☀ 21 excellent GoodGymmers gathered for our sunny group run this evening.

🦸‍♀ We were thrilled to welcome back Louise who was visiting from London for the double-whammer of her birthday and her 500th good deed. What a hero, especially as this was her 3rd good deed of the day to get there! She posed with the cape but we didn’t make her wear it all evening as it was a tad toasty.

🏆 The other celebration was the arrival of the golden trowel, which Dom brought up from the GoodGym shindig this weekend. Of course we had to get a group photo with it 🤳

✌We had two tasks this evening so Mitch led a super crew of six to Gale Farm Court to varnish some benches there. Here’s what he had to say:

🖌 "We painted the town (or benches) red"

🎨 Six GoodGymmers arrived at Gale Farm Court (via a few diversions...sorry) to help scrape and paint two beaches. With the hot dry weather, this was perfect. So after an hour(ish) of scraping, painting and more painting, between the 6 of us, we had the beaches painted and looking in a better state.

🏥 The rest of us headed to York Hospital where we split into three further groups - Renal, Labour and Mosaic.

👶 The Labour group were weeding and tidying up the wellbeing garden there. They were reassured that they wouldn’t see anyone giving birth, though sadly also wouldn’t see any tiny babies.

💦 Here’s what Ed had to say about Team Renal:

🐜 We got to work in quite a small courtyard area, getting rid of weeds and disturbing woodlice. There was a lot of fake grass that had moss growing over it so some of us did a bit of scraping to remove the moss. We all agreed that fake grass is appalling and should be banned. Other than that nothing remarkable

🧽 Meanwhile, the Mosaic group were armed with soapy water, brushes and cloths. They set to work cleaning the mosaic and soon made a noticeable difference, realising how shiny it could look once clean. They also tackled the spiky sculpture thing in the middle, realising that this was really a task for Team Tall. Steve Rice put in a sterling effort, leaping to reach the top of the spikes with the long brush - very impressive. Amongst the leaping shenanigans, Nicky did some weeding. Not that many weeds were located (proving that the garden is very well cared for) but there were sadly two dead birds (the Labour garden apparently had a net to prevent similar tragedies). We wondered if the turkey statue was a monument to its fallen feathered comrades 🦃

🥵 It was soon time to head back to base where we gathered and made the group decision that it was too warm for fitness.

🍰 People were also keen to get to the pub and enjoy the delicacies very thoughtfully provided by Louise alongside some much-needed liquid refreshment.

👏 Thank you everyone, it was great to get lots done at both tasks.

🙌 17 superb GoodGymmers met for our group run this evening. It was a double whammy task tonight and 6 splendid souls met straight at Gale Farm Court to start stripping the varnish off some benches there. This was a task that had been cancelled a couple of weeks ago due to the threat of rain. And the weather threatened to call it off again but after some debate, the decision was made to give it a go so they did ☔

📢 This is what Vicky had to say about it:

🎨 6 of us started early and met at Gale Farm Park as the task involved paint stripper which takes time to work. The damp weather wasn’t ideal conditions but we made good progress. After slapping on a generous layer we were able to then get a lot more of the paint off. It was too wet to sand or sweep so Michal got his hose out and washed everything down before we headed back to HQ (or sloped off home!). Another trip needed when dry to sand and varnish 🏜️

👋 Meanwhile, the rest of us met at CVS as usual. We applauded the Dalby Dashers (present and absent) and discussed some exciting Christmassy plans and equally exciting potential upcoming task plans. Check our social media for more info (and/or join our WhatsApp and Facebook groups if you haven't already - message me for the details) 🎄

🧂 While warming up, we discussed (as suggested by Tay who was sadly absent this evening) our favourite crisp flavours. As our resident crisp-hater (too strong, Mitchell?!) was already at the bench task, he also avoided participating. We had some harking back to retro flavours such as Pickled Onion Monster Munch and hot and spicy Nik Naks. Prawn cocktail and roast chicken were also (probably not very) surprisingly popular 🦐

