Great work done under warm weather with Katie, Anne, Wayne join me ( Agathe) to help the RSPCA centre cutting brambles around one of the dogs' compound.

Glad to hear Anne spent a lovely time seeing family in France while Wayne is looking forward to going on holiday in Dubai in August, and our Katie is soon going to be a mother!

Anne and Agathe ended up walking a bit afterwards talking in frogs' language and debating about Molière! More seriously, we saw at least 7 rabbits or hares - as they were quite big - running around in the field, 3 horses, lots of birds and a magnificient doe jumping around like she was escaping a lion!! (it was just Anne and I, remember!)

Everyone is looking forward to running this Sunday at the Martian Race. I won’t be attending though but I wish you a merry Christm…(oops not yet!) Martian Race.Don’t forget to wear sunscreen as it’s going to be roasting!! :D

Tonight, five human GoodGymers and one canine GoodGymer took on not one, not two, but three tasks!

We were back at Knaphill Community Fridge, which seems to always bless us with a beautiful evening for our task. ☀️

Wayne and Alys took on the task of removing a rotting trellis and replacing it with a new one. Well actually…Wayne did all the drilling, and Alys just held the screws! Wayne also got his gloves on to clear out toys and balls that children from the nursery had poked through the gaps. No doubt it won’t take long for more to gather there…

Meanwhile, Julie, Nadia and Agathe gave the community fridge a good ‘ol Spring clean, cleaning it from ceiling to floor (and window to wall).

A few of us also jumped in to replace one of the sides of the gazebo that has got a bit tattered over time. Quinn made sure to supervise this step!

We were kindly rewarded with a treat from Gail’s before heading home. 😀

It was great to have Agathe back after her trip to France. We missed Katie this week, who took a fleeting trip to Italy, Anne who is in France 🇫🇷 and we’ll be missing Nadia for the next few weeks whilst she’s in Japan 🇯🇵- have an amazing time! 🎌

On Sunday, there is not one, not two, but three tasks as well - Junior parkrun, Brookwood trains and wildflower sowing on Millmoor Common. Join us for one?

There was a great turnout this evening for some litter picking around the streets of Woking. 🚮

Upon everybody’s prompt arrival, and a brief chat, Anne uncovered the brand new litter pickers which everyone got very excited about.🗑

Then, passing the adventure park, the team noticed a lot of litter so in they went, but not to play! 🛝

The group turned off out of Woking Park and carried on up White Rose Lane then ended up at the central flats.

High up on the tally seemed to be beer cans, beer caps, and cigarette butts, so it was a good thing to remove these things which impact our environment and wildlife. Great job team!

The ladies finished off with a gentle run back to the park and finally bade their farewells for the night leaving Woking a cleaner place.

After all, we don't mess about!

Six GoodGymers, Agathe, Katie, Nadia, Rebecca, Wayne and Anne met at the Leisure Center last night. It was still light and mild, but some of us were cautious and wore an extra layer of clothing and a torch. These were useful during and after the run as it became dark and chilly! But bonus points for the optimistic runners who made us believe that spring was really with us!

Well done Wayne who had already run about 10 kms with some hill training just before meeting us at the Leisure Centre. It was great that Rebecca, despite her heavy schedule, managed to run with us. Katie has resumed her regular training with the aim of completing the upcoming Martian Race.

We started the session with a warm up and a group photo. Nadia and Anne guided the group to the planned 5 kms route as they had already done it with another running group. We all ran at a comfortable pace allowing us to chat and catch up with news.

Agathe impressed us all by completing the session without walking at all. Agathe cycles everywhere, but running is new to her.

We hope to see you at junior parkrun this coming Sunday. Or you might prefer helping out WEAct making Woking a healthier, greener place for us all? We will remove brambles and thinning out holly shrubs? See the diary for more details.

Happy running to you all.

St John's Lye Heathland 🌳

This was our 2nd task of the day and once again we would join up with WeAct 🌍 to assist them with expanding the heathland by removing invasive saplings.

Wayne, Karen, & Adam were coming straight from Junior park run. Wayne drove to the Lye as he had to get away earlier than the rest of the team, Karen &Adam ran the 3k to the meeting point.

Anne & Agathe met along the canal at WWF an ran the 2.5k route. We all arrived at pretty much the same time. We met up with Charlie and his team after a brief of what we were going to do we walked to the heathland.

After a 7 mins walk we arrived to a shocking scene. There has been a fire over the last few days as WeAct were at the site at the beginning of the week and it was clear. The grounds were black with Ash and burnt grass heathland. Hayden from WeAct said it could have been started deliberately or was natural as it had been very dry recently.

WeAct had done some prep work already as they had cut and piled up silver birches which were over taking the heathland. We started to process them by cutting them back and making wild hedage fence. Anne, Karen, & Agathe were part of this team. Adam apart from running wanted an arm and shoulder workout 👊 so got stuck into removing some tree stumps Wayne was using his weaving skills to build up the hedge as well as putting in steaks to extend the line of the hedge fence.

While working away conversation started about Karen 3 week trip to Machu Picchu when she flys out on Thursday. Sounds amazing and we are looking forward to seeing photo's and hikes and following Karen on Strava 😊.

Withing an hour the hedge had grown and Adam was looking like the Hulk 🤣.

We have a few outdoor tasks coming up over the next few weeks with WeAct 🌍 which have been listed as part of Goodgym's Working in Nature partnership with WWF.