Last night we returned to Makespace to continue the tasks we started earlier this spring. It was lovely to see that there was already a raised bed and planting where we'd cleared the ground last time.

This time we sanded benches (much competition for the electric sander), we painted the benches a jazzy turquoise-teal, we weeded around the picnic area and entrance, and we watered all the pots.

Well done Joe for completing your 10th Good Deed and tolerating the Garland of Joy.

Welcome to GoodGym Raúl!

With the clock change to BST on the horizon we made an early start to get as much light as possible for our Wednesday task at Makespace.

We had a task list to try and get through, and did really well on it - many hands can work magic in a short time.

We hefted pallets, weeded raspberry canes, shovelled leaf mould, cleared the compost area of weeds and rubbish, watered thirsty plants, and started sanding down the picnic benches. As a lovely post-task bonus we had a twilight run over Port Meadow (where the bats were dancing around) and along the canal.

Welcome to GoodGym Joe!

Makespace is a gorgeous community building on the banks of the river, a stones throw from Port Meadow. It houses artists, a very thriving book and plant swap cupboard, and the famed Library of Things.

We pop there annually to give their outside space a spruce and tidy and tonight was no different.

Fourteen Goodgymers made light work of weeding the paving slabs, cutting back brambles to reveal roses, honeysuckle and budlia, and de-mossing the entrance. Ben even got to use a strimmer to attack the ling grass but declared it "a young mans game"..........

A little trio of us then had a delightful jog across Port Meadow - spotting The Medley and reminiscing about the evening we spent there eating pizza in torrential rain!!

Thank you everyone and special well done to Megan on her 50th good deed!!

Well Raleigh partnership launch task dawned without any of the Raleigh goodies, but the sun shone and we did manage to get the discount code from Amy at Windsor and Maidenhead GoodGym, so we're chalking it up as a success anyway!

The task:
Makespace had asked us to do a thorough tidy of their canal-side garden and car park. We mowed (without breaking the lawnmower!), scraped, weeded, tidied, litter picked, chopped brambles, pruned weeping willow, and generally gave it a really thorough spruce-up.

Many hands make light work!

It's that time of year when we start watching the sky at evening tasks wondering if we'll get everything done before the light fails. Fortunately, despite the gloomy skies we still got away with it this week, and I think we'll manage one more week without having to worry too much about darkness. Time to start locating those headtorches and high vis tops that you've had tucked away since March!

This week was all about weeding, pruning, and litter picking at Makespace in Jericho.

We first tackled this task back in July, and over the couple of months since then the weeds have sprung up and the litter has reappeared. With one eye on the darkening skies we got to work promptly, sending the first arrivals over to tackle the biggest jobs of willow pruning, wall weeding, and ivy clearing. Other teams tackled litterpicking around the car park and weeding front and back areas, as well as a bit of leaf raking for good measure.

Finds of the evening:
* Virtually a whole outfit discarded in various corners of the car park (including a snazzy mask). We really need to start keeping the discarded clothing from litter picks and dressing some scarecrows.
* A frog hiding under the ivy we removed from the building on canal-side
* Pink gin and lemonade

Conversation topics:
* Schools v pubs
* The different approaches of NZ v GB
* How they made us Doubt Everything podcast
* Mask designs
* Different workplace approaches
* Skipping - the perfect COVID-safe exercise? (You can blame Aoife if I bring my skipping rope next week.)
* Kittens

I know it's surprising with all that chatter, but work-and-talk is our USP, so by the time an hour was up we'd cleared the stone wall of weeds, and also much of the overgrown area beside it, got the path to the garden beautifully manicured, picked up 2 bags of litter, pulled down a HUGE pile of ivy and brambles that was creeping up the building and blocking the light, pruned the weeping willow, and scraped and weeded around the garden and carpark.

Impressive as ever team!

Congratulations to Vicky on your 50th GoodGym Good Deed!

Welcome to Amy, Martha, and Zelga. Lovely to meet you!

Makespace is an affordable working and making space offering subsidised rents for social enterprises, charities and workers co-operatives. They have a lovely site on the canal in North Jericho.

During lockdown Makespace has, of course, been closed, and in that time the outdoor spaces have accumulated a lot of weeds and got quite overgrown - it sounded like the ideal job for the GoodGym elves!

On Wednesday evening 10 GoodGymers converged from all directions, gardening gloves at the ready, to tackle the jungle. We weeded, and scraped, and mowed the grass (until the lawnmower decided it was all too much like hard work and it needed a rest). We cleared litter from the car-park, gave a rose bush some breathing space, chopped back brambles, moved a HUGE bag of manure over to fill a raised bed, raked up leaves, and generally got a bit sweaty and muddy, but amazingly no nettle stings this week. (Is it even a GoodGym summer task if there are no nettle stings involved?) An little over an hour later we surveyed our progress with a fair amount of pride - it was looking a good deal smarter than when we started.

Then off we all trotted, fanning out to different areas of Oxford, with the hope that the time for group running will soon be upon us.

A warm welcome to Conor and Kate who did their first GoodGym good deed with us last night.