A celebration of an evening, we say farewell to November group runs, we finish our Christmas Cards for Care Homes, look forward to our games evening after the task and say a festive

Congratulations on your 50th Deed

to our Dylan, welcome to the Black t-shirt club.

The run wasn't as cold this evening as it has been recently, a nice change for us. The task was back in the great office space of Autism Spectrum Connections Cymru. The last selection of cards were put out, there were some charity cards still to fill out and a few plain for those crafty ones in the group. Michael put out quite an array of craft supplies, coloured metallic pens, markers, glue, glitter (edible) and lots and lots of seasonal stamps.

We welcomed back to the group for their second task Rachel, thanks for coming back.

The countdown began, along with the Christmas music - which tonight was a selection from the 80s...including the very festive 'Grandma got run over by a reindeer'. We also welcomed back an original member with their newest addition, Lucy and baby Eliza (our future goodgymer).

As the time passed and we came to the end of the task, we counted the cards and had managed 50 tonight, it was as if the 50th celebrations were meant to be. Our total card count for all of the tasks is an impressive 200, plenty to get mailing to a selection of care homes.

Now we celebrate for the evening with a selection of games and a nice social, thanks all for the festive crafting.

Join us next week, we only have 2 group activities in December so lets make the most of them.

As Diana Ross said,

We talk about love, love, love

Tonight was the final session for the paper-chain project by Christmas for CAMHS, and we saw a good 10 volunteers turn up to help out. And, we welcomed our newest member Rachel.

CROESO

We hit the streets for a jog to warm us up, we made our way to the SMART bridge in Cardiff where Michael took the group up the cycle part of the bridge on a wonderful spiral run up and then down the other side. We popped down the Bay, spotting Christmas trees as we went, before heading back to the task at the office for Autism Spectrum Connections Cymru, who had wonderfully allowed us to use their space. Thanks to Neda for staying in the space waiting for us all to arrive, this week we had some new wrapping paper to use for the project with a lovely Christmas feel to it, Michael played some tunes on the new goodgym Cardiff speaker and we all got very crafty.

Talk turned to next week's task, the last one for us writing cards for care homes, which will be followed by a games night in the Glassworks (our start location)....Fun Fun FUN
Thanks to all members that have come out for these tasks, they are a little bit different to the usual but will help to make a young person feel connected to the outside world and to not feel forgotten.

DIOLCH

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.

It is our LAST group activity of the month, for some the end of the January Challenge but not the end of the Llion. No, it was the 100th deed for Llion and time to enjoy the celebration

We met as usual outside the Sport Wales National Centre in Sophia Gardens at 18:30, we were going in two groups - the walk / joggers and the runners. However, as a one off and to keep everyone active we warmed up with a 1-mile jog for all.

After this we split into our two groups and made our ways up different sides of the road of Western Avenue, plogging as we went. It was a busy road and there was plenty to pick up as we proudly displayed our goodgym colours.

After a couple of km of plogging we popped our bags at a bin and took a quick photo, and then we were led of a magic mystery run. We were certainly getting in the run tonight in our group, as the walkers continued to plog their side of the road. We don't usually get to run on this side of Cardiff, so Michael was determined to make the most of it and get goodgym seen as much as possible.

We got together again, bags a ready......and PLOG on.

A lap of a park, the gabalfa interchange and we crossed sides over to the run back down the walkers side of the road. We dropped our bags, one last time, a total of 10 bags of rubbish from the surrounding areas of North (ish) Cardiff.

A good run back for our final group photo and a stretch out after a nice run tonight - 7.5 km for the runners.

Join us on Sunday for our final Junior Parkrun or at Oasis for the Big Birdwatch before we take a break (from junior parkrun) for a couple of weeks after the manic January Challenge.

Our Second group task of the year and a return to Samye Foundation. Today 15 of the goodgym Cardiff Crew got together for the task at hand. We split into our two groups, the walkers making their way straight to the task, whilst Michael led the runners a longer way around to make up their KMs.

We soon made our way to Samye and were welcomed by the lovely Lorraine, with water ready to quench our thirsts. Tonight we were;

• Cleaning under the gazebo and weeding so that it would be spruced up ready for the locals to be able to sit under there.
• Weeding the back yard space, again to allow the locals to use the enjoy the space and get it Spring ready.
• Finally after all the green finger work it was more green finger work - panting the shed a nice green.

Speaking of green fingers.......Who has ever seen this wonderfully weird character...........Green Claws

But I digress, the lights were put out so that each team could see their task at hand. Those at the front swept, weeded and made it all look as good as new. All the leaves swept were put into the planters to keep the bulbs that were sprouting nice and warm. Out back we were going feral on all fours as any weed between paving slabs were removed and bagged up, whilst the painters got to work turning the shed from Red to Green.

Tools down - it's time for some soup to warm us up and get us fuelled up to head back.

The Shed will need some additional work - I feel a repeat task coming UP...

Looking for something to do this Weekend? Why not join in and help us with the goodgym January Challenge.

Saturday 10:00 We will be helping the new community space at Riverside Medical Centre by loading turf into a vehicle from up the road in Canton

Saturday 12:00 Back to StarGarAllot again to help take down a greenhouse and make space for their new polytunnel....and I hear Camilla may be bringing soup

Sunday 09:00 We will be helping out at Junior parkrun

Get clicking and sign yourself up to a task or two.

NEXT TUESDAY - sees us returning to Church of Saint Edward to help finish pruning the buddleia and weed the raised beds ready to be used by the 'Forget Me Not' Cafe regulars come Spring. Sign Up HERE