Our second week of litter picking, and it has to be said that Cardiff is looking good..... And not just because of goodgym.

Da iawn

Tonight four of us met to hit the City Centre and a popular cycle / walk route. We started with a nice catch up outside our meet point, and some great stories from the weekend. Then headed out for a walk along the route surveying the area, then time to turn around....

turn around bright eyes

And the litter pick began, an unknown competition was being held and judged by our designated bag holder..... We found the usual litter along the way (most in a car park), as well as bags of biscuits

Let's get ready to crumble

Was there a winner, of course, it's Cardiff. Always a winner when goodgym get out to do some good.

Due to injury our Activator was unable to run tonight, so we moved our meet up back to Sport Wales for a litter pick.

It really is a perfect start for a tidy up, there's a taxi drop off point, a coach stop and then all of the sport in the park. And with a little more walking, you get to a busy pathway.

There was plenty to pick, from getting in a bush or two to some fallen bollards (these did not fit in a bag so had to stay where they were).

After a good hour and a bit, we all returned to our meeting point for a photo and to put away our three heaving bags of rubbish.

On a crisp Sunday monring, goodgymers got together for another Junior Parkrun - a wonderful brisk task.

We cheered and clapped, encouragement at every 100m, a brilliant way to start the day and end the weekend.

Today we saw 194 young participants and there were 36 volunteers.

Another concert Tuesday in Cardiff as this week Taylor Swift and 70 000 fans take over the City, after the Pink concert last week we made the decision to move the start location back to Sport Wales for this task. It made our active travel much easier with a great direct run and walk.

Tonight's task was a great new one for the goodgym crew to get their teeth into, we were helping out at Llandaff Cathedral and to the background music of bell ringing. The water from the cathedral runs through guttering and out under a bridge, out job was to get in the trench and start clearing it out so that it can be transformed into a bog garden.

Learning ALERT

A bog garden can be created by adapting an existing soggy area, or from scratch, either at the edge of a pond, or as a standalone feature. Permanently damp, it creates an area where moisture-loving plants thrive. These plants are different to those suited to the standing water of a pond, so will attract a host of different wildlife.

A bog garden may be a better option than a pond for families with young children. Like a pond, it should attract frogs, toads and even grass snakes. Dragonflies and damselflies will perch on the taller grasses, and bees and butterflies will flit around the flowers.

wildlifetrust - make a bog garden

The soil in the trench was already springy and the area is surrounded by trees, the graveyard has a range of wildlife including some lovely foxes. This project will help to increase biodiversity even more and we can't wait to see the end results. We had lots of plants to remove, some could simply be pulled up with our hands (gloved of course) whilst others needed to be dug out with trowels. There was some overhanging branches that needed removing and lots of brambles trying to root themselves, all of the green waste could be placed in the grounds in-between trees to put their nutrients back into the soil.

Circle of Life

We bagged up all rubbish that had made its way into the trench, dating things as we went - can you remember ring pull drink cans? All fallen branches and wood was moved to the woodland areas too and the rather LARGE stones were placed on the side of the trench to be used in the next phase of the project. It was a good workout tonight, and everyone of us could see the work that we had just done.

Tonight was a special run in Cardiff, as we celebrated Darren on his very special

200th Task

This can mean only ONE thing, it's time for the CAPE

We had our usual mix of groups tonight, with some walkers and joggers and a couple running like the wind - that's the power of the cape! We were heading out to help at the Samye foundation again, and as usual they had prepared a list for us.

• Move a plinth from the hall to the shed
• Move containers from the office into the attic
• Change the posters in the display cabinets
• Vacuum building 252 with good ol' Henry
• Wash the ground floor outside windows and ledges
• Put out all rubbish and recycling.

Thankfully there was a good number of us tonight, as 13 volunteers got active and cleared the list of tasks in good time. Dylan and Henry became great friends as the floor and stairs were spotless. Darren and Andrew vanished into the attic along with the containers. Imy and Natasha got artistic with the poster displays - looking great. Emma, Aimee and Ellen moved the plinth in the blink of an eye. Lucy cleaned the mirror until you could see your face in it......wait, hold on a minute???? And then it was all hands to the windows, and ledges, Su, Martin, Llion and anyone else that was free joined to get rid of those smears...Ready for some filming I believe.

We even had time for an additional task as Darren donning his cape, mopped the hall until it was sparkling clean. We got together for some soup and soon to follow on the run - soup stitch. A great evening had by all, thanks you wonderful lot.

On a drizzly day, 8 goodgymers made their way to help the future generations of runners at junior Parkrun.

And this week our regular Flo was in fact Race Director.

Event number 377, 101 runners (it didn't seem like that many until scannign at the end) and a goos 28 volunteers.

Another wonderful Sunday in the park, even with some rain.