On a bright Autumn morning we met at the Goodgym flowerbed to prepare it for winter. The first job was to find the flowerbed underneath all the leaves. Sabir got to work with the rake followed by Mark and created a massive pile of leaves whilst Emily, Sahil and Julie picked the leaves out of all the tricky places in between the plants. Once Claire arrived back from her trip up the gardens for rubbish bags we will filled them with the leaves and Julie was queen of the leaf castle as we tried to squash them into the bags.

It was then time to plant the rest of the bulbs that Claire had donated from her garden. It was tricky to find a spot without any bulbs already so it should look pretty in the Spring.

We left the flowerbed full of Autuumn colour with the Aster and Salvias still in full bloom and will return next year in the Spring. Welcome to Sahil on your first mission and we hope to see you again soon.

Alex from the Forest School welcomed us to our Saturday task. We quickly got on with removing bind weed from the fence around the school. We untangled it from as far as we could reach all the way to the ground incl digging up the roots and raking the bits away. Job well done. Welcome to Suparna on her first mission.

Freezing temperatures were no match for Goodgymers this morning, as Emily, Jacky, Tom, Mark, Rachel and Julie braved the cold to help Alex with a few jobs at the Forest School Allotment.

The Forest School has some new members, Salt and Pepper the therapy goats. Although they are tiny (and very cute) they need plenty of space in their pen, so there needs to be a few changes to the layout.

Our first task was to move a fence, which needed all our strength pulling the posts out of the frozen ground. Then after getting some big pots out of the way we started moving some of the raised beds.

Once all our tasks were done we couldn't resist saying hello to all the chickens, rabbits and goats before we left.

A great task today and we cant wait to come back to help Alex with some more projects soon as they get ready for spring.

Five GoodGymers assembled to assemble

Armed with Alan keys, screwdrivers and glue, we put together flat pack furniture donations from Wayfair ready to hit the shop floor at the British Heart Foundation store

The crowning achievement and group effort was a desk - with multiple different screws, a drawer AND a cupboard - accompanied with a manual which made it very clear that not only should people and weights not be placed on top; but possibly most importantly, no sandwiches.

Mark and I arrived and thought that our job was done as the staging was out already! But it turned out it had been put up incorrectly, so the first job was to dismantle the staging and put it back in place with the right tiers so the audience could see the choir. We moved the alter out of the way to make space for the orchestra, and finally set out all the chairs. With that the stage was set, and after Julie's second task of the day it was straight out for a well deserved lunch.

I donated my spare bike to local community project, Full Cycle.