It wasn't meltingly hot! Hooray! In contrast, those GoodGymmers who had "splashed" out on rain jackets had the first opportunity to wear them and found they're excellent at being waterproof.

Elliot joined us for his first ever Group Run/Walk having come along to a double community Mission back in Spring - we're hoping it won't be too long before he comes along to another session.

The school soon had us busy with cutting down brambles with tools of varying success - long loppers, short shears and a variety of methods to get the clippings into wheelbarrows to take downhill to the compost heap, better known as the old pond that we'd lovingly cleared if brambles a couple of years ago... At least we can come back in a couple of years to move it all again!

As ever at a GoodGym Bristol task, specialists in the doffetent tasks soon emerged - deep de-brambling by Richard B, tidy trimming by Elliot, taste testing by Frances , fork-filling wheelbarrows by Dushyant and Richard G, wheelbarrow wanderings by Ed and Vaguely Northern Darren (who also sawed some stuff he saw) and deep digging by Caroline.

Soon a small, skilled team ventured into the Forest School to dig up rogue brambles growing in there, and not to play around at all. Wheelbarrows were flying (not flying) down and up the hill to be re-filled and re-emptied, tools were lost and found, the rickety fence was revealed and James, one of the school's governors was really impressed with how much clearer the space was, for the last week of term. With many fewer blackberries as they'd either been eaten by GoodGymmers or sent down to the compost heap.

Intermittent rain was very welcome compared to the heat of the last week or so, and the browned grass will soon be lush and green, just in time for the school summer holiday!

Looking forward to clearing out the compost heap/pond when we're asked to de-bramble that, and hoping there're as many berries to eat. Until next time...

A poem this will be.
Take a look at the photos.
You’ll see the odd tree

Seven GoodGymmers met this Sunday.
For yet another fun day

We emptied a hole and filled another.
We even found some carpet mother!

A difference we did make.
Time for some tea and cake

This poem is done.
I might now have a cinnamon bun?

Until next time…

This may seem like an unusual motto but sometimes things are unusual.

We met today for some snipping, chopping and clearing of a large area at the school (definetly no slipping in the mud). There were balls, strange tubes and lots of artistic licence. The aim is to make an old pond space useful for the Key Stage 1 pupils, so clearing everything that can go - if it grows, it goes. and id its rotten wood (to the skip), old fence or paving slabs (to be reused).

After an hour we were done (for now, with maybe a follow up visit to come soon). All that was left was a hot drink and a biscuit or muffin (or maybe both). Welcome to Tilia on their first task with us :)

Well done everyone for staying on your feet!

Until next time…

A new beneficiary for our bramble clearance tonight - a primary school with a Forest School that had become a bit unfriendly with scrapes and scratches not part of the teaching plan!

We set about chopping away all the unwanted elements and stacking them in the brash pile so the wildlife can make new homes there. Machete-wielding was popular so we ensured people took it in turns with others using shears, secateurs and anything else that came to hand - even a lawn edger to reduce the size if the buddhleia in the too wall. Rakes, forks and spades were deployed to move the choppage (new GoodGym word) to the brash pile. To make sure the amazing playground is ready for the new academic year, litter was collected up in no-longer-single-use bags and hundreds (at least, it seemed that way) of tennis balls abd footballs were released from the bramble forest - along woth some GoodGymmers!