October hues

After some morning torrential rain we were fortunate to have a stunning balmy evening for our final visit of the year to Heene Cemetery to help with an autumn tidy up of previous strimming and pruning work.

After 10 years of volunteering , sadly, it was the last time Sue would be there in her task leader capacity. Sue has been a wonderful presence and energy in the cemetery and we will miss her. However she's handing over to Kevin and Tracy who we will really look forward to working with.

Belinda is enjoying some days celebrating her 60 wonderful years and it was so nice to see her tonight in advance of a few parties! Wishing you all the best for both your celebrations together with ops B 🙏

It was also great to unexpectedly see Paul who after traveling for a month or so with John in his camper van, Priscilla, was back with his full force and energy 😀

Ricky was also celebrating 5 glorious years of GoodGym volunteering and also completing his virtual Great South Run earlier in the day.

Roxy and Gillybean teamed up to bag up all the debris. Both are recovering from injury and we are keeping everything crossed for a speedy return to regular running.

Sue and John worked hard with the chopping up and raking. Sue is enjoying her recent retirement and filling her time with some fantastic volunteering for local good causes👏

After the task we headed to the pub to raise a glass to Belinda' s birthday together with a great chatty catch up with good friends 😊

What a lovely evening !

*Waking the dead *

We returned to one of our favourite task venues at Heene Cemetery for our second summer visit. Sue had asked us to assist with some pruning and also some cutting up and bagging of previous pruning activities.

Special mention to Sarah and John who worked their socks off this week ( as we all know they always do 🤣) and who do enjoy special accreditations for their great work 😍

Ryan and Belinda also quietly cracked on shadowing Sarah and John's great work happily doing so without any external validation ( Ryan took a fair bit of banter in his strlde from John too !! )

*High Stakes *

Health and safety guru Craig returned to GG tonight on the promise of a pint afterwards 😀 🍺 Its just as well he did as Paul was up to his tricks up a ladder pruning a large tree ! Kevin, a new volunteer for the friends of Cemetery , stood steadfastly holding the ladder the whole time whilst Craig joined the climbing activities 🤣

Also working constantly hard was Gillybean Anne and Stephen It was great to have some amusing great chat surrounding lots of subjects including divorcing in your 60' s ( who gets the dog or cat ) and Steve and Natacha's GoodGym baby who will be with us within the next 8 weeks !

*All bagged up *

We filled 5 huge grabs which were dragged over to near the entrance of the cemetery to store tidily before disposal.

Cheers After the task we ditched the beach and went to the pub instead. We were joined by Sue ( chair of the cemetery) and John ( Paul's husband)

What a great evening 🤩

Next week, because of bank holiday , the task is on Wednesday at Worthing Leisure Centre garden. Hope to see you there 👍

Julia xx

A Classic GoodGym Worthing Welcome

This evening we were back at one of our favourite tasks at Heene Cemetery. With Sue on her holidays in France we were greeted by Rob and Jane who are also volunteers of the 'Friends of Heene Cemetery' We had been asked to go along and do our annual raking of the strimming activity that the council had carried out last week.

It was so nice to meet another Mr Robinson today.
John brought along his brother Kevin who had first registered interest in GG back in 2018 when support was being gauged for a new area in Carlisle - unfortunately this didn't happen meaning it was, in fact, Kevin's first task today! 👏 ( hopefully not his last!! )

it was great to see Sarah and Ryan tonight who arrived early and had already filled at least half a bag of strimmings by the time I arrived !

Paula Belinda and Ricky immediately got stuck into the raking and the whole team finished relatively quickly.

This left time for Rob, who photographs and logs all the different 660 species of wildlife etc that has been found in the cemetery, to give us a short talk on the cemetery. Ge particularly focused on the trees including the very old Yew Tree that was there before the walls of the cemetery were put in place.

If you want to take a deeper dive into the history of the cemetery click on the link below.

https://www.heenecemetery.org.uk/

Thanks everyone and have a great week!

Julia x

The best things come in threes

Back at one of our favourite tasks, we were celebrating 3 epic events Daisy celebrated her 50th good deed, Rosalind celebrated her 100th good deed and Barbara celebrated her 200th !

Sue, who looks after the cemetery, is always is so well organised with her tasks and has a clear idea of how to use our energy! Tonight she asked us to rake the strimmed grass from the graves together with high level pruning around the outside of the cemetery. Paul, Belinda John andDuncan took on the job of the pruning around the back whilst Gillybean concentrated on the wall near the entrance. They all did an amazing job clearing huge branches and running the discarded debris in wheelbarrows round to the compost heap ( great for the step count! )

Back in the cemetery, Ryan who was looking great in his new red t shirt and Rosalind had a great opportunity to work on their squats whilst using grass pruners to clear a small area of war graves that had been missed during the strimming process.

