Saturday morning saw four GoodGym'ers join Simon for a return visit the ever enthusiastic Glynis at Penhill Haven. Our mission, should we accept it, to hump and dump, what else!

‘Safety First’ Simon, Gina and Teresa made their way across Swindon from parkrun at Lydiard Park, while Emily and Mike took a bike ride for our 11am rendezvous.

As usual, Glynis had a list of jobs longer than your arm, that seemed to grow by the minute!

Going into the Haven, we were greeted by a wash of colour from the wild flowers sown earlier in the year. Really is great to see results of everyone’s hard work over the last year.

Our first job, move a four-seater concrete bench around to the front of the adjacent Community Centre for the locals to enjoy, under the watchful eye of CCTV.

We could just about lift the bench on its end, so decided to load it onto the back of Simon’s pick-up truck and carefully drive around to the Community Centre. Once loaded Simon slowly moved off with the others walking behind keeping everything in order. It wasn’t long before laughter could be heard, soon everyone was in fits of laughter as references to looking like a funeral procession were heard. There was only one thing to do, find Chopin’s Funeral March on YouTube and blast it from the Stereo. Some odd looks came our way, but lets face it...

only GoodGym'ers can get away with driving through Penhill with a black pick-up truck blaring the Funeral March at full volume on a Saturday afternoon!

Bench in position, it was time to relocate the raised planters. Luckily they did not need much persuasion to come out. With a few minor repairs, the planters were soon round at the Community Centre. Teresa and Gina did a great job rescuing Rhubarb, Strawberries, Onions and Rosemary. Don’t worry, they made sure she got home safely.

While Simon rebuilt the damaged the damaged Insect Hotels, Mike and Emily spread compost for future wild flower planting!

We humped and dumped our way through another fantastic task at the Haven and we look forward to returning soon.

Interested in coming along to another Community Mission? Check out our next one here; we will be on the red paint station at Run the Rainbow at Lydiard Park on Saturday 14th September. It's guaranteed to be fun and one not to be missed!

For this week’s introductions we talked about things that we are especially proud of. Newbie Charlie is running 1000km in 400 days for Heads Together to raise awareness of mental health, something us Swindon GoodGymers are passionate about – good luck Charlie! Tracey has started to learn to swim and hasn’t drowned – result! And Simon was proud that he got through his jobs list at home, although Emma was not there to validate this wild claim!

After a short run in the sun (oh, how we love being outside in this weather!) we arrived for our fifth visit at the Haven. This green space in an urban area offers the community a place to relax and a safe place for children (and bugs and beasties!) to play. It is also a place where residents can grow fruit and vegetables and learn about wildlife.** Glynis**, our host, always has an endless list of jobs that need doing and this week included cutting the grass and installing a slide, weeding the flower and vegetable beds and putting up some bee havens.

‘Safety First’ Simon popped on his safety googles got straight to work on strimming the grass. The rest of the male contingent made a beeline for the choppers!! The keen eyed amongst us were intrigued to see they each had their own unique style of grass cutting. Mike’s was the ‘Crunch and Chop’, Jason did the ‘Tricep and Trim’ and The Scientist went for the rather flamboyant ‘Snip and Flick’.

Amongst our members we discovered our very own Uri Geller!! Lily managed to dissect a trowel into two swiftly followed by a fork bending feat – we’re not sure she was even touching them at the time!! Shortly after, we were forced to place a ban on her going within a 5 metre radius of any tools as supplies had been depleted to worrying levels and we still had lots to do!

Crazy Legs sustained a gardener’s injury from a stingy nettle. Did someone mention peeing on the affected area for a quick cure (I thought that was jellyfish stings, mmmm!?!) but nobody volunteered and so it was the more widely accepted application of a dock leaf that won out. None of this could distract her from her photographer and chivvying duties – impressive!

We found a surprising amount of entertainment in Kirsty pulling up a weed with a massive root that looked like a parsnip - we are so easily pleased! Inspired by the fruit that was growing in the beds, Jo gave the weeders a lesson on how to make flavoured gin. We know this to be her favourite tipple and she is a veritable expert on the home brew! Carly is already planning her own small batch production!

Two bee haven’s had been donated which we popped on a wall and should help with the new ‘Bee Roadz’ initiative which encourages so-called ‘wildlife corridors’ to be created in urban spaces which are rich in plants and flowers.

Sandy Sam tested out the newly installed slide which has clearly been designed with only those of oompa-loompa proportions in mind (or small children, to be fair!). You’d think an adult on a small slide would need wedging down a bit but she managed to make it to the bottom in graceful fashion, with just a discreet helping hand from Jason to get over the last hump at the end.

