level of mulch. Some of the team had also managed to litter pick the surrounding area, helped by Sam, a member of the local community. At the end of the session, the grounds were looking particularly tidy and we were all pleased to have helped out and had some exercise doing so. Well done to all.

It was a rainy morning, which might have put off some runners but not our intrepid GoodGym gang, we are far too focused on collecting stars for our parkrun loyalty cards to be deterred by weather. Bekah, Sian, Leo and Steph ran while Lucien watched the runners and the ducks and took photos. A big cheer to Leo for his first official parkrun, although certainly not his first park run! The rain was in fact a welcome relief compared to the hot sun of our June parkrun, although by the time we crossed the finish line it was muggy and humid. Unfortunately no one was able to join for our usual post-run breakfast today, but we look forward to the next one!