Tonight we had a bumper turnout for one of the favourite festive tasks of the year - present wrapping. Maybe it was also the rare treat of being indoors!

Rich led out the group to Park Grove, with Ed in the middle and Laura and Barbara back marking.

Once we arrived we celebrated James' 50th good deed, then set to work wrapping. As some gifts hadn't arrived some of the taller members of the group offered to help put up some decorations instead. Once we all finished, we packed up and fueled up with a mince pie ready for fun fitness.

We decided to make use of the gym and had a few games of dodgeball. The idea was to hit members of the opposite team to get them out. Turns out some goodgymers have quite a competitive streak!

After a few rounds we headed back to base for a stretch and run through of the tasks for the week ahead. We also asked claire to pass on congratulations to Alistair for doing 50 good deeds.

Tonight we started our warm up by saying which drink we'd like to get rid of - suggestions included pernod, cider and whiskey! We then celebrated Cara's 200th good deed and welcomed Nick to his first run, before heading off to Park Grove for a final session of fence painting.

Once we arrived we made a prompt start on turning the rainbow fence blue. Within no time one side was done so a few nimble folk jumped the fence to do the other side (Then vicky found the keys to the gate in her pocket!)

The session then finished with a coconut shy relay race! Lots of people knocked one off to take home (whilst others just stole them!)

Once back at base and refuelled by Amy and Cara's biscuits, a bumper group headed to the pub to discuss the use if coconuts in more detail!

🥳 21 excellent GoodGymmers joined our bank holiday group run-social bonanza this evening.

🍹 We named, numbered and warmed up while discussing our favourite soft drinks. Elderflower and Irn-Bru (not together) were our slightly unexpected winners, alongside some classics (water and tea) and other interesting additions (anything with rhubarb in and homemade lemonade). Feeling slightly thirsty thanks to that, we set off on our run to Holgate Community Orchard.

🌺 It’s still incredibly exciting to see the transformation that we’ve been part of there. The plot we worked on originally is no longer mud but a grass and wildflower haven. There’s still plenty of work to do though, and speaking of mud, our talk today was to start digging over another patch of soil, which will also hopefully be transformed soon, this time into a wildflower meadow, with some bee-friendly additions.

💪 Alongside the digging over, we were also digging out brambles and anything else we could find. This required some hard work and a variety of techniques, including the classic jumping on the spade. Some of the brambles had particularly large roots, giving quite the sense of achievement when they finally came out. Alongside this were some other unusual finds, including what looked like a very old steering lock. Pete was also tasked with digging out “random metal items”. Having shown his penchant for it, he was requested by Helen to dig out two large metal poles that may or may not have been used for growing raspberries at some point 🤷‍♀️

🌳 Our diggers were so efficient that we soon had to expand our area, which Helen was delighted about. We also had a small group “branch” off to do some stick-sorting. A big pile needed stripping and sorting by size, the larger ones being put out for reuse, the smaller ones being used for compost.

🧩 With 10 minutes to go, Helen from the allotments suggested we start covering the soil over. We weren’t satisfied to leave a wonky line though, so I attempted to draw a straight-ish line to work towards. This was done with aplomb and efficiency, with the coverings being reapplied effectively. This required a bit of covering Tetris as we attempted to piece together the assortment of coverings of various shapes. There was a tense moment when Michael and Nick thought they’d found the perfect spot for their piece, only to learn it didn’t quite fit with the rest of the puzzle! Fortunately, Michael quickly found a substitute spot for it so all was not lost.

🎭 After all that drama, it was time for a group photo on our slightly less picturesque soil, in front of the beautifully-converted area behind. A short blast of fitness “enjoyed” (endured?) by most, hidden from (in a bush, literally) by others meant we were ready for the next part of the evening.

ℹ️ We also noticed that we got a mention on the new information board about the orchard, which is pretty exciting.

🍻 Steve and Mitch has kindly brought down some alcohol-free beer, courtesy of Athletic Brewing (one of GoodGym’s sponsors), which we enjoyed in the surroundings of the Community Orchard. Others had brought snacks to share, including some homegrown figs and apples, and homemade raspberry cake (and not to forgot the ever-so-important Red Leicester Mini Cheddars for Abigail!) A jolly time was had by all, until we started getting eaten alive slightly by various biting insects. That was our cue to leave so we parted ways and there ended our evening.

👏 Thank you everyone, see you again soon!

☀ 26 excellent GoodGymmers gathered for our third and final bank holiday group run of the month. And a lovely sunny evening it was too.

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Michaela for her first group run, and to see Louise who’s visiting up from London.

🦸‍♂ Sadly, I completely forgot to bring the cape for Ed’s very impressive 300th good deed so that glorious moment/photo op is yet to come. Well done though 👍

🥔 We named, numbered and warmed up with a slightly ad hoc question (which fit with my slightly disorganised mind this evening). In honour of it being whitsun weekend, we offered our favourite comedian and/or potato dishes. There were some very reputable comedians cited but personally, it also just reminded me how many great ways there are you serve potatoes (dauphinois, hash browns, croquettes), which in turn made me pretty hungry.

🍎 Ed led the run to Holgate Community Orchard where we marvelled in the progress that’s been made in the 18-ish months that we’ve been coming here. The first part of the patch is blooming with wildflowers so we got stuck into the second. One job there was to lop nettles, dig brambles and remove bindweed. Meanwhile, another group got stuck in removing stones from a stony patch.

🧲 A third group were on random metal object extraction duties. Door handles/hinges and horseshoes were among their finds, with some impressive digging to get them out. More natural finds were a potato plant by Charlotte (which Helen thinks must have been there for decades) and a frog by Bernie. We can’t wait to see how this part of the orchard turns out and we’re particularly excited to hear more about the bee initiatives there 🐝

🗻 Some excellent work was done during our time there tonight, before we headed to Windmill Rise for some hill reps. We did these in pairs and included a warm up and cool down plus three higher intensity reps in the middle.

🍻 With that, it was time to head back to base and home/on to the pub.

🌺 We’ve got a few sessions coming up this week, including this one at North Street Gardens on Wednesday evening with Barbara so do sign up and join us if you can.