A great goodgym turnout for New Year's Day double whammy task. The memorial wood close by was looking rather sad, with a number of gaps where saplings planted directly into the clay earth had struggled. So as there was an excess of gifted trees at the Tiny Forest these could be used to fill in some spaces whilst in their dormant period. Today's task was to give the new trees a better start. Some clay was removed, a heavy bar & pickaxe used to break through the clay layer, fresh Tiny Forest compost and feed added, tree planted, recycled stake and rabbit guard applied and finally a blanket of woodchip mulch to suppress weeds and retain moisture in the summer. We look forward to seeing the green shoots in spring. In order to make the trees cosy the efforts of the brave and tough goodgymers working in a chilling Northerly breeze must be recognised. Well done & thank you. Fortunately there were hot drinks and cakes afterwards in the sheltered Tiny Forest. January challenge bingo baked goods ticked off by 3 😋

A whopping massive turnout on New Year's day for the Tiny Forest despite the whopping massive hangovers. You're a hardy lot! Everyone quickly got to work to stay warm. The list of jobs was hammered. Compost bin emptied, bagged and barrowed over to the memorial forest. Hay piles from the meadow area, rotten apples and leaves put into compost bin to start the process over again. Mulch piles weeded and topped up. Those pesky creeping weeds removed from the edge of the Tiny Forest trees and cardboard suppression laid. Clay topsoil gathered from memorial forest, barrowed to Tiny Forest and used as bath infill. Bugs given more warm bedding and treats for their hotel.

🦫 17 eager beaver GoodGymmers decided to kick off 2026 with a bang by volunteering at NYD parkrun 💥

🥶 It was a chilly one, which began with a debate as to whether or not we saw the sunrise (and therefore how many January Challenge bingo squares could be ticked off) 🌅

🥧 Carb-fuelled by pie (and potentially hampered by cocktails), there were pacers, marshalls, timekeepers, number-checkers, funnel managers (always a tricky one, especially when it comes to the decision of whether it’s a double or triple funnel day) and a parkwalker (plus friend 🐕).

🥪 Soon, it was time to regroup and warm up at the Knavesmire with a very welcome butty. The work wasn’t over for everyone as Louise had nobly volunteered to token-sort (and roped in the rest of the table to help, with very little persuasion). After some healthy debate with the regular token-sorting team as to the correct method, we reached an amicable approach that everyone seemed happy with and (equally importantly), got the job done ✅

🏠Then it was time to head home, for a brief reprieve for some even eagerer beavers who were heading to this afternoon’s double tree task session 🌳

🤩 Thank you everyone, and Happy New Year 🥳

We may have got drenched en route but the job was done super quick :), and everything tidy!

Despite the pouring rain all day and the original task being cancelled, we still had 19 hardy goodgymers turn out for the last group run of 2025!

We are very grateful to Laura for stepping in last minute and finding us a wide array of jobs at Holgate Community Garden. We had budlea cutters, compost shifters, leaf sweepers and woodchip weeders.

We soon rattled through the jobs then ended with some Christmas themed tag, where you had to sing a line from a Christmas song to release the tagged reindeer/snowman/holly/santa.

It was then back to base led by Pete and thats it for this year... except the party on Friday!

A beautiful sunny winters day for litter picking in Germany Beck... though my recruitment for GoodGym volunteers was a bit of a failure! Come join us next month and add some points to the January challenge 😁