A jolly holly bunch of GoodGymers had a great time today at the sunny Braywick Nature Reserve foraging for festive foliage for the Age Concern wreath making workshop.

Our task owner from Age Concern was pine-ing for supplies for this year’s merry fundraiser and wreath guidance from Ranger Tom we were fir-ry happy to help.

We gathered plenty of conifer cuttings for bulk, then we found prettier clippings to really spruce up the wreaths. Ivy never seen so many lovely red berries and we even managed to reach some mistletoe.

Gillian was particularly efficient with the secateurs. You should’ve cedar!

Or un (1), dau (2), tri (3), pedwar (4), pump (5), chwech (6), saith (7), wyth (8), naw (9), and deg (10).   Or even:

viens (1), divi (2), trīs (3), četri (4), pieci (5), seši (6), septiņi (7), astoņi (8), deviņi (9), and desmit (10).

As the task owner wasn't at the Age Concern Centre on our arrival we put an SOS out to Amy, Area Activator extraordinaire and whilst she set about trying to make contact we amused ourselves by exercising whilst learning to count from 1 to 10 in Welsh and Latvian, nature spotting a huge spider catching his flies for dinner, and teaching Sol about the awesome 5k Parkrun app (the purple one 🤣).

We had a good old natter too before blowing the whistle on our task at ten past seven.

Oh well, maybe next time we will deliver lots of leaflets.

And on that note it's Goodbye, hwyl fawr and ardievu from me 😂.

Needed a good cleaning along with the rest of the bus. Armed with buckets, sponges, cloths, sprays and a Henry Hoover, Sol and Adam got stuck into cleaning the inside whilst Zoe, Helen and Jen tackled the exterior. Doors, windows, side panels, wheels, rims, sills, floors, seats, fascias we left no surface untouched and were pleased that we could see our own reflections by the time we finished.

It was great to welcome Akaal to her first task. Meeting Adam and I at the Spencer Denney Centre, Akaal's arrival made us a small but perfectly formed team.

First job was sweeping up the leaves out the front and tidying the pots. Adam and Akaal swept the leaves into crates and I carried the crates round to empty them into the compost.

We then moved some troughs and plants round to the back and then spent time tidying and topping up a range of pots and troughs and planting some spring bulbs. We then swapped some of the troughs and pots from the back to the front of the building.

Just as we were finishing up we spotted two more pots that needed a revamp and managed to squeeze in a compost top up and squeezed in a few more spring bulbs.

Time for a quick group photo and a quick farewell.

6 GoodGymers met in Windsor to help Age Concern charity to distribute leaflets about their activities.

It was a dark task (good for January Bingo Card). It felt cold, and it was slowly turning frosty. But we were all wrapped up warm and willing to face the cold chill.

We plit in two teams and started to cover small residential streets in the area not too far from Spencer Denney Centre.

It was great to work in teams of three. We kept chatting and alternating the sides of the streets. Soon, the stock pile of leaflets had gone. That seemed very quick.

We met with the other team back at the starting point at 7.30pm, said farewells to Adam and Jen, and headed back to Age Concern location.

Job well done!

We had a lovely sociable afternoon gathering sprigs of bay, ivy, holly, rosemary, spruce, cedar and more leafy evergreen bits, ready for the Age Concern wreath making fundraiser at the Spencer Denney Centre tomorrow evening.

A very warm welcome to Rupi, who joined us for the first time. Great to meet you!

Thanks to Age Concern task owner Rachel for inviting us to be involved and to foliage expert Ranger Tom for helping us find the best sprigs.

Same time next year? 