Seven superb GGers braved a frosty morning making their way to Kimberlow Hill for another Treemendous morning planting, staking & protecting 450 native species whips (donated by The Tree Council). By mid morning the bare Kimberlow Slope was transformed and one day it'll be hard to see the wood for the trees 🌳 although in the meantime they're hidden by the biodegradable guards (essential rabbit 🐇 protection). The sun shone, spades & mallets were in abundance, chocolate was munched, wellies were muddied, folk chatted & laughed and a good time was had by all..... until next time (20th January)

On the final Monday of the January Challenge, our 3rd birthday group run and my last ever night leading GoodGym York, an amazing group of 75 pitched up to do a stonking amount of good!

In that enormous group we had:

• THREE brand new runners - big cheers for Charlee, Thomas and Francisco.
• TEN GoodGym tourists from Newcastle, Ealing, Leeds, Bath and Portsmouth!
• TWO people celebrating their 50th good deed and donning the Cape of Good Deeds Give some hearty Yorkie cheers to Emma (who has been running with us for almost the three whole years but just likes to spread out all her good!), Rich and also to Louise who couldn't make it tonight but also did her 50th last week.
• TWO people celebrating their 100th good deed and swishing the Centurion Cape! (massive cheers please for Debs and Al who got their wings over the last few days.

We split into three running groups and a walking group, on a collective mission to transform the Nunnery Lane residential area.. with this list of mini and not-so-mini tasks to tackle:

1. Digging up topsoil, laying a weed membrane and covering a large border with pea shingle
2. The lamppost task (we'll come back to this)
3. Digging up deep set rubble from a community garden (saving the one young tree), taking all the rubble to a skip and laying a new layer of three tonnes of topsoil
4. Locating all the broken and rusty road signs within the area which need replacing
5. Building three raised beds and filling with 5 tonnes of topsoil
6. Edging the path in Scarcroft Green
7. Digging and raking up weeds and ivy roots from the Scarcroft Green border
8. Litter picking every street and snicket
9. Locate and mark on a map the locations of all graffiti on the estate
10. Levelling the area where we dug up elders last year ready for a spring seed sowing session!

The walking group were split into three sub groups to tackle tasks 2, 4 and 9. It took a while to figure out who was going to go with who due to lack of reading glasses. The lamppost task was absolutely the most complicated as appropriate lampposts needed to be identified according to a strict set of criteria, and marked as to whether or not they'd be suitable to display a neighbourhood watch sign.

So we're looking for dark lampposts that are approximately 2.2m tall?? - Paul

Leanne's group arrived at the Task 1 location (actually Task 5: raised beds) and Max was delighted to be able to use the IMPACT DRIVER, imagine a nail gun but for giant bolts and you won't be far off.

Then Mitch's team arrived and were split up to litter picking, community garden rubble clearing and adding extra people power for the raised beds.

Jenny, one of the three task owners, did more running than most of the GoodGymers as she went back and forth between the zones retreiving various tools from the van.

I need a boltcutter! Jenny

Then pea shingle team finished and moved onto Scarcroft Green, they were shortly joined by the litter picking squad and eventually the community garden team (though a few of those went up to help the raised bed team too).

We had a crazy ten minutes of raking, edging, digging, standing around having a chat, and frantically attempting to put all the tools back into the van. Then we only had five minutes remaining for the biggest, fastest game of Cones of Joy, ever.

It's a two lane motorway of circular running!!! Katie

There was just enough time for a gigantic group photo before the short run back to base. That truly was an enormous amount we achieved in about an hour.

Massive thanks to everyone who showed up tonight, or has showed up any time over the last three years. It really has been eggcellent and I think you're all the best.

Don't forget to do your lunges.

This week's balsam bashing task at St Nick's involved the following:

• Scything
• Bashing things with sticks
• Wading/wearing waders
• Cape wearing (congratulations Huw on your 100th good deed!)
• Raking
• Limbo
• Nettle stings
• Forking
• Sunshine 🌞
• A new big stick for Carl
• Flapjack

Sign up next week for the last balsam bashing of the St Nick's season!

35 GG Yorkies ran in opposite directions (and avoided the rain!) to get some good done across the city

Another Monday calls for another fantastic celebration and tonight, it was the turn of Terrific Tristan to run his 50th good deed and don the Cape of Good Deeds, he even made a spectacular entrance and brought brownies for the occasion. Apparently it was mostly Becky Mo who actually made them though.

You did quite a lot of stirring though Tristan!

Tim led a crew to St Aidan's Church, where the church warden - Rachel - was ready and waiting. The group were split into three teams as there was a bit of a list of tasks but first and foremost: the bush. Extra special 50-deeder Tristan and normal Jeff were tasked with trimming the overgrown garden on one side of the church. Their team were also handed shears and unleashed upon a large hedge as well as some invasive plants that had burst out of their flower bed.

Go as hard as you like

Music to a GoodGymer's ears.

Group run newbie George and Anna's team were tasked with finding the edge of the car park, a skill Anna had learnt at a recent Foxwood mission and was keen to pass on!

There were plenty more invasive reed-type plants which Paul Kelly and Mitch were hacking away at, only to find underneath a petrified hedgehog. Katie sprung into action and took the hedgehog to safety, phew!

After the tasks were complete, the team embarked on a tour of the Three Hills of Acomb, with sprints up Acomb Green Hill, Windmill Rise (both ways) and the Mount. They definitely earned their brownies, even Katie who apparently skived off the windmill rise rep to play with a cat

Lots of people were very happy to stop to look at the cat - Leanne

My group ran north where we met Mike from the River Foss Society. Our mission was simply to bash balsam along the river bank but at the beginning we couldn't find very much in amongst the massive nettles. It was a narrow, slippery and muddy path after all the rain and the focus was definitely on not slipping down the bank into the nettle-filled ditch.

Once everyone was absolutely sure what Himalayan balsam looked like, we meandered slowly down the path, picking the odd one out. Then we discovered a jungle of the stuff slightly further down. Laura had made herself a veritable den by clearing a huge patch and piling it up, whilst Vicky and Babs competed for the biggest balsam root.

We had a further 10 minutes to power pick before the long totter back along the muddy path and onto our Clarence Gardens fitness session. In pairs, everyone had to wall sit whilst their partner completed an exercise around the flower bed, and then they swapped over. There was a lot of wall sitting (Babs loved it, check out her happy face in the picture!).

We all regrouped back at the Priory Street Centre for some stretches and to scoff mint chocolate brownies. So many brownies.

It's like you smell toothpaste, and then eat chocolate! - Tim