Poor Millie has broken her toe - so our helpful Linda nipped over to get the toolshed key and we swapped the Cator Park task for one at Alexandra Rec. We started the meetup with a quick chat about 'favourite smells' - inspired by petrichor smell of the earth when the rain starts. Favourites in the group were quite specific and ranged from the New Zealand bush, to painting memories, and nail varnish! We headed off doing just a little loop, and dodging raindrops, and met Merrin and Linda at the park, where we set about mulching the new hedgerow trees that had been weeded just a few weeks back but now needed protecting from the recent hot dry weather. The little bits of rain the last couple of days made it the perfect time to wheelbarrow mulch over to the trees and hold some of that moisture in, to give them a fighting chance this summer. We got quite a few barrows ferried over and added to the rows of trees in between chats about holidays, the weather (of course) and even ChatGPT! Thanks all and see you again soon - another great job :)

Today, I was marshall #6 on the course around the concert bowl 2.2km. We had a good turn out despite the threat of rain.

We had a NEW TASK tonight helping Mary and Rachel from Barnmead Road Allotments clear a big patch of brambles so that the area can be turned into a community garden. Many hands and some decent tools made light work and we managed to clear a good chunk of the area in just 45 minutes (see photos). After working up a sweat, we were treated to some delicious fruit (and spare strawberry plants!) by our lovely hosts while Catherine made friends with an allotment cat .

Great work team!

A small but mighty gang of two James', two Cats and a Hannah met at St John's Church tonight to help Karen and the Thursday Lunch Club volunteers spruce up the grounds as a thanks to the church for letting the club use its hall. Armed with loppers, rakes and wheelbarrows, the volunteers made great progress clearing back brambles and ivy to make the path to the hall more accessible and the area generally more presentable. Special shout out to newcomer James who got stuck straight in with the chopping and had to be prised from his loppers when it was time to leave!

Great work tonight gang!

You can find out more about the Thursday Lunch Club here. It's a great initiative so please do reach out to Karen if you can help with your time or donations.

Rebecca, Cat and I helped set up for the Maple Road Market on Saturday. A great way to start out day, this team of goodgymers worked with another volunteer to move and put up ten(ish) gazebos that market stalls would use during the day. By the end of it, we were the dream team with a slick and quick technique for getting them up!

Perhaps the dream team can do next months too!

Oh and we found a cool spider inside one of the gazebos! No spiders were harmed :)

Five cheerful Goodgymers met Jorella at the lovely Albion Green space, near Forest Hill. Sadly, the Friends' lockup had been damaged by an attempted break-in, so Jorella rushed back home to get some alternative tools for us while we did a good litter-pick. One gent approached us to pop a bit more rubbish in our bags, nice.

Jorella was soon back and we set about the proper task of the evening - clearing the sides of the path by the railway of brambles, nettles, rubbish and a large branch expertly cut up and moved by the team. We even had a little time left to trim back some diseased branches of the big horse chestnut by the gate, to give it a chance to come back stronger.

thanks team for battling the prickles and stingers for a job well done :)