What a difference a few short GoodGymers can make in an hour! Maria and Darren hacked down a small forest of buddleia that was making a corner of Bedminister crowded and dark, helped by Cherry Tree Garden leader Julia. They were joined shortly by Area Activator Mel, who provided extra lighting, and Shreena who actually added to the green space by planting a new plant, before moving in to help with more hacking at buddleia.

All this made for some impressive before and after photos, and an overflowing compost pile!

Good Cheer

Welcome to Joseph and Mark who joined us for the first time tonight. It was also great to celebrate not one but two GoodGym birthdays: 🎉HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT AND LAURA!🎉

A puzzling task

Alice D did a wonderful job leading a group to Emmaus on her inaugural run leading evening. At Emmaus, the group met Xanne who explained their tasks for the evening and set them to work around the warehouse. The group got to work sorting donations to find the weirdest items and figuring out puzzles, including puzzling their way through subbuteo (thank goodness, or else what would the pun title have been).

Meanwhile, the rest of the group headed to Cherry Tree Garden. Julia set us to work on cutting back the overgrown areas, pruning a tree back to life and weeding the flower areas. The group split into half so while half of the group channeled their inner-Charlie Dimmocks, the rest of the group went to Victoria Park to do hill reps. We swapped over halfway through and the overall conclusion was that the group definitely prefer gardening to hills. After half an hour, the area was looking remarkably better and we had filled 5 garden waste bags.

A little pick-me-up

We finished the night with a team relay including a carrying-your-teammate round, with tactics ranging from piggy-backs to queen's chairs. Georgia's team raced home and were crowned victorious.

We headed off to celebrate with Laura and Matt and a double dose of chocolate cake, as well as celebrate Jenny's Bristol-cake win from the weekend and Darren's belated cheese-chasing medal!

GOATS! There's something about Bristol GoodGymmers and goats, they're a major motivating influence on getting good done!

A double header community mission for four GGers on a surprisingly sunny but very chilly afternoon. Zdeni had bought beautifully tonal gloves especially :-)

Part 1 - Cherry Tree Wind Tunnel

We've been here before, but it was looking a little left out and in need of a spruce up, so we set about collecting up some of the fallen leaves that were turning into lovely leaf mulch but blocking the wall - that's been saved for the team. We weeded lots of small weeds that were taking nutrients from the bulbs that are all pushing through the surface and even starting to flower. Across the road, we weeded the traffic island and collected litter from the other art of the garden. We'll look forward to being back in the spring but might not find any more monster trucks and mittens.

Half-time - back to Windmill Hill City Farm Cafe

A warm up was needed, so we repaired to the cafe for our second coffee of the day, having enjoyed it so much after junior parkrun this morning. And wwe may have popped to see the goats before starting the big litter pick.

Part 2 - Reaching those parts of the Farm that others can't reach

We'd noticed lots of litter on the City Farm side of the boundary fence, normally we can't reach it but as it's deep winter, the hedges were bare AND we had Mr Grabby Hands courtesy of Bristol Waste so we could get to far more litter than previously. Oodles of bottles, cans, fast food wrappers and other rubbish, plus some random large bits of metal and, sadly, a syringe by the kids' den-making area so we reported that find. Alex also got stabbed by a spiky berberis plant, but we extracted the splinter and she carried on bravely. We were able to sort our collection into the City Farm's snazzy recycling bins and started the rave new game, "sheep or goat". We think it'll catch on. We could tell which ones were pigs. :-)

You've got the tools but have you got the touch?

With some stiff legs and sore throats from Bristol Half Marathon running and cheering at the weekend, a big group of runners still stumbled together to show Shania Twain what her lyrics should really be. It was great to see lots of new faces tonight - welcome Hannah, Stefano and Nia!

With the dark nights drawing in, the group did me proud with a great array of hi-viz and head torches on show. I am looking forward to seeing much more of this over the coming months! In our red and fluoro-clad group, we hopped off to the south side of the river to help two different tasks.

Dave took a group to Cherry Tree Garden, where they were helping Julie give the garden a big cut-back and weed for the Autumn. With all hands on deck, the 15-strong group made a massive dent in it and left the area neat and ready to be enjoyed by all the Bedminster locals. The group even had time to do a Beatles reenactment on their way home...

What the fork

Meanwhile, the rest of the group went to help Urban Buzz at Gores Marsh Park. Hayley from Urban Buzz explained to us that after a summer with a drought, followed by the recent rainy weather, the meadows in the park have now been left with a thick layer of mulch on them. We needed to remove this and then reseed it. Thirty pairs of hands got a hold of whatever tools they could find, and here started a competition between mulching with a fork, spade, rake, shovel or hoe was the best method. Meanwhile, our expert Mulch Movers skirted back and forth, getting rid of the piles of mulch being dragged up. With a quick reseed under the darkening sky, the group waved goodbye to the meadow and headed home.

Well done to everyone who helped make Bedminster beautiful tonight!

It was another big group attendance tonight as our Bristol runners spread out across Bedminster to fix up some green spaces. Welcome to the new faces that joined us tonight - it was great to see you Anna, Beth, Cristina, Aga and Abigail! Also good to see some new but returning faces - good luck for the big one this weekend Stu!

Thanks to Charlie, who led the first group to Cherry Tree Garden. There, they were met by Julia who explained to them the momentous task of weeding and clearing nettles ahead of the bulb-planting they are planning in the future. After a slight delay followed by being rescued by the henceforth-named Glove Superman, Darren, the group were ready to enthusiastically set to work. Apparently, Chris decided to get in a fight with a Sycamore (as you do on a Tuesday night with GoodGym), while the rest of the group picked on something their size... Or at least, a whole lot of nettles slightly closer to their own size.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group met Laura from Bedminster Patchwork. They manage 12 patches of land across Bedminster, which they work on to make beautiful spaces for the local community. GoodGym had previously worked on this particular patch a couple of times and it is coming on leaps and bounds. The group set to work weeding and planting across the ground. Despite hitting a spider nest and finding surely the entire population of Bristol's hairy caterpillars, the group did a stellar job of making the patch weedless and freshly planted ready for summer. What a great job all round. Thank you to your brilliant back-marking Maria, which got us past all the envy-inducing pint-holding locals sipping in the evening sun, until we could get back for our own well-deserved pints.

Overall, a Tuesday night well spent, and Bedminster looking all the better for our green-fingered GoodGymers!