Always great to help Mr I with some shopping as he usually treats me to some local historical facts. Tonight’s treat was a lesson on glass making through the ages and how Bristol Blue Glass originated 😊

First time shop for Mr G who’s had a really tough few months and was very appreciative to help with a few items of shopping from a local store.

Friday consisted of collecting leaves for the compost. It was nice seeing everyone whilst doing good!

Six GoodGymers helped Sparks make the store even sparkkier for Christmas. We welcomed Rosie for her very first task and she got in to the Christmas spirit with Janka and Alexis decorating the tree with massive bows. Dave, Jason and Vaguely Northern Darren were told to cluster the paper snowflakes in the ceiling tiles, and after initial success, were thwarted by thin string and loose tiles! A quick addition to the strings by the more than capable paper snowflake making engineers, we completed the task faster than you could recite Santa's raindeers names.. Rudolph, dasher, comet, blitzen, prancer...See, that quick! All done (and I'm reliably informed that the decorations are all still up! (and not just the ones Lexi came over to do when she saw we were struggling! We love going to Sparks and hope to be back soon, unless the toaster needs moving!

It was back to the business of cleaning, measuring and cataloguing donated Things for the Library of Things, indoors and slightly warmer than it could have been with a yellow warning for ice after the day's snow.*

A bizarrely high number of hoes and drills were in the pile of Things to be listed (to be fair, I'm not sire what a non-bizarre number would be), along with camping chairs, DIY tools, a vintage seeing machine and the inevitable tent which we managed to get back into its slightly-ripped (not by us) bag. Its the only time us GoodGymmers are allowed to touch power tools so we made the most of testing, invluding the dreaded hedge-trimmers.

It was great to see more items joining the inventory and another Library opening soon in Frenchay so even more Bristolians can borrow items instead of buying and storing them.

We were soon on our way again, it seemed to have warmed up a bit and we grabbed a drink at Bar + Block as it was a bit chilly to sit out by the water whilst the speed dating happened at Workout.

Hopefully we'll be back at least once in January to sort through lots more Things!

*no snow in Castle Park

Today I had the privilege to spend a few hours in Ms. R's garden. She welcomed me with a lovely smile and showed me the task. My mission? Pruning the old rose bush, get rid of weed and lots of blackberry canes that were suffocating the beautiful Willow. What started off what started off as a normal gardening tasks unveiled into a tribute to a long lost beloved cat, Mr J.B. Bare with, I'll get to that part. Pruning the old rose bush was quick and easy.The blackberry branches...well, not as delightful (as you can imagine). When green bag number one was full, I noticed that the supposedly empty bag number two was moving. There it was: a lovely cat making me company and giving me lots of purrrrrrr. Not gonna lie, I have soft spot for cats and almost lost my focus. But wait! That's not Mr. J.B. After one or two minutes, maybe more, enjoying the purring, I went back to save the Willow from all those tangles. In the middle of the leaves, and branches there was a black metal object. It tool me a while to free it and then I realized it was shaped as cat. So I asked Ms R if she'd like me to keep it. Her eyes lit up and she said: "yes, please!". So she told me all about her beloved Mr J.B. - her companion cat for 22 years that had passed. The black metal cat was actually a tribute she made long ago to honour Mr J.B's memory. I asked her where to keep it and we found a lovely spot in the middle of her back garden. She was grateful and my heart war jumping with joy. That's a Sunday that I'll treasure, hopefully she will to. Thanks GoodGym for making this possible! Cheers everyone!