In a slightly later than advertised leaflet drop (had to wait in for a delivery!), I added lots of steps to my total today doing an up and back of Copnor Road to promote the scarecrow festival.

I'm hopeful one of the cafes will get involved as they seemed keen.

Sneak peak of the GG scarecrow in the report photo!

Today we were back at MAKE to make bird feeders and flower seed bombs. We had a good turnout of people and after a bit of to'ing and fro'ing had our work place set up and all the materials needed. For the flower seed bombs we used some earth, clay, flower seeds and a little water, to make a lovely 'mess' before making lots of little balls to fit in the handy egg boxes that Sam provided. These will hopefully 'flower' over time and look lovely wherever the sit. For the bird feeders, we found lids, cardboard tubes, wool, twigs, scissors, coconut oil (peanut butter is best, but we needed to be mindful of any allergies), the all important bird seeds, and a compass with a sharp point to make a hole in. Not forgetting the two old birds from GoodGym who were helping out! Lucy was full of ideas on how to make it easier for the birds to perch whilst eating and the twigs were a great organic addition to the finished result. Mel's first attempt was an epic fail due to the seeds not sticking, but that was because we'd made the coconut oil too runny. Once we'd worked out we needed a thicker consistency we were away. The Waterfront Garden Centre were also there with some soil and cactus like plants, which were a lovely complement to what we were doing with some very informative bird and other information. John from Waterfront made his own rather impressive bird feeder which had a beak and wings (he refused the pink feathers) with a plan to add the seeds in situ by filling up the tube. Another fantastic session well attended with more to come tomorrow and Saturday.

First up, a warm GoodGym Portsmouth welcome to first timers Cheryl and Megan who joined us tonight and welcome back to Jane on her second week.

Tonight was a group run of two halves (although not exact halves!) with the walking group heading to MAKE to finish off the paint work and the longer option of a run to St Jude's to help out the teachers with all sorts of jobs. So there are two parts to the run report tonight, both with their own puns...

MAKEing our mark! by Val

6 GG’s walked to MAKE to finish off glossing 2 doors and painting the floor. There was a workshop going on so we kept the noise level down. Before long most of us had paint covered hands and we had the usual 'oops just trod in wet paint'. Manuel tried on a Hulk mask, he looked great ha ha, and Tracey bought the last 2 comedy bums (this makes more sense if you have seen this report)!! Hilarious. Jane and Catherine painted floors with Tracey and Manuel. Catherine demonstrated some impressive lunge skills whilst painting. Maxine and I finished off the glossing.

Hey Jude / plastic fantastic / put a lid on it

The remaining 19 runners headed down to St Judes where the headteacher met us and divided us into "horticulture" (Rosie & Lynn); artistic (Angela & Rachel), happy up a ladder (Michael, Joe & Fionn) and crafty (the rest!).

Rosie & Lynn planted up the large planter outside the school just as the rain started so got double bonus points for doing a cold task while everyone else headed inside. Angela & Rachel were painting the tree trunk and branches onto the celebration of pride tree made from recycled bottle tops. Team Pompey Uni managed to resist the temptation of the pubs and clubs on the run down and ended up climbing ladders to screw in some hooks & hang the massive new RE banner which features in the back of our group photo.

The crafty group got to use glue guns (caution, very hot glue.... mentioning no names!) to finish off the kitchen foil squid and recycled bottle tops blue whale for the sea inspired display. They looked amazing. Sadly we can't take the credit for the ideas but we definitely helped bring it to life.

We also got to meet a very cute whippet puppy called Dash. Yey, a dog on a task - it's the dream right? There was also a small doodle dog hanging around reception who didn't get his photo taken for the run report!

GoodGym-ima puddle duck

On the way home the rain was really coming down. Michael and I were motivated to keep going with the thought of what was on the menu for dinner tonight (midweek roast & enchiladas respectively) whilst Rosie was busy finding every single puddle on the route back and getting her feet nice and wet - she christened herself GoodGymima puddle duck so please feel free to address her as this in the future. Tony and Sam did sterling work as the back markers and we all made it back to base a lot wetter than when we left!

Coming up

As promised, a round up of what's coming up: tomorrow we need a few more painters at SSJ, preferably at least one who's tall and/or happy up a ladder. On Friday Rachel is leading a run on the seafront (hopefully drier than tonight) and next week we are on another school trip, this time to St Swithuns (where 2 rogues tried to run off to tonight, luckily the back markers were on it!).

Bookmark this page and you can always see what's coming up - Maura is going to be organising a Sunday community mission soon so keep an eye out for that one!

Hope you all have a lovely week and I will see you next week for more fun and games (& hopefully less rain!).

Six runners met at Make for part two of the Make makeover. We got to work continuing the fantastic work of last weeks team.

Val and Judy painted one of the bathrooms with much hilarity as Judy tried to paint under the automatic soap dispenser. Their is photo evidence of us judging Judy!

Maxine finished glossing another toilet door, then joined Judy and Val. Louisa, Tracey and I tackled the floor at great speed. Louisa probably wished she was working with the others as at a number of points either Tracey or myself painted Louisa into a spot she couldn't get out of or got paint on her - we're sorry!

Fabulous Sarah from Make treated us to teas, coffees and snacks, all greatly appreciated.

Enjoy all the photos taken by Val especially the one of Judy stood on our freshly painted floor and the booty one.

Thanks team, and we'll be back for part three as we haven't quite finished yet.

Tonight was part one of the Make make-over.

The gang split into three teams; team one was Catherine and Maxine who spent the evening giving the white toilet a new coat of paint to freshen it up. Team two was Katie, Lucy and Tracey who had the job of stripping the wallpaper from another toilet. Ever resource these girls - they used a fish slice (that’s what I call it anyway!) as a wallpaper scraper. It did the job perfectly. Team three; Liv and me (Sam) had the job of painting the floor. Liv was a dab hand with a roller and I got to fill in the smaller gaps with a paintbrush.

Big thanks to Maxine for capturing the before, during and after photos.

Lovely Sarah at Make provided us with drinks and snacks, and was thrilled with how much we achieved in 2 hours.

We’re back next week to finish the task off. Keep your eyes peeled for the make-over at Make part 2!