Great turn out tonight

It was lovely to see Roxy and Anne back today after recovering from a combination of injury and illness 🤒

Joining them was Sarah and Ryan, Paul, Gillybean and John

We had been asked to do an Autumn tidy up and in all honesty that's exactly what it was in this well cared for, pretty courtyard garden.

Leaves and pruning were the theme tonight. Most of the team were sweeping and gathering up leaves and weeds but I did turn round and find Gill stuck into some pruning too ( never misses an opportunity! 😍)

Tonight was a fairly short but satisfying tidy up whilst chatting with each other.

John missed the final photo as he is on extended nurse duties for Mrs R who is recovering from 2 operations 😍

Thanks everyone and see you all next week 😊

Julia xx

October hues

After some morning torrential rain we were fortunate to have a stunning balmy evening for our final visit of the year to Heene Cemetery to help with an autumn tidy up of previous strimming and pruning work.

After 10 years of volunteering , sadly, it was the last time Sue would be there in her task leader capacity. Sue has been a wonderful presence and energy in the cemetery and we will miss her. However she's handing over to Kevin and Tracy who we will really look forward to working with.

Belinda is enjoying some days celebrating her 60 wonderful years and it was so nice to see her tonight in advance of a few parties! Wishing you all the best for both your celebrations together with ops B 🙏

It was also great to unexpectedly see Paul who after traveling for a month or so with John in his camper van, Priscilla, was back with his full force and energy 😀

Ricky was also celebrating 5 glorious years of GoodGym volunteering and also completing his virtual Great South Run earlier in the day.

Roxy and Gillybean teamed up to bag up all the debris. Both are recovering from injury and we are keeping everything crossed for a speedy return to regular running.

Sue and John worked hard with the chopping up and raking. Sue is enjoying her recent retirement and filling her time with some fantastic volunteering for local good causes👏

After the task we headed to the pub to raise a glass to Belinda' s birthday together with a great chatty catch up with good friends 😊

What a lovely evening !

Fading light

We arrived at St Botolph's on what had been a very gloomy day, meaning the light was fading fast. It was our last visit of the year to this pretty church garden under the watchful eyes of Rik and Val. However we will be aiming to get some work done at Heene Church rooms over the winter months,

Roxy and Suegot stuck straight into sweeping leaves with Belinda getting her steps in, wheelbarrowing big piles of leaves to and from the compost heap.

Paula and John worked on digging over the doomsday font that we had spectacularly unearthed several years ago before planting up some palms and other shrub that Val had provided. John, Roxy and I also moved a huge stone from the font area around the corner to where the other large stones/ rocks reside - Roxy stepped into help after I got distracted after completing 50% of the task !

Sue from Heene Cemetery did some great sweeping whilst Rik and Val, our leaders, beavered away weeing and clearing moss from gutters.

Happy Birthday to me!

Roxy had very kindly made me a yummy chocolate cake birthday which was still warm so we shared it out and I took home the remainder-such a kind thought. Thank you Roxy!

Next Monday

We are at Heene cemetery for our final visit of the year - Ideally we would like to start at 5:30 pm to catch the light.

Brush Strokes

Tonight we headed back to continue painting the fence at English Martyrs school. After several cancellations the task is definitely one that has become one that we are determined to finish before the winter months kick in.

We warmly welcomed Rebecca from Woking to our group. Becky is also a friend of our very own Daisy and also GoodGym trustee so was interested to find out what happens on the sunny south coast. It was also really interesting to hear how Woking works being volunteer led (rather than area activator led like we have in Worthing)

Joining the team tonight was alsoSarah, John, Barbara, Roxy Gillybean plus Daisy too !

Injured Gill 😪 headed off to do a bit of pruning that she had spotted needing doing last time we were there ( Gill does love her pruning ! ) John cracked on with the painting whilst the rest of us headed off for some fitness.

We combined running and sprinting around the school playing field with some functional fitness moves including squats, lunges , the dreaded burpees 🤣 shuttle runs and frog jumps. Shout out to Becky who had done the Dawny Lake triathlon yesterday and who was somewhat hobbling today but still persisted 👏

We managed to finish one big chunk of fence but there is still plenty more to do . I'm looking at a few more dates to fit in the before the light goes at the end of October - watch this space.

If you fancy a chatty social 8k this Sunday we will meet at Sea Lane cafe at 9am. All welcome including bikes and dogs. The emphasis will be on chatting not running ! I will send you all more details via the whats app group together with a link to sign up.

I'm looking forward to catching up with you all again soon - if you hear of any groups or see any tasks that need doing then please do contact me.

Thanks everyone !

Big GoodGym love

Julia 💌