Just time for a quick group photo where at least half of us sustained burns to our retinas due to the setting sun – if we look like we are in pain it’s because we were! Proud of our weekly GooodGym KMs which we diligently record, we went through the usual ‘Strava Palaver’ and off we set back to the Oasis. Another task in the bag.

Next week we will be walking and running approximately 3km in total to Heelis, the National Trust HQ, and back to help with a gardening task. This is a new venue for us and we're very excited about helping out in the green space they have within the building. A National Trust Gardener will be there to support and advise us so please don't worry if you're not greenfingered! Sign up here!

With no Swindon parkrun on today, we were back at the Penhill Haven for our fourth task there for a super Saturday community mission!

The Haven is a community wildlife and garden area in Penhill, and the brainchild of Glynis. In the past we’ve lived life on the hedge, put the petal to the medal in painting garden furniture and scarified the meadow.

Mike and Helen met at the Oasis to run to the task, while Tracey and Simon met us at the Haven.

Glynis is a real campaigner for wildlife and the environment, and told us about her activism in rallying the council to declare a climate emergency and develop the Honda factory into a solar panel factory. She’s also up for a Pride of Swindon award on Thursday night. Good luck Glynis!

Tasks included shifting waste wood for the tip, taking apart a deteriorating table, creating an new insect hotel, and weeding and adding soil to the vegetable beds.

Simon soon started smashing the table and creating a new insect hotel, while Helen, Mike and Tracey got to work on the beds! We uncovered a couple of wood lice nests in the process, which we carefully worked around for the rest of the task.

As we weeded, we each asked ‘what do we remove and what do we leave?’ Helen also discovered a helpful snail on top of the lettuce...

A lovely snail couldn’t harm lettuce, could it?!

Part of the way through, we had a great surprise when we were joined by a Swindon Street Rep and a team of Junior Reps.

Diane and the Junior Reps are part of a voluntary scheme set up by Swindon Borough Council to help with a diverse range of activities to improve their community. Sound familiar?! Mike tried to sell running and GoodGym to them to, fingers crossed we may even get one coming for a group run or to parkrun soon!

The Junior Reps are also up for a Pride of Swindon award - good luck Junior Reps!

The Reps helped us with a litter pick of the area and shifted the wood closer to Simon’s truck to take it away. Diane also gave us some top gardening tips.

Before we knew it, we had some clear beds. Tracey hopped in to start shifting some of the top soil, ready for us to pile in more as provided by Simon. GoodGymers and Junior Reps then combined to boost up those beds, ready for veggies and fruit to be planted by the community.

The hardworking Junior Reps then cleaned the back of Simon’s truck from the leftover mud, and we loaded it straight back up again for a tip run tomorrow.

After a good morning’s work improving vegetable beds, we felt we were ready for a lie down! We said our goodbyes to the Reps, Glynis, and Simon and Tracey as Mike and Helen ran back to the Oasis. Competing with the wind, we even managed a sprint finish!

This task was a great reminder the GoodGym is not all about running; it’s also about supporting the local community AND having a laugh!

Thanks to the Junior Reps on this task too, we couldn’t have got as much done without them.

Our next Tuesday Group Run is a stock take at Swindon Food Collective. Please note that the online register for this is FULL, but please keep checking back to see if a space is made available nearer the time?

Our next community mission is to celebrate WWF’s Earth Hour while helping the rangers at Lydiard Park on Saturday 30th March, straight after parkrun that day at 10.30am. Find out more here!

Pinch, punch, first of the month AND first community mission for GoodGym Swindon at Penhill Haven!

On a drizzly December morning, we paid our third visit to the community wildlife garden to help Glynis with the planting of a new hedgerow along the north fence boundary of the Haven. We also planted some fantastically festive holly, and some slight scarification!

Two intrepid GoodGymers gathered for the mission. Mike who had cycled from West Swindon, and Simon who had come straight from volunteering at Swindon parkrun that morning. We were also occasionally helped by Glynis’ friendly rescue dog Suki.

After a quick run down of what we needed to get done, we dug straight in.

Halfway through planting the hedgerow, we met a real slippery customer...

A frog!

As Simon dug, the frog hopped out of the undergrowth and headed past us towards a pile of long grass. A lovely surprise, and a real reminder of how tasks like this are appreciated by wildlife as well as people.

