Another impressive turnout tonight for the forth installment of barrowing compost at West Bank Park, despite the very hot weather.

We started by saying our favourite hot thing and these included baths, tea, the sun, Pete's chocolate and Nick and Vick!

We also celebrated Rich's epic cycle ride in the peaks and James' 50 miles at endure, in their absence, plus Lucy's round sheffield run.

Top news of the night was undoubtedly Tristan's announcement that he proposed to Christine and she said yes!! Huge congratulations to a lovely couple. Tristan was also crowned goodgymer of the month for May!

We then set off with Barbara and Deb leading a walking group, Nick with the runners and Vicky with a cycling group.

We quickly got to work when we arrived and managed a fair few barrow loads despite the heat! Thankfully Christina brought water and the working areas were shaded.

To end we had a game if walking football- caps v non caps. Some walking styles were a bit questionable!

Another good Monday. Thank you guys!

After a rewarding help out at the fair. several of us stayed on to help with the tidy up. As with many GG tasks several cheerful GGers can quickly pull gazebos down, move chairs and tables whilst simultaneously pick up litter.

Glad to help out the fair and at least at the end of the fair the queue had disappeared and Abigail got her ice cream....

Thankyou to the GGers who turned up to represent GG at the popular annual fair at West Bank Park. It was nice to see so many people enjoying the fair and be able to show off GoodGym and tell passers by who and what we do.

The gazebo was ready and Leanne arrived armed with a bag of rubbish. This was a clever idea to woo in the public with a prize (thankyou for the donated cinema tickets) of the 4 fastest litter pickers to pick up a collection of litter with a trusted litter picker.

All ages took part from small kids, adults and even the MP for York. Congrats to all those who won a prize but just nice to add to the whole community feel that other volunteers such as the Friends of West Bank go so much to trying to spread around the good people of York

An enjoyable day out and proud to tell others what we do

3 tasks in 1 today. Starting off by helping West Bank Park set up their summer fair. We were quickly issued with high vis & directed to set up the St Johns Ambulance gazebo. Luckily Leanne is an old hand at this & it was erect in seconds. Ed & Laura Ba were busy shifting tables & chairs around the park. After some initial location confusion three more gazebos went up in quick succession. Chairs were set up for the orchestra & audience with Laura Be, Leanne & Ed demonstrating air bassoon, guitar & knee drums. The 2nd task was setting up the Good Gym stand with Sam demonstrating how to use a sledgehammer for fitness. 3rd & last but not least was helping Laura Ba with the gazebo & setting up the Brunswick stand. Some of us headed home whilst some stayed to man their stalls.

The curse of the Himalayan Balsam strikes the Ouse once more. Time for York's hardy GoodGymers to head into the dense vegetation, braving nettles, bugs & trees to help rid the riverbank of this invader. The constant chatter & friendly banter occasionally interrupted by squawks of, "Ooh I've been bitten / nettled" or by the discovery of eye-catching wildlife. Today's spots were tansy beetles, deer, Feargal & a fierce looking unidentified caterpillar. Amy outlined the 'bend & snap' approach & many piles of bashed balsam were produced particularly by Ed, Leanne and Paul as they carved out dens under the willows. Jenna appeared from the river having paddle boarded to the task - against the wind. Good effort everyone.

If there's one thing we know about York GoodGym its that we love a demolition job - last year we had the pleasure of pulling down a shed at Scarcroft Allotments and tonight we went back to deal with the aftermath.

29 large railway sleepers which had formed the old shed base and were now in varying states of decay needed moving a short way so the area could be made ready for woodchip.

6 GG heroes arrived in force - 2 runners, 3 bikers and Vicky with her wheelbarrow combining the task with woodchip collection

Only snag was we were too damn quick and the sleepers were moved and stacked in less than 15 minutes!

...and this despite some big spiders which could have put off the arachnophobes amongst us.

This did mean we had bonus time to peg out the weed membrane with some very bendy pegs

Paul proved that a gentle push worked better than Ed's brute force method of whacking with a rock

Next we were on to digging, barrowing and spreading woodchip onto the cleared space - standard GG fare which we managed in short order with Jane, Paul , Ed, Nick and Vicky taking turns at shovelling and barrowing - with a combo of Vicky's shovel, a broken bucket and the weirdest bent flat spade.

meanwhile Barbara was raking the chips and nattering with the allotment team.

40 mins after arriving, sleepers moved, chips spread and we were away running, biking and barrowing our way home... boom! job done!