After our December endeavours shifting many bulk bags of sand for Botley Primary School, yesterday we were back to shovel and rake shingle.

The school are rejuvenating their inner courtyard into a more usuable space, both for children and teachers, but as it's surrounded by corridors and classrooms it was a logistical puzzle to work out how to get the gravel/shingle from the delivery point into the courtyard. With a solution found (a pallet truck), we were called in to lend extra hands to the task.

In less than an hour and a half our team of 7 GoodGymers and 4 school volunteers managed to get 9 bulk bags of shingle shifted into the courtyard, shovelled and barrowed around the space, and beautifully raked to an even finish.

Many hands make light work of a big task!

With the clock change to BST on the horizon we made an early start to get as much light as possible for our Wednesday task at Makespace.

We had a task list to try and get through, and did really well on it - many hands can work magic in a short time.

We hefted pallets, weeded raspberry canes, shovelled leaf mould, cleared the compost area of weeds and rubbish, watered thirsty plants, and started sanding down the picnic benches. As a lovely post-task bonus we had a twilight run over Port Meadow (where the bats were dancing around) and along the canal.

Welcome to GoodGym Joe!

In a totally opposite experience to the previous quiz, this one was very speedy and we'd finished in 90 minutes. No repeating questions and having a break after each round at the Jude! We didn't come first or second, and none of the other results were announced, so let's just pretend we were obviously in third place. Poppy the dog gets an honourable mention, despite her lack of question-answering.

Wendover Woods - home to the Gruffalo, Stick Man, several well marked walks and runs and, to date, my favorite parkrun.

A gorgeous one lap course through the woods, with a stinker of a hill in the middle, this parkrun was glorious! We were very lucky with the weather - blue skies and sunshine all the way, and there was an excellent ratio of dogs to runners, including our Poppy.

As usual we finished up our trip with a coffee and a chat - mainly plotting and planning our next runs and day dreaming about property in France or Croatia!

Welcome to Emma! Thanks for coming to your first (official) Goodgym session!

Dinton Pastures next month, can't wait!

On Wednesday we did our own mini Morse plog around Oxford.

Taking inspiration from the locations used in Inspector Morse films we set off to visit the sites of significance in central Oxford and Jericho, litter picking as we went.

From the Oxford police station (sadly, no Morse cut out in the windows) to the Phoenix Picturehouse we ran and walked our way across the city, amassing 2 sacks of litter and covering 3.75 miles.

Favourite sightings: The Oxford Story Museum telephone box (definitely worth a detour down Pembroke Street), and the murals on Canal Street.