9 Goodgymers and 1 head of the PTA made their way to all saints school for a round of hole digging for the planting of trees by the children, bin emptying followed by the collection of nearly 2 hippo bags full of leaves!

It didn’t go unnoticed that it was the first task Louise has lead where it didn’t rain! which has clearly now jinxed the coming tasks

A play on the scooters found in the bike storage ensured that we were entertained and warmed up nicely before we all made our way home to warm up frozen toes and noses!

7 Goodgymers met up in the cool, dark Oaken Grove park to help task owner Catherine move a big pile of wood chips from one end of the park to another.Special shoutout to Juli who walked over a mile with her wheelbarrow and shovel as there may not have been enough for everyone (cue collective gasp).

Sorry Juli, but the plan had changed. The gentleman who manages the park grounds had offered Catherine to transport the wood chips in his truck, saving us multiple trips with wheelbarrows. No one does improv better than GoodGym-ers; gloves on, we got to work. With head torches and steaming breaths, we were a sight in the dark parking lot!

Rachel, Angela, Ben, Juli and Diya got shovelling wood chips onto the truck while Amy and Sophie hauled themselves up on the truck to spread and stomp to make room. Ringo, the man's dog supervised, albeit a bit fearfully.

We managed to fill up and complete two truckloads in the hour and the pile was impressively smaller. Everyone was nice and warm by the time we said goodbyes. Hope there aren't too many sore muscles tomorrow.

4 of us were walking to the task this evening so we parked in the (very dark) Butterfly Trail car park and walked through the creepy thicket to Burchetts green school to meet the others and clear leaves from the playground. We created huge piles (of leaves) and posted them over the fence, leaving the playground looking spick and span. After a very nifty fitness session we made our way home.

10 Goodgymers made their way to Nature's Haven where we met with Claire, our taskowner, who was already setting up the firepit and stringing up the lights. It promised to be a good night! In preparation for an important visitor in a few days days time, we had lots of jobs to do. In typical Goodgym fashion, everyone set to work on our various tasks. One group weeded an area and transplanted some hellebores, while others tidied the spare pots. Meanwhile others dug trenches in a bed and planted a row of box plants after first sawing off half their roots to ensure they fitted in the holes. Others weeded the beds and paths, and Ben proved to be very handy with the broom, leaving everything neat and tidy. We were rewarded with hot chocolate and marshmallows to toast over the firepit. Fantastic. Great work, Goodgym

Pun Gent!!

That was the order of the day as 5 Goodgymmers met Dave and Catherine from Friends of Oaken Grove Park to help clear more sludge from the pond.

With everyone having been before we got stuck straight in using spades and wheelbarrows to scoop the sludge from the pond.

The sludge was then moved to the edge of the park, avoiding getting it on the bike track.

The majority of Park users were pleased to see the pond getting some attention, although others found it a bit stinky!!!

With the water level in the pond clearly reduced we were pleased with our efforts but relived to head home to clean up!