Though dark dark and cold we felt four-tunate to have a small group of GoodGymers gathered together on garden tidying duties.

They went fourth with enthusiasm, the GoodGym lights showing the way.

The four-ward thinking group laughed and chatted through the task.

A four-tune teller would have predicted the impact of the group. Like a four-ce of nature, the small group cut, swept and generally tidied.

How do you know if you’ve made a difference tidying a garden in the dark? Check out that green bin! We checked, we did!

Written by John !

Tonight we returned to Haviland House to bring some Christmas cheer to the lovely residents. It was the first time since 2019 that we were were invited so it was with great excitement that we went along there this evening.

Huge GG welcome to Susan who joined us for the first time tonight - hopefully the first of many.

Natacha and Stephen brought their beautiful 10 week old baby boy, Ben, with them . Looking adorable in his elf outfit, he doubled up as a modern day baby Jesus and everyone just loved him. It was lovely to welcome Natacha's mum too, who was over from France on holiday.

6 years ago Jemima was our little 4 year old angel who came along to the same event in 2019 Tonight at a grown up 10 year old, she returned with her Mum, our very own social secretary, Tamsin Well done both of you - it was so lovely to have you at this event tonight.

The turnout tonight was great. Many thanks to Paul for his choice of dongs and hymns Nick who not only sorted all the sing sheets but came out of GoodGym retirement and joined us for singing too ( still looking great in the GG black t shirt ! ) Special mention to John too for bringing along a speaker so that we could have a musical accompaniment- not sure how it would have turned out without it ! 😄🙈

Thank you to you all also, that I haven't yet mentioned for your energy and enthusiasm not to mention the vocals you brought to the party! Gillybean Roxy Barbara El Mel Paul

To see the delight on many of the resident's faces was most definitely worth all the effort. We were not any where near perfect but for a scratch performance I was extremely proud of you all and what we achieved ❤️

Some of went on to the pub to re lubricate our vocal cords afterwards- that was very nice too !

Hope to see all of you fur our soldier walk this Friday. Meet at Splashpoint LC at 6pm Finish at The Egremont pub at 7pm for a quick drink.

If you can't make it then it's a very Merry Christmas from me to you all and here's to 2025

Julia xx

Great turn out tonight

It was lovely to see Roxy and Anne back today after recovering from a combination of injury and illness 🤒

Joining them was Sarah and Ryan, Paul, Gillybean and John

We had been asked to do an Autumn tidy up and in all honesty that's exactly what it was in this well cared for, pretty courtyard garden.

Leaves and pruning were the theme tonight. Most of the team were sweeping and gathering up leaves and weeds but I did turn round and find Gill stuck into some pruning too ( never misses an opportunity! 😍)

Tonight was a fairly short but satisfying tidy up whilst chatting with each other.

John missed the final photo as he is on extended nurse duties for Mrs R who is recovering from 2 operations 😍

Thanks everyone and see you all next week 😊

Julia xx

Lend a hand at Haviland

We returned to this task today and had a lovely warm welcome from Kirsty. She asked us to work our magic on the flower bed just at the back of the home overlooking the car park. When we arrived it looked very sad. One hour later it looked pretty again!

Many thanks to the team Gillybean Belinda Daisy Roxy and John who worked hard to weed, rake and fill 2 green bins plus 3 bags of debris. We were super proud of the results.

We were blessed with lovely warm sunny weather and great company 🥰

Thanks everyone !

Julia xx

A new task venue for us tonight

Another Monday - a new venue. Tonight we went to another Guild Care project - a nursing home called Caer Gwent. It offers 24- hour expert nursing care, supporting individuals with complex health conditions, particularly focusing on palliative (i.e. end of life) support.

We had been asked to work on the long sweeping drive entrance to the home with a much needed weed and tidy.

it was lovely to welcome back Paul to reunite withRosalind after they have both been travelling in France. Lots to catch up on!

John took no time at all to get on his knees and down to weeding and tidying. Anne got straight on with pruning and weeding whilst having a lovely catch up with Paul.

Paula got stuck in with the same and when Daisy arrived she got straight into debris removal into the green bins.

Rosalind poised on her 99th task did a great job on muti tasking across all the flowerbeds catching up with all the news ! Next week is her big 100 !

With a make shift broom made from foliage Daisy and Anne had a great tidy up before we had a lovely group photo.

Next Monday we are back at Heene Cemetery followed by The Brew House from 7:15 to celebrate Barbara's 200th and Ros's 100th together with my Birthday with a quick drink. All welcome to either or both :)

Have a great week !

Julia X

A happy evening at Linfield

On a very warm September evening Gillybean and Barbara arrived at the task first and immediately set to work on pruning and tidying the pretty courtyard garden in the Linfield dementia care home.

When Paula and I arrived we were swiftly joined byBelindaand John who were fresh from their invigorating sea swim.

Shortly after arrival we were all redirected to the two 'secret' gardens beyond a very tall padlocked gate! Armed with a wish list of tasks from the manager we proceeded to weed, prune and tidy.

It was at this point that Gil and I took several bites of the forbidden fruit from the mini apple orchard - no regrets - yet! ha ha!

Fifty minutes later we had chatted and done good and some of us had taken more forbidden bites ( or more) from the luxury biscuits that had been kindly gifted from a member of staff for us to enjoy.

Happy days !

i'm sure you will all join with me in sending Barbara all our good luck vibes for her ultra 100k walk this Saturday ! We cant wait to see the photos and hear the replay of every kilometre.

Go Babs !!

Have a great week one and all :)

Julia xx