As we cautiously pick up old tasks again, we return to this supported housing scheme to help in the garden.

The garden is already beautiful with colours, plants, a lovely bobble tree and a summer house. It is maintained by contractors but colour and flowers are added by the house manager, Denise, to bring the extra love and attention!

Denise had brought compost, flowers and tubs all ready to go.

Jane as ever prepared with gloves, a spade and secateurs and had ran the 0.7miles here. It wouldn't surprise us if one week, Jane pulls out a Mary Poppins bag with a kneeling mat, leaf blower and yard brush! (We 💗 you Jane!) Her partner in crime Patricia, always willing to give it a go, we know would be the first to wave around the leaf blower, or up the stakes and pull up on a digger!

We planted all sorts of flowers and plants with very long names (!) and tied up around the beds. It was lovely to just have a good chatter, the type of chat that has been so missed with lockdown. It's the type of chatter that you don't realise, but it gives you a little burst of happiness, a little ping!

We all headed down to the beach after the flowers were all planted. Becky, Robert and Esther waved farewell to Jane and Pat as they took a turn off towards to finish up. We continued down to Flaghead Chine before back up the hill we spluttered!

Another task done, another small difference made in our community. #happydays

'Oh what a night!'

Goodgym Poole first social event for a supported housing unit and whilst it may not be our forte, it was definitely note worthy as it was an evening of singing and smiles!

We all set off (once hands washed of course!) up towards Ashley Cross Green, just seeing the last of the daylight. To make the warm up a little more picturesque we had a little run to The Green where there was a bit more room for us to do some dynamic lunges, some sumo squats and a few strides to work us.

It was then up the stretch towards Penn Hill and onto Pennant House.

Nicola - One of our Goodgym members had been great at encouraging residents to come down for the social a few days earlier as well as ensuring there was sing sheets and some quizzes! This was a great help and it certainly made a difference.

We arrived at Pennant House, not quite sure who would come to the lounge for this 'Goodgym Social' that had been put up on the board. We were delighted to see that we had 9 residents wondering around the lounge waiting to see what was going to happen and ready!

Sanitiser on, we found the sheets and had a little chat. To get everyone relaxed we decided a song would be a good way to set off and song sheets in hand, the Goodgym team found a resident to sit next to! Amazon Music provided the background music and the first song to hit the room was a bit of Doris Day Que Sera Sera! It was soon getting everyone joined in as we followed on with a few other songs. We had a go at a quiz that had been prepared for us - it turns out our Patricia was a bit of a quiz mister and is one to get on your team if you have a quiz night! Back to some music and a few requests resulted in a few older songs including 'its a long way to Tipperary' and 'My old mans a dustman!

Sian was never seen so quiet on a few songs as it turns out she's a bit young for a few of them! Fortunately she was sitting next to a lovely lady who was more than happy to have a good old chat about her family so she in her element! Marie had a similar issue but was soon found having a go at a few songs we found including a bit of Rod Stewart!

A couple of our Good Gym members are regular choir goers so helped boosted the volume - Jane, Christine and Patricia thank you for for holding up the back row that was Elizabeth and Robert who ensured they were not within hearing distance of anyone - But you all did grand!

What a great opera-tunity it was tonight - We did not fall flat at all !

The residents all left happy and chatty - We have no doubt brightened up their evening with some light entertainment

We hope to return in 6-8 weeks and this time we will get some more golden oldies ready and perhaps some fun quizzes as well to have a laugh with.

It was all about the girls tonight as we met in the courtyard of Daveena's cafe!

Prize for furthest distance travelled easily went to Marta tonight, who had come from Velencia and was brought along by Clare whilst on her holiday to the UK for her first Goodgym session!

We ran the 3km to Pennant house where we were greeted by Denise all ready in the garden for us!

It was bark spreading, planting flowers in the beds and a bit of weeding for us all to get along with as the summer house was not yet ready for us to paint due to repairs being done!

Anne-Marie planted some roses despite confessing to only having a balcony whilst there was pansies and other little flowers to dot around. Bags of bark soon disappeared and Denise was pretty amazed how in 20 mins we had planted it all and spread the bark! We had a bit of time to clear the leaves from under the beautiful tree before a bit of sweeping and all chatting along the way!

There are 12 residents at this block and many enjoy the garden to sit out in or just view from the lounge area. They are holding a garden party in a couple of weeks so grateful for extra hands to make it all look lovely!

On the way back we stopped in Ashley Green for some sprint sections to finish just to make sure we had a but of HIT training in there! Turns out Hilary has got some speed in those legs! Great to see Lauren from a previous couch group, now a frequent nordic runner, come and join us for the first time at Goodgym, along with Anne-Marie who keeps fit from cycling - Thats a great thing about Goodgym - infrequent runners love it too!

Great enjoyable run and task tonight!