Between the rain storms of this afternoon, we gathered for another session of doing good. It was great to have Jamie and Jade join us for the first time tonight and get stuck in with the tasks. And a big shout out to Danica and Paul who jogged with ease despite being 2 days post-marathon!

After getting warmed up, we headed to Felix Road Adventure Playground. They are currently hosting 200-300 children every day for the summer holidays so the team and the playground needed an injection of GoodGym enthusiasm to give them a boost.

Under lock and key

Once we distributed the tools which the team had left for us, we soon we realised we needed more to tackle the mounds of brambles and bushes surrounding the Under-5s Play Area. We knew there was a pile of said tools in the shed, the only problem was finding the key... Queue Mel doing a grand detective job of trying key after key in the shed lock...

Hand weeding, the latest trend

The team were not deterred. After a quick shelter in the playhouse from a particularly heavy shower storm, the gardening teams got to work hand-weeding (we've decided it's a thing) and pulling out the overgrown areas. With the addition of 6 pairs of tools, the two gardening groups weeded all of the pathway and cut back a big section of the play area.

Meanwhile, Mel continued to try different keys...

The rest of the team split into three groups. We had our classic litter-pickers, who filled 3 bags of rubbish from around the playground due to the busy summer days. The staple-removers continued the all-important (and divisive) task of preparing the walls for painting. They continued to add to our now in-depth knowledge of just what equipment works for getting rid of those pesky bits of metal (staple-removers are the worst, so you know). Finally, we had a team on sweeping all of the patio and football pitch areas, topped off by a brush-removal of a football from the top of the net - impressive stuff.

Mel was still trying keys as we called time-up and, not one to be defeated, has promised that next time there will be a sub-group that is on key organising.

We ran back, found out that Richard B is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and sent a group of hungry runners to Three Brothers for this month's GoodGym Eats - thank you for organising Danica!