There was no shortage of weed(s) as we helped a Students' Residence set up a Gardening Club to hep with student wellbeing as well as maintain an outdoor study/social space. It was dreamed up by our very own Harsheh who's a student at the university who'd also persuaded his friend Jaskaran to finally come along and see how lovely GoodGym is.

We also had the GoodGym Bristol Far East Correspondent visiting us for a staying-in-touch visit as Russ is back for a visit - fabulous to hear his stories about trying to outrun wildebeest.

It looked like there'd been little weeding for a good few years with bindweed and morning glory taking over pretty much everything in the raised planters, drowning out some fabulous smelling but very leggy rosemary plants but revealing some agapanthus that had found a way to hide and survive.

No-one knew what new plants are due to arrive and with only hand tools and brute force, we weren't going to get the weed roots out on this visit but about 12 binliners were filled with the debris from the garden and there was still a bit left to do.

We talked GoodGym with passing students, rescued snails (without touching the slimy bits, obviously) and were rewarded with a buffet of snacks, biscuits and Capri Sun - turns out Wagon Wheels are ideal post-task refreshment.

More again next week?

Somehow buttercup season came and went within a week, so the insects have had their nectar and the buttercups were readying to spread their seeds EVERYWHERE. GoodGym to the rescue to start deadheading all the buttercups we could find in two hours, which was just leas than half the buttercups in the Cemetery...

Five bin bags and counting...

The task today was to make a new path connecting Novers Lane with the Bommie Path and improve access to the natural beauty spots fond on the slopes. Bit tough as the grass was much harder to cut that the brambles, but we did manage to make a new line. Just need people to walk it in now!

Had a great time whipping Ms A’s hedge into shape today! She seemed delighted with the result.

As you may have guessed from the pun, today involved bunting and harvesting. Thanks to our resident pun queen Frances for the title.

Jobs today helping set up for the spring fair:

Putting up a gazebo - as previous veterans of this we laughed in the face of the gazebo, 5/10 difficulty rating.

Flower arranging - but not real flowers that’s cruel, artistic merit 7/10.

Putting up bunting - I’ll tell you what I bunt what I really really bunt, everything. Bunt rating of 9/10.

Picking marigolds for crowns - only the finest marigolds sans roots were harvested for the crowns, royal rating 8/10.

Moving benches - what can I say, benches were moved in a horizontal and sometimes vertical direction into their desired location, flimsiness rating 7/10.

Harry - just enough attention, fuss rating 9/10.

Always a lovely task and definitely didn’t burn today… the elderflower drink was very welcome. Time for an ice cream, I’m going for a classic magnum.

Until next time…

Take That Emmaus reorganisation!

A huge number of Bristol GoodGymmers took to the task of moving the big furniture to the ground floor of the shop which was already dull of the bric-a-brac that was going upstairs in the shop which was already full of the furniture going to the downstairs of the shop - a full-on Tetris challenge to create some space to start the manoeuvres.

The smaller items started being carried upstairs whilst the lift was used for the bigger items, although the lift seemed slower than lugging things up or down the stairs so it wasn't long before some much chunkier furniture was being carefully manhandled around the bannisters.

Fortunately, there was also a lot of chat to catch up on with GoodGymmers who'd not seen each other for a while making good use of the "lift waiting" time, springing into action like coiled springs when the ding of the lift warned that the door was soon to open with mystery objects and GoodGymmers inside.

The temperature increased with each lift-load being carefully tessellated into gaps to keep some floor space clear and our 50-minutes was soon up with a lot already moved (and a task for the Emmaus team tomorrow to find a lay-out that works for them).

We made sure two of the sofas were accessible for our end-of-task photo before heading off with many joining GoodGym Eats at Crispy Dosa, moving even more furniture around to have a big enough table for our lovely group.

From shifting sofas to Crispy Dosas - the crispiest dosas on Earth!