Oxford Preservation Trust have a piece of meadow land up on Harcourt Hill which they want to use for grazing. A water supply has been sorted, fencing is on it's way, and the final job on the list is to get the ragwort explosion under control.

Common ragwort is one of the most frequently visited flowers by butterflies in the UK and more than 200 species of invertebrate have been recorded on it. However, despite it's benefits to biodiversity, it needs to be got rid of on grazing land. Ragwort poses a significant threat to livestock, particularly horses and cattle. While animals generally avoid it in its green state due to its bitter taste, they can ingest it when it's dried in hay or silage, or when other food sources are scarce. While ragwort is not a neurotoxin in the strictest sense, it can cause neurological symptoms in animals due to the liver damage it causes. The plant's toxins primarily affect the liver. When the liver is damaged, it can no longer properly filter toxins from the blood, leading to a buildup of these toxins and impacting brain function, resulting in neurological signs.

Hugging the shade, we set about digging and pulling up as much ragwort as we could. We managed a good haul, almost filling a tonne bag with plants. This is definitely an ongoing task, but we feel like we made a good start at it.

With the temperature finally starting to drop by the end of the session we had a beaut of a run post-task up towards Boars Hill.

Welcome to GoodGym Becca!

What a glorious morning!

Thank you to everyone who cane to the Blenheim jaunt.

We started in the town square and encountered some very mean boy ducks and did some excellent people watching. We them set off around Blenheim Palace park stopping to admire sheep and lambs, avoid some very protective goose parents and their fluffy babies and also to get our breath back at the top of the big hill!

The routes were planned to perfection (yes I'm feeling smug about that!) and we regrouped in the square before having our all important post-run refreshments.

It seems that we even managed to tire out coach Rosie!!

I'll be planning some more social run/walk sessions over the summer. Keep your eyes peeled!

Mrs H has been enjoying the garden recently, but has to keep going in and out because it's too warm to sit out for too long! I agree with her on that.

An Easter delivery for Mrs H! She doesn't have anything special planned for Easter but doesn't mind having some peace and quiet.

Seven Goodgymers helped with various jobs around Kate's Place in Florence Park. We moved some wood to make a "dead hedge" habitat, lifted some turf to plant some seeds, and weeded around trees. The main task however was transporting many many watering cans (and even a flexi trug bucket) full of water from the tap at Flo's cafe over to the trees and hedges that needed it after the dry spell we have had. Of course, at the end of our session it began to rain!