🐢 Anyway, it was soon time to set off on a slow jog to West Bank Park where we were delighted to meet Kristina who was fully equipped with leaf-clearing apparatus. Abigail and Martin were quick to volunteer for the leaf-blowers, as was Leanne when she realised there was an option not to carry a big harness on her back 🍁

🌱 The weeding task was a tad less popular but Laura, Lucy and Carl did a stirling job and made a visible difference (which is always the aim). The rest of the gang were using the remainder of the tools (including the ever-popular leaf clappers) to gather as many leaves as possible, off the paths and playground area. Despite this feeling like a never-ending job, we hope we've prevented some slippages through our efforts tonight 👏

🍂 It was soon time to concentrate our efforts on the final leaf piles (continuing to ensure that no leaves ended up in the bowling club's dedicated grass compost, which was handily painted green to make it extra-obvious). A final effort meant we did this in no time and it was soon time to pose for a group photo and pack the tools into the van (with happy abandon this time as Kristina was feeling particularly relaxed about the order today) 🚐

🏃‍♂️🚴‍♀️We ran/cycled back to base, joyfully joined by Mitchell and Dom en route from the bench task. Our fitness session was groin-based (all the inuendoes tonight but let's not let politeness get in the way of our wellbeing) as it felt like a slightly neglected area of fitness (for me anyway - feel free to suggest other areas to concentrate on if you'd like to). We enjoyed opening and closing our leg gates (and all admired the distance Mitchell was able to achieve) 🦵

🍻 And with that, it was time to stretch off and part ways (mostly to the pub). Thank you everyone, great effort tonight 💪

Six of us GG Yorkies met Geraldine at Gale Farm Court on a sunny and blustery Wednesday morning to help improve some of their benches. They want them stripped of paint and re-stained so that plaques can go on them to commemorate friends that have passed. The benches are used by the residents throughout the warmer months to enjoy the fresh air and remember their friends.

Dressed up in the protective white overalls and latex gloves provided we set to work. However, the first bench we tackled seemed resistant to the paint stripper (or maybe we were just too impatient to give it time to work) as it didn't seem to be doing much. Jenna kindly dashed to a local shop to buy some paint scrapers as Geraldine had been told that scrapers and sandpaper wouldn't be needed (she was told the paint would just wipe off) but without them we couldn't do much. We soon started scraping and picking away at the paint - some of which came off in satisfyingly large pieces - which Vicky particularly enjoyed:

I don't have any patience for stripping - Vicky

The paint stripper was working in some places (but not all) as we could actually see the paint starting to bubble up. After a good hour or so we had scraped a lot of the paint off the first bench and wiped it down. The second bench we scraped where we could but it will need an application of paint stripper as well at a later date as we used almost the whole bottle on the first bench. There is a third bench round the other side of the building that needs doing as well. We put a "do not sit on this bench" sign on the first bench so that no-one uses it and gets any remnants of paint stripper on their clothes. It would be great to go back to finish the job sometime soon as it would be lovely to see the benches all finished. Geraldine will get more tools and sandpaper, etc if we are able to return.

After tidying up we made our way down to a local café for a well-earned drink and a bite to eat. Five of us had met at the bottom of one of the few hills in York not too far away for a few hill reps before heading to this mission, so were ready for some refreshments.

Our task was to build and fill a raised bed for the residents of Gale Farm Court to enjoy.

The group initially split in half. One team cleared the ground for the bed, while the rest of the gang carried the pre-cut railway sleepers around to the yard, ready for assembly. They resisted the temptation to start a game of giant Jenga, and instead did some token weeding between the patio stones while the clearing team finished up - at least Paul Kelly did. Everyone else might have stood around debating the logistics of assembling a raised bed.

John and Katie became chief bed builders and everyone else got to work shifting a tonne of soil into the yard, initially by shovel and wheelbarrow, and latterly by dragging the half-emptied sack around and tipping it into the completed bed.

Just over an hour later our job was done and it was time to run home for tea.