At last some rain to clear the air, it was lovely to run in after the heat of the past few weeks. A mix of cyclists and runners today as we returned to Global Gardens for some tidying up of the children's play area.

Our route was a nice 5km tonight, and even with the rain still quite a warm one. There were some hills up and down for an extra bit of workout for our legs.

The jobs at Global Gardens tonight were,

• Tidying up the mud kitchen from the overgrown greenery
• Battling the bindweed around the storytelling seating
• Cutting back brambles and nettles from underneath the net seat
• Opening up some space around the young plum tree

Straight to work tonight (after a plum from the old established plum tree), determined to make a mark tidy up those areas for the children to use on their next visit, and get some good before and after photos. Our determination paid off as we came to the end of our 30 minutes volunteering, the rain had stayed off for most of the time and we have managed to clear a smashing amount of space. Some quick photos and it was time to head back to town for a proper catch up.

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A change of task, and a hot hot run.

son

Michael had decided the most important thing tonight was care in the heat..

They had already made their way to the gardens to drop of a bag of goodies, including the most important iced water and squash.

To Town

Croeso Holly on their first goodgym session and welcome back to Jonathan, now officially a regular and not just here to keep their streak!

5 running to the task and two meeting us there, 3km in the heat felt much more difficult than usual. A stop along the way for the group to catch their breath and up and we were ready for the last blast. Soon enough we had arrived.

Get a drink and cool down.

We waited for the rest to arrive whilst quenching our thirst.

Word of the Year.... (I’m not doing word of the week)

quaff

During a run we quench our thirst, but if drinking a lot and quickly then we are quaffing our drink. As Sir Terry Pratchett put it in Wyrd Sisters, 'Quaffing is like drinking, but you spill more.'

Our tasks tonight,

1 - create doughnuts of mulch around the trees in the orchard 2 - remove the seed heads from the dock plants to stop the spread of the plants 3 - remove any bramble from the rose wall

A bit of a picnic afterwards and a group photo and then time to head back. The decision had been made to be a little late, the food may have had something to do with it. As the run was down hill though there was no stopping and we were back in great time.

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Our regular Tuesday task was replaced with a Monday one this week, a couple of reasons....

1. Global Gardens organisers were not available on a Tuesday currently,
2. We are going away from Thursday to take on the Love Trails festival.

The Weather certainly was different to the last few weeks of tasks, with a wind helping us up the hills on our run, thankfully the rain had stopped and seemed to be staying away. The five of us that could do the Monday arrived ready for the task, 3 runners and 2 cyclists tonight but all with the same goal.

Lets free the fruit tree

The task at hand - to tidy up the outdoor play area, where they hold story time and sessions for children. It had become full of brambles and bindweed, and not very child friendly. Michael had completed this task during a community mission and remembered finding fruit trees, and so the obsession started again. The first fruit tree was freed of the weed and the seating area was cleared of the brambles so that it was safer to sit at, the pile of compost grew as the five goodgymers got to work. There was a few screams as nettles were found and brambles out brambled the work gloves - from Michael at least! Finally, just one last task - to find the apple tree that seemed to be smothered by overgrowth, to work we go. A few cuts here a few cuts there, some more screaming from Michael but eventually it was all worth it as the tree was was again discovered.

Not quite finished, but theres always next time, and at least for now the trees can once again get light and enjoy some of the Summer (when it returns again).

Until next time, Goodgym OUT.

We spent Saturday morning digging out bramble roots and bindweed around the play area at Global Gardens, a favourite regular venue for Goodgym Cardiff and Vale. There are lots of sessions coming up at Global Gardens so we will be doing a lot of good work in the garden spaces over the autumn and having fun doing so!

It was a wet start to the weekend, but a delightful return to Global Gardens again. We welcomed back Emyr and got down to work - today was all about clearing the brambles and finding the hidden trees in the orchard. The rain, on and off was mostly drizzly but not enough to stop us. As Emyr 'The Clearing Machine' found tree after tree that seemed to have been forgotten in the overgrown area, it was time to down tools and head home to dry off.

On a warm Saturday, Michael and Ellen met at the Global Gardens project, to help them with their community garden work. The task was an old firm favourite (?) of clearing brambles. And were there a lot of brambles! There were tall ones, short ones, long ones, old ones and new ones. And ALL of them had thorns, so it was not an easy task. They toiled under the hot sun for 1.5 hours (although Michael had to leave a bit early for another fun visit - to the dentist!). But in that time they cleared about a 4m squared patch of brambles - leaving the other flowering weeds for the bees and butterflies. In the process, they uncovered some fruit trees planted last year, a raspberry cane amongst the blackberries and a pile of logs which could be a home for a hedgehog - so left that undisturbed. So despite the thorns, it was a very berry good task to do on a lovely Saturday!