After a couple of hours of burrowing and burying holly and hedges, we had a brilliant line of saplings ready to take root. It will be great at our next task at Penhill Haven to see how they’ve bedded in!

We eventually said our goodbyes and, having got a bit lost on the way to the Haven, Mike cycled away, trying to remember the ROOT home.

We’re back in Penhill on Tuesday night Group Run to Deliver Flyers to households to encourage residents to become Prospect Hospice ‘box holders’. Why don’t you join us?

Today we ran to the Penhill Haven; a second visit to the community wildlife corridor to lend a helping hand to the lovely Glynis.

We had a new member and welcomed Andrew to GoodGym for his first group run! Andrew’s special skill is the speedy bathing of his 3 boys - in 20 minutes! Impressive dad skillz 👊

Other talents that we must see out on a GoodGym social are Kirsty cutting a grape into 16 pieces in 10 seconds and Simon eating a standard sized apple in 4 bites (has to be standard sized and it is everything except the woody bit).

It was an Up(pen)Hill struggle to get there, literally it is all up hill to get there, so we broke the run up with a couple of stops at the Beat The Street boxes on the way. Stuart kindly took on the role of back marker, which he did need reminding of a couple of times 😂

Glynis gave us a lovely welcome and explained The Haven to the newbies. We then cracked on with our tasks! Scarifying the grass, painting and wildflower planting. Simon,the greenkeeper, went off with what looked like a Medieval instrument of war to attack the grass. Mike found a different instrument to handle this evening in the form of a paint brush rather than his guitar.

Lily and Steve did an amazing job painting up two planters - no Mario Kart skills needed there! Charles got dug into the raised bed painting. I also heard him pipe up on the run back that the Run Lead (me Crazy Legs) is bossy - I’ve got your number Charles 😂😉

Daniel proved that he is always photo ready by posing perfectly for every shot and said his best feature is his bum, no guesses what I snapped next! Paul attempted some carpentry, he says next time he is bringing power tools. We may reach a point where we need a GG support car with all our equipment in 😂

Jason’s mind control failed again and he had to physically perform the tasks this evening, something Wynspecialskill does so well; a man who can always spot a job that needs doing!

Next week we will be heading to Swindon's Shock Wheelchair Basketball Team, to do some wheelchair maintenance. Do you need wheelchair maintenance skills? Not at all! There will be someone there to give help and advice, so give it a go! Sign up today!

Our second GG Swindon group run started with everyone giving an interesting fact about themselves. Saving the best until last, Stuart wowed everyone with his very close horizontal encounter with Ricky Gervais, we await more details. We were joined by GG tourist and Swindon first timer Tina and two Wootton Bassett Hounds, Fran and Jon. Welcome along.

It was 2 miles uphill all the way to Penhill, so it was nice to get there and meet Glynis to hear about the history of Penhill Haven, the wildlife and the Bee Roadzz. Paul was about start pulling out all the weeds and nettles when Glynis taught him, and everyone else, a valuable lesson:

What is a weed? At least 5 butterfly species rely on nettles for survival!

So the nettles were left well alone and only the dead plants removed and rubbish cleared. Lewis cracked the purple paint pots out, yes that’s purple Lewis, and all the raised beds and picnic tables were painted along with most runners hands and legs too of course.

Is it OK to paint a snail or do we have to paint round it?! - Daniel

There are lots of nooks and crannies in this small place and although that’s good to keep GGers in check, sometimes people (Helen and Emma (Sanderson) especially) did tend to end up hidden behind tall grass and even pop up from behind a stack of tyres unexpectedly. We didn’t lose sight of ‘Crazy Legs’ Emily of course.

Even in the short time we were there, it is clear there is wildlife thriving with butterflies flapping around and someone exclaiming….

A frog, it’s a frog, didn’t expect to see that!

Whilst others industriously got on with the work at hand. Lily = grafter! There is still a lot of work to do in future repairing the broken bench seats and clearing some of the grass so that the Haven becomes more accessible. So...

We will be back!

It was great to get our first proper group picture at the end of the task in the low sun in front of the nice freshly painted and cleared vegetable bed. Thumbs up to Greg for stopping around to help clear up the brushes and paint pots.

On the way back half the group went off to do some sprints on Seven Fields (with super speedy Jason running to the max) and we all made it back just in time to do some quick stretches and a chat in the café before it closed.

Huge well done to everyone. It feels like we are properly up and running now and made a nice positive difference to the local community. Bring on next week, building sheds at Playsteps Day Nursery, something everyone agreed we have zero experience in! Please bring a shed savvy friend!