Daisy, Sarah , Ricky, Barbara and Sue concentrated on raking and clearing ( and chatting 🤣)

With the light going and the pub calling we had to pack the tools away and finish up. After the photo finish most of us ended up in the pub with cakes that Barbara had kindly bought and the celebrations began!

For Daisy a 50th frame filled with lots of photo memories ( most of which she loved!) Looking forward seeing you in black Daisy !

For Ros ,who got her GG wings tonight, it was a beautiful needle felt crafted by John featuring her famous scarf!

For Barbara it was an absolutely epic highland needle felt cow doing a poop that John had also made. It caused a lot of laughter with John finally getting his own back on Barbara's pile of squidgy s*** that she had previously 'gifted' to him. Just to be clear Barbara adores these cows and fills her house with decorative items but this piece will get pride of place 👌

Thank you John and congratulations to all 3 of our Worthing dream team.

Congratulations also to Sue on her Great Parks half marathon 👏

Huge luck and love to Barbara on her cycling adventure from Vietnam to Cambodia. We can't wait to hear and see all the memories! If you would like to sponsor her she is doing it for the Worthing MND society and here is the link https://www.justgiving.com/page/barbara-barrett-1690290622398?utm_term=YmkGkevJN

..... and finally all the best to all the GG Great South Runners this Sunday

Bravo all of you 👏

Have a great week

Julia x x x

Happy 60th Birthday Mr Robinson

On a very happy evening we all convened at the cemetery to combine good deeds followed by an epic celebration in honour of John 60th Birthday.

With volunteers aplenty we had to bolt on an additional task to accomodate everyone. Luckily Rik and Val came to the rescue and half the group headed to Heene Church Rooms garden to start work on a new project for us.

Back in the cemetery we welcomed Ryan to our group. Although many of us know Ryan as being Sarah partner, it was especially nice to see him at his first task. Luckily Lucy was on hand together with Ricky to partner up and do some very fine raking and bagging!

Elsewhere in the cemetery Sue was busy pruning brambles from the grave looking extremely fit in her shorts and long compression socks!

Meanwhile, Anne and Sarah were busy raking - this was certainly the case when I left to check in with the other half of the group but I'm not entirely sure that the work rate was kept up in my absence - ha ha! Some of the photographic evidence may support this!

Duncan, fresh from a 3 day stag event and a board meeting was busy digging whilst trying to stay awake!

Back at the new task - the ground force makeover team were certainly going at full strength.

Belinda had partnered up with Gillybean to clear the area around the steps ( credit to Belinda for some great before and after photos! )

John. Tamsin, Daisy, Barbara together with Rik and Val made great strides with clearing bindweed, wild garlic, brambles, weeds and rubbish !

We will return to this site in the coming winter months to really get a grip with it and smarten the whole area up.

We all reconvened at the cemetery for a Happy Birthday sing song followed by a group photo and a well deserved drink at the pub where we presented John with a variety of presents from his GG buddies!

Great job and smiles all round !

Hope to see lots more of you at the tasks in the coming weeks !

Julia xx

Welcome Craig

We returned to one of our favourite tasks tonight, Heene Cemetery, for our final visit this year to assist Sue ( who coordinates the volunteers ) with raking the area after strimming, together with a general tidy up before winter sets in to this idyllic nature reserve themed graveyard.

Tonight we welcomed a new face to the group, Craig Big welcome to you! Many thanks for all your hard work this evening and for being an absolute star at joining in with the group in such a relaxed and sociable way. We all hope this will be the first of many visits to us :)

Special mention to the rest of my team

Heene Cemetery always attracts a great turn out due to its location and popularity and this evening was no exception

Many thanks (in no particular order)to Duncan. Gillybean Belinda Sue Anne Barbara JohnRicky Sue

Long Live Duncan

The team got straight on with raking, barrowing and moving a collection of logs. I pointed out a plaque on one of the gravestones with a large 'DUNCAN' printed on it ( you may just be able to see it in the photos) Luckily we had our very own live and kicking Duncan moving swiftly past the grave moving logs with Craig!

FIne Pruning

As ever, Gill led the way with her pruning skills together with Sue W, to remove the over branches overhanging the pavement outside with Sue ( heene) swiftly clearing up behind them with her wheelbarrow.

Chatting as we work

it was such a lovely vibe tonight with everyone taking time to catch up with each other whilst we made Sue really happy ticking off all her jobs.

With a great photo to finish and a promise to return next year ( or even next week to St Botolphs Church garden round the corner!) we ll headed home.

Social dates and tasks will be uploaded later today!

Have a happy, great week!

Julia xx