This week we welcomed newbie Stefano on his first session with GoodGym 👋 before leading the way off to the Bushmead Community Hub where we were asked to prepare the front garden area for nature-friendly planting by the Wildlife Trust.

An area previously occupied by a large bush has been cleared and woodchipped but we had to relocate the woodchip around the existing planting and turn the exposed ground over ready for some easy planting by other volunteers later this week.

We had a great bunch of GoodGymers chatting merrily while working hard at getting this task done in good time. Enjoying the benefit of daylight for the first time on a group run this year we did a great job.

All that remained was a run back into town, with a quick stop in the park for a round of exercises from the fitness dice 🎲 🎲.

The rolls of the dice gave us the following:

90s of push-ups 90s of crunches 30s of squats and another 30s of push-ups to finish off the session.

Stefano you did great and it was a pleasure having you join us!

A nine o’clock start and two Goodgymers felt like they were returning to school… oh because they were back in school. But after being welcomed by the receptionist we were shown to an overgrown area just beyond the school fence. Riverbank School have decided on a project to reclaim an overgrown and litter strewn stretch of land alongside the river bank to create an outdoor learning environment. Knowing the drill for scrub clearance we were happy to work alongside the head teacher and one or two people From Groundwork’s to start clearing the scrub, cutting back trees and collecting up the usual assortment of litter cans and nitros. The sun was shining and we enjoyed making quite an impact on what we home will be a fabulous environment for the children.

We’re also looking forward to stage two when we’ve been promised we can don the waders and start clearing the river if the massive amount of cans and rubbish.

Well done to the trio from GoodGym who joined the London Road Litter Pick team this morning to help with the first of our Great British Spring Clean events. We were made to feel very welcome and soon got busy tidying up the London Road Area. We must have found every brand of beer and cider in the bushes by the medical centre not to mention some unmentionable items. Martin literally got "stuck in" in the middle of the bushes to help dislodge as much liter as he could. By the end of the session there was a huge pile of rubbish - including over 30 bags of litter, bottles and cans, a bag of nitrous oxide cannisters, several pairs of shoes and a pushchair.

It was a good effort by all and London Road is looking much better for your efforts. Thanks.

We had a mix of runners and walkers this week for a visit to Shri Guru Ravidass Sangat Gurdwara. The walkers headed straight there while the runners took a small diversion to run a couple of laps of Brantwood Park to add a bit of distance to the otherwise very short journey.

At the temple we were helping prepare for the weekend's festivities celebrating the Anniversary of the birth of the Guru, so we were giving the place a good deep clean upstairs and downstairs.

Vacuuming, wiping down surfaces, mopping floors, moving furniture, scrubbing the kitchen, we did it all working alongside some other helpers from the Gurdwara and the place was left spotless!