Seven Goodgymers ran to Charterhouse in Coventry city centre to finish off pruning the lavender bushes in the car park.

Once we had located the tools in their secret location, we set to work giving the lavender a really good haircut so it will grow back well next summer and will hopefully be covered in bees once more. Once we had finished, we used a gentle sloping footpath for some pyramid hills before returning to our start point for a good stretch. Great job everyone!

Welcome to Roopa for her first group run with Coventry GoodGym and welcome back to Maddie for your first group run of the new academic year!

10 GoodGymers enjoyed a short run, walk and cycle, in this September heatwave, to Charter house. We welcomed back Dani and welcomed Chloe and Dale on their first deeds, great to meet you both. We also congratulated the superstar that is Laura on her 300th good deed 🎖️

We have really enjoyed doing our monthly slot at Charter house as every time they have had a different task for us to complete, keeping it varied and interesting. This week we met Gianni and his dog Bonnie and our task was to clear a pathway for cyclists taking part in Cov's big bike ride. With a trolley full of tools to choose from we each grabbed one each and set to work, taking it in turns to throw the ball to Bonnie in between.

We raked, swept stones and pulled weeds, working swiftly to make a nice even pathway for the riders to enter the beautiful Charter House gardens. With Dani thirsty for a bit more of a work out Lil and Laura came up with a fitness session plan of uphill pyramids. We said our goodbyes to Deb who was cycling home and Laura P, Louise and Joe set off on their walk back to base then started our uphill pyramids. It was good fun with both Dale and Dani showing us their competitive sides!

Once we were finished we made our way to CBGC and just caught up with Laura and Louise as Joe had left to go home. After cooling down a few of us went for a wee drink to toast Laura’s 300 and present her with a card and a cake made by Deb.

Fab session guys!

8 Goodgymers spent a pleasant evening pruning lavender at Charter House.

Joe and Lil took a walk there, while the rest of us ran and the tools were ready for us by the Purnells cafe to take over to the car park where the beds of lavender were. We were having a lovely time chatting whilst de-heading the purple tops finding lovely metallic rosemary beetles along the way (apparently very common in this plant at this time of year). We finished the first bed with time to spare so started on the next one which Laura was determined we could get done, she pushed us through and she was right we got the second one done too! Fab work you lot!

Hope you all have a great nights sleep after inhaling all those lavender fumes.

Today 10 goodgymers arrived to do good at the London Road Cemetary which is also part of Historic Coventry Trust.

Laura, Louise and Joe set off on a brisk walk to the cemetary and after Laura D's first warm up session,Graeme, Allan, Georgia and James ran to catch up. With it only being a mile away we were there in a flash. Claire and Chris decided to meet us there and with the help of who.what.where we eventually located them.

Gianni was there to greet us and to tell us the task in hand which was the removal of the horsetail weed and it was EVERYWHERE! It was tough to remove it all so we mainly pulled the tops off to make it more presentable. We probably managed about 15-20 graves out of 24,000 so only a few more to go!! This lovely lot were still smiling even though we left feeling slightly defeated by the evil horsetail.

Thanks everyone for your efforts!

9 GoodGymers walked, cycled and ran to Charter house this evening to help to take down some artwork. Gianni was at the bridge ready to welcome us and explain our task today which was in the beautiful landscaped walled gardens.

Back in April an artist called James Blunt completed a series of works created in Coventry for Historic Coventry Trust collaborating with Jon Foreman: Sculpt The World. Including some lovely works made by and with visitors using foraged materials. There were a few artworks in various locations across the Charterhouse site and in the London Road Cemetery (see photo's)

These artworks were amazing but with nature taking over the brick formation it was time for it to be dismantled so that the grass and weeds (including some very big thistles) could be mowed.

The team filled the buckets and wheelbarrows with the different sized bricks and carried them to the storage area of the garden. We piled them as best we could which was a bit like a game of Tetrus. After the task was complete we had a quick look round the garden at the vegetable patches and newly planted rose garden then made our way back.

Deb and Nigel cycled back home while the rest of us ran back with a detour around the cemetery which is also owned by CHT. We admired the trees and stopped to look at the the grave of James Starley, known as the father of the bicycle industry. Graeme left us the other side of the cemetery to run back home and the remaining group ran back to base.

Great session everyone, well done!

This is the link to James Blunts facebook account if you want to check out more of his natural artwork - its really good! https://www.facebook.com/jamesbruntartist

There is also lots going on at Charter House if you wanted to check out the events page, including a silent disco! https://www.historiccoventrytrust.org.uk/whats-on/

6 GoodGymers met at the usual place and after a warm up, headed off on a short run to Charter House, through London Road Cemetery, enjoying the last bit of the days sunshine.

We arrived at the newly opened Coventry Heritage Trust site which has been beautifully restored. Unfortunately the task owner was unable to make it so we were left with litter pickers, bags and instructions to tidy up the car park.

We decided to start with the most important task, which was helping Graeme with his cooking course, sampling some of his jam donuts! Delicious! Happy to support you with this anytime Graeme :)

Ready to work off our belly full of cake, I mean fried bread, we teamed up in pairs so that we could share the litter picking hoops and bin bags and got to work clearing up.

We chatted and walked collecting the usual detritus found on the roadside - cans, bottles, food packaging and we also more obscure items such as the remnants of a sled, candyfloss and some shredded carpet. We covered the car park and carried on litter picking on the grassy areas along the River Sherbourne. It was lovely to see families enjoying the playground, some youths playing football and cricket and spotting some wildlife including an Egret.

With the temperature dropping and time getting on, we deposited the three bags full in the bins outside Charter House leaving it much tidier than we'd found it.

Thanks to everyone tonight, really enjoyed the fresh spring evening with you all!

Next weeks task at Coventry Boys and Girls Club has been cancelled and will be replaced by something else asap.