A perfect sunny day for a run along the river to St George today.

We were due to help Wellsping Healthy Living Centre with their allotment but since there was only really enough to keep 12 people occupied today and since we hate to waste a potential doing-good-opportunity we picked up a few litter pickers from Bristol Waste and put together a small task force to 'plog' around Netham park.

Strawberry Lane

The allotment at Strawberry Lane was particularly beautiful today - with the little pond looking very appealing in the sunshine. It was well worth the steep climb to get there from the river (or at least I though so). On arrival, Louise tasked our first group with moving a variety of pieces of timer and pallets from around the sheds into a pile at the other side so that they can all be burned to make more useful growing space. This involved a variety of techniques including the well-loved human chain, a few wheelbarrow loads and some pair work with the heavier sleepers.

A second group worked to move a pile of stones - some of which looked pretty heavy! The group got through this in no time and proceeded to help out with the timber and get cracking on a little digging.

In the 40 minutes we were on site the timber and stone was all moved and we look forward to returning to help fill the raised planters in a few weeks time!

Netham Park

It turned out that there wasn't actually all that much litter to be found around the park, but I'm pretty sure there was none to be found at all by the time Charlie and her team were finished. The team also found time to make friends with the group playing football there who I believe were involved in an outreach initiaitive to Ghana - even getting themselves invited to a BBQ! Thanks to all of you for agreeing to take on this less glamorous task - its always massively appreciated when everyone willingly distributes themselves where they are needed when we have multiple tasks like today, and its why I love this club so much.

Thanks to Charlie for leading the Netham group and to Jack both for back marking mine - and also for todays pun (swipe left if you like it).

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend everyone!

A double task Saturday today both involving some good wheelbarrow action, amongst other things.

Paul got us nicely warmed up, before taking a crack team of 4 over to St George to the Wellspring Healthy Living Centre community allotment with a tidy up.

This appeared to involve clearing out a bath full of mud and lots of other mucky stuff over into a big pile and the treat of meeting a big bird en route to the task.

Big thanks to Paul, Julie, Paddy and Alex for taking on the longer run and mucky task!

Meanwhile the rest of us headed over to the Malago Berry Maze, the scene of many a GoodGym task over the past year or so and unfortunately, the most recent of these seem to have involved helping to repair damage done by vandals who seem to be doing their utmost to destroy the brilliant work done by Raluca and her team of volunteers (including our good selves) - very sad.

So we had two teams weeding the Berry Maze plot who managed to get the area looking fabulous in no time at all. And a trip to the Berry Maze wouldn't be the same without ferrying lots of mulch in barrows over to the maze and spreading this along the paths. And there was the small matter of replacing the damaged and not-too-sturdy stakes with bigger, thicker models - some very enthusiastic and energetic pile driving going on there! With the new, more solid feeling stakes in place, it was then time to reattach the wires, marking out the route of the maze.

It was a warm morning so we were very grateful for the fruit and water that Raluca had provided that not only kept us going on the task but also sustained us on the route home.

Lovely morning, two tasks well done, nice one!

Wow! 22 runners took on a mammoth 5 mile run and filled a skip with waste from an allotment managed by the Wellspring Centre

It was probably our longest Tuesday run ever but boy did everyone put in all-oment of effort. The Wellspring Healthy Living Centre works to get the local community involved in activities that keep them and their society in great shape. The project we were helping today is where they have taken control of an old allotment which has become a dumping ground for fly tippers (or maybe the that should be bee-tippers, more on that later). This allotment is being transformed so they get get people working on it to grow their own produce and learn and get fit in the process.

The group split in two at the start with my group heading off first and Dave's following close behind. As we arrive first we said hello to our happy host who showed us around the allotment, which was a good 100m from the skip that needed to be filled due to the tiny access path. He told us about the project offered us drinks and then we set to work. Due to the long run to the task we did not have long so the place was soon buzzing with activity. Shortly after the second group arrived to assist too. Barrows and trolleys, arms and shoulders were all being used to transfer the waste from the allotment to the skip.

Within 20 minutes we had nearly filled the skip and removed all of the waste until our task had a sting in its tail. One pile of carpet that had been the for sometime had, unbeknownst to us, become home to a hive of bees. After removing a few items the whole place came to life and there were soon more bees than you'd find in the early section of the dictionary if it was made out of brightly coloured flowers. Andreawas unfortunate enough to feel the wrath of the bees and was stung as a warning to stay away (give her a cheer as every one makes it hurt a little less!) This meant the piles we a no-go area. Time had just run out anyway so we called it a day. We tidied up the remaining odds and sods, took a team photo and then headed back to base.

My group arrived first and undertook some grapevine head pats and belly rubs (one of my personal favourites!), the the second group came soon after and we stretched off all those well spent miles.

Well done everyone who came along tonight. That was truely an amazing effort. To run 5 miles and fill a skip in 1:30hrs is a stonking performance. You lot never fail to impress our hosts and me with you grit and determination. Welcome Louis, Andy and Isabel. A massive well done to Tom our Hackney tourist on achieving your 50th deed with us. It was our pleasure to have your help tonight.