After agreeing to be the Taskowner for the Friends of Rowntree Park due to his role as a Trustee of the Charity, Ed managed to get the time completely wrong and arrived with Amy and Arthur almost 30mins late. Fortunately Jan, one of the garden volunteers, was on hand to get the rest of the GG crew started on the task which involved removing a hedge that hadn't survived the 10 weeks it had spent underwater due to the regular flooding in the park

We were also joined by Jacqui from the Friends of Rowntree Park who was getting stuck in along with her husband and David at one end, whilst Leanne, Cara, Amy, Debs and the 3 latecomers tackled the other.

Leanne soon turned her attention to lopping back a bush that also needed removing, and whilst she tackled the trimming just fine, the removal part proved a lot harder. Ed and David were called in as reinforcements but soon realised it was too big a challenge to tackle today

But the failing hedge was successfully removed and we managed to turnover a fair chunk of the area that was covered with invasive species. Not for an hours worth of work for most of the group, and 45mins for those who can't keep track of the time

We arrived at Rowntree Park on a dark Wednesday night to learn we'd been mis-sold and there was no bark chip in sight! As we dried our tears of disapointment, we made our way over to the wooded area and set to work securing logs into the ground to protect them from future floods and the lesser known log thiefs. After 45 minutes we'd banged and screwed to our hearts content and successfully secured 10 logs, creating additional space for story telling, craft making and all other forms of forest school fun!

We were tasked with moving 4 heavy trees from a garden to Rowntree Park. The trees were kindly donated by the residents but we needed to help move them as they were heavy.

We arrived and to our surprise there were 6 trees, and they were big, very big! We weren't put off however and got to work removing the trees from the very heavy pots and borrowing them down to the park. We may have made a mess, but we managed to make headway.

After the heavy graft, and some creative "root pruning" (his words, not ours), we managed to move 5. Unfortunately one was too big and heavy to move. It didn't matter however as the resident was very happy and Rowntree Park now has new trees for decoration.

7 of us met at Rowntree Park to help the Make Space for Girls project to finish off the area ready for this evening's launch event. This is aiming to reduce the drop off of park use in girls as they reach their teenage years. They had fundraised for a bench, basket swing and balance log which we tested in the interest of quality control! They had saved some log stumps from a fallen tree which we collected from various locations and helped secure in place with wooden stakes that were bashed into place either side with mallets and screwed into the logs. We then retired for a well deserved lunch in the cafe.

A small but talented group of Goodgymmers broke off from their second day of eating chocolate for an Easter Monday trip to Rowntree Park.

With three tasks to complete, we split into groups. The first task involved securing the logs in the sitting circle with stakes, screws and tools. Martin was definitely in his element with Radu, Barbara and Michael ably assisting. Speeding though the task, they were also able to join in the second task, barrowing woodchip to be placed around some of the saplings in the park.

With Neil shoveling (and eventually Martin and Michael as well), Leanne, Barbara and Radu were able to shuttle the woodchip to Jenna and Nick. They took charge of ensuring it was laid correctly. The woodchip is intended to reduce the weeds that would otherwise grow up around them and reduce their growth.

The final task was to dig out the nettles that were already starting to grow around the circle. Paul, Claire and Jamie attacked the area on the left whilst Lucy, Abigail and Hannah dealt with the nettles on the right. The ground was soft but the nettle roots were deep as usual so some of them put up a lot of fight before accepting they were coming out. Hannah managed to pull out some incredibly long roots so hopefully the nettles will remain gone for a good while.

With lots achieved in a short space of time, we put the tools away and played an exercise themed game of cards before heading back for some well earned brownies courtesy of Barbara.

Rowntree Park has recently reopened after flooding and everyone is hard at work to tidy up the damage. A big pile of bark chippings had been left blocking a main path through the park - a worrying prospect with the Easter holidays fast approaching! Luckily a hit squad of Friday lunchtime Goodgymers was available to shift the chippings to the storytelling circle and clear the path for park users. As a bonus, we also collected some cut logs, a few to add to the circle and others to provide habitat for woodland creatures. A lovely sunny task followed by a nice café break - a perfect end to the week.