301 good deeds

It was good to be back with the gang tonight and especially to be with our very own John, who was celebrating his outstanding 301 good deeds . John's GG journey started during the January 2018 challenge. Literally from the sofa to the tasks John has completely embraced the groups activities. You may or may not be aware that he also gives me a lot of support behind the scenes for which I truly appreciate 🙏

John was very relieved to see Megan back after her first task with us last week when he was in charge of the team ! Luckily Megan appeared happy to be back and together with Stéphane set off for some fitness running interval drills. El joined them for the warm up rep which was ideal for her for this evening. Megan and Steffe did some escalating interval training. Same distance each time but with increased effort using the perceived exertion scale.

Meanwhile the rest of the team were ready for the big dig ! We have been visiting this community garden for a while and its been an up hill battle to keep on top of the weeds. With a great number of participants this evening and plenty of forks everyone was able to work together and get a real grip on the task. I couldn't help but notice that Paul had a very impressive fork , Roxy , Anne and Ricky andEl all dug in hard clearing around 75% of the garden. We will return!

After their fitness session. Megan and Steffe helped tie up the bags and transfer them to my car. John and I then drove to the seafront bins where the refuse team will ( hopefully ) pick them up.

Finishing up, we headed to The Brew House for a cheeky drink. We presented John with an engraved tankard to mark this special occasion. We also celebrated that Megan was wearing her new red GG teeshirt! Nice one Megan - same time next week?!

Looking forward to seeing you all next week :)

Julia xx

It was great to welcome back El and Stéphane for their second task with us. We really enjoy having you both along and hope to see more of you in the future 😀

A big thank you to Barbara for welcoming everyone and leading the fitness session tonight. Sarah El and Stephane set off on a run whilst Paul , John Barbara and Sue cracked on with the task .... and what a task it was !

We had been asked to dig over the garden of the church rooms where we have often volunteered in the past but this time the condition of it was the worst its been - it was all so overgrown and quite daunting to know where to start!

However with the help of big garden forks and lots of team energy together with determination we made significant progress. We dug and cleared the bond of weeds that covered the whole area.

Paul , Stephane and Sarah " volunteered " to take the blue bags down to the seafront to the bin collection point. Nice work you three 👏 💪💪💪 - remind we you are off the hook for this job next time !!

We are returning next week to the same task to give some more time and strength to it. If you are coming please bring a garden fork if you have one !

Have a great week and hope to see all of you again soon.

Julia xx p.s The group picture I took didn't come out but thank you to Sue for the great ones that she took 🙏

Fading light

We arrived at St Botolph's on what had been a very gloomy day, meaning the light was fading fast. It was our last visit of the year to this pretty church garden under the watchful eyes of Rik and Val. However we will be aiming to get some work done at Heene Church rooms over the winter months,

Roxy and Suegot stuck straight into sweeping leaves with Belinda getting her steps in, wheelbarrowing big piles of leaves to and from the compost heap.

Paula and John worked on digging over the doomsday font that we had spectacularly unearthed several years ago before planting up some palms and other shrub that Val had provided. John, Roxy and I also moved a huge stone from the font area around the corner to where the other large stones/ rocks reside - Roxy stepped into help after I got distracted after completing 50% of the task !

Sue from Heene Cemetery did some great sweeping whilst Rik and Val, our leaders, beavered away weeing and clearing moss from gutters.

Happy Birthday to me!

Roxy had very kindly made me a yummy chocolate cake birthday which was still warm so we shared it out and I took home the remainder-such a kind thought. Thank you Roxy!

Next Monday

We are at Heene cemetery for our final visit of the year - Ideally we would like to start at 5:30 pm to catch the light.

*Welcome *

Tonights pun is dedicated to the newest members of our GG family

Handsome Ben was born to our very own Natacha and Steve last Friday whilst Nick and I welcomed our beautiful granddaughter Frankie Bea into the world last Wednesday. Very exciting all round ( and busy !) May they both have a wonderful life - maybe they may date each other one day 🤣😍

Mondays task

Back to this evenings task ..... We met up with Val and Rik who coordinate the volunteering in the church garden. Val is always super organised and has all the tasks on a board which is colour coded for both choice together with intensity guidance.

Gillybean got stuck in with digging out more unwanted shrubs ( I can't remember the name of them 🤣) It was good to learn that her heel is gradually improving and that she's getting the medical help she needs to expedite the process.

Belinda and Sue picked a high energy and very prickly job of pulling out very large brambles. They managed to clear a huge area so a great job done 👏

John also picked the strenuous job of digging over the area behind the old air raid shelter . The aim was to try and get it levelled too. Its fair to say that John went a long way to make this happen !

Barbara and Paula buddied up to pull persistent ivy off the stone wall. Paula was fresh from her 60th Birthday celebrations 🍾 and it was great to hear all about her adventures - especially the zip wire one! 😀

It was great to see Anne tonight who was helping Sue from Heene Cemetery with some pruning and sorting whilst Val dug over the compost heap and generally organised the whole task 😇

With the October light fading fast we finished up with a group photo and some chatter !

We are back next week for our final visit of the year to St Botolphs before the light goes.

Have a great week everyone and spare a thought for the sleep deprived new parents!

Julia xx

Sunny Worthing

Sunny Worthing did not disappoint today . It was a stunning evening in our borough!

We were back at one of our favourite tasks at St Botolphs Church garden. Val and Rik had a list of jobs for us divided into heavy, medium and light jobs so everyone could choose what they wanted to do.

John chose the heavy slab re positioning helped by Belindabefore they headed over to help on the other side of the garden.

Gillybean and Barbara were working on some major pruning of the large shrubs whilst Ryan and Sarah were doing some removal of stink Iris and weeding too.

With everyone pitching in to clearing ivy and tidying up of the debris , it was a great team activity and as ever, friendly vibes too.

Enjoy the sunshine team !

See you next week at Kamelia Kids

Julia x

The oh so elusive sun was still shining as the team gathered at St Botolph's to continue the battle against the unwanted growth, to allow the less invasive to thrive

A friend in weed is a friend in deed

Before our final task instructions were issued Gill dived straight into removing weeds around the base of the church, joined enthusiastically by Roxy when she arrived

Tools rushed in, where angels feared to tread

Sue (our Sue!) and Belinda headed off to help Sue (task owner Sue) collect the tools we would need to defeat the weeds and ivy that have clearly been enjoying the mixed weather more than some of us have.

The Ivy League of GoodGymers

Once the full team were on site we tackled the task with gusto! Weeds were pulled, ivy was stripped, bushes were trimmed, and stinking Iris evicted.