A group of us helped local volunteer to clear a ditch to prevent local flooding. We learnt something about ditch maintenance, reasons and benefits of the task, but most importantly had a great time socialising in fresh air.

We came. We dug. We wiggled and giggled. We conquered (the bulb planting and leaf clearing). We were uncharacteristically efficient digging, wiggling, planting and clearing in a speedy 45 minutes.

A selection of quotes from the evening: "the toss method" "I'm too old for bending down" "My hole is bigger than yours" "You've got to stick a finger in there first" "I like a dibber"

Three GoodGymers took part in the fourth episode of Acomb Wood path building. Two bulk bags of hoggin was spread and the dance done to make the path good. We will be coming back to create more path with the group run on 17th of April.

Tay, Jenna and I met Beki from City of York Council to continue improving the path near to Acomb Wood. With Beki’s help we managed to lay the last of the 2 bags of the rocky stuff 💪, extending the path and filling in some holes in a side path which will be completed at a later date. We were joined by an unusual bee which decided to perch on the edge of one of the bags until Tay relocated it to a nearby hedge. After an hour we departed just as the rain started, but fortunately it didn’t last long. The cafe stop afterwards was very welcome!

…few bulk bags of MOT material were shovelled and the path is twice as long as it was on Monday. We will be coming back to continue with the path building project on 17th Of April.

It was a very wet evening but six hardy Goodgymers braved the rain to run and cycle to Askham Bar. Our task was to remove tree guards from hundreds of trees or in some cases sticks, where the trees hadn't taken. Whilst we did bag hundreds of guards they were only a section of the total. It is a mammoth task and I'm sure we'll be back for round 2 (and probably 3). The plastic guards had got quite brittle and often broke into pieces when we removed them so it wasn't always as straightforward as it first seemed. Mitch found a small skull which led to a discussion about what type of creature it was from. We finished with a group photo before heading home to dry off and warm up.