A return to the Church of St. Dyfrig & St. Samson, for an inside task battling the woodworm that had taken up the Church as residents. A shorter run, but there was plenty to do with the task so our time was being well spent.

We arrived and bid our usual hello to Julian (task organiser), who has set up the work station in readiness for the group. We split into groups, we had volunteers to collect the chairs to be put onto the tables, and groups who were applying the woodworm treatment.

The chairs were placed onto the tables, treatment applied, and then popped onto the floor to dry before being put back in their original place. The Church hall was large enough to get a good workout, running around with the chairs.

Once all chairs had been seen too, we were instructed to a few other areas - the community hall had some places to apply to as well as a foot or two. (See photos)

Time well spent, and it was now time to travel back to the Glassworks to finish our run for the evening.

The January challenge had been a great success, now well rested it was time to get going for the rest of the year. We were back at St. Dyfrig and St. Samson for our first task with them for 2026.

From Little Things Big Things Grow

A simple sounding task tonight, helping to clear the growth in the carpark from over winter, tidying up the space.

The carpark is vital to allow those with access needs to get as close to their church as possible. The Church also opens up as a warm space and for regular community activity, offering hot drinks and a vital form of connection with others in the local community.

With 9 goodgymers braving the cold, we had a quick warm up and Chat before heading out for our active travel to the task. As soon as we arrived we were welcomed by our organiser, Julian.

A little light work

A group of volunteers

A BIG DIFFERENCE

We split into groups to cover the different areas, one groups straight to work on the main part at the back of the Church. The second, larger group, tackling the side where the most growth was.

Julian used the lights from his car for the large group to get to work, whilst the goodgym powerful light was used for the smaller group.

Everyone was hard at work, removing greenery, soil and and rubbish, sweeping and separating for the correct bins. Jonathan even allowed his pocket boy out for some extra work...well done Dylan.

It was soon time to down tools for the evening, thanks as always to our wonderful volunteers. Whether your first visit of the year (Su) or smashing out every group run in 2026 (Jake). You are all equally awesome.

A quick group photo and then two group heading back, the joggers and the walkers.

5 Goodgym folks ran, walked and cycled to St. Dyfrig and Samson church to help finish painting their railings.

Goodgym visited a few weeks ago, so we were here to get the remaining railings painted from blue to black!

"I tell you what I want, what I raily raily want"

Su, and Emma W took the inside and Darren, Emma P and Michael the outside. We were joined by some of the lovely church volunteers. The Reverand also popped by to kindly thank us for our efforts.

We chatted away happily whilst we..... 'paint it black', learning all about about the church and activities.

As a group we made quick work of the side railings and by the time we left the job was complete! Everyone was delighted, they said "We were 'even better than the 'rail thing'."

The sun was setting so there was 'no rail slim shady' left, we ran back to the pub for a well earned drink.

Tonight was an evening of celebration.

We welcomed our newest member to the group Jessica

CROESO JESS

Another goodgym baby on the way, we can't wait to meet them Sophie.

And finally, introducing the new Lucy, now with wings....

Happy 100th Deed

Our walkers set off first, a direct route to the task, whilst Michael took the joggers on a slightly lengthened route to the task.

A nice evening for a run, with a good breeze. Once we arrived it was straight to work, the gloves out and the tasks explained.

It has been a while since we were last here, and the genes had certainly bounced back since their last trim. This was the first job for Lucy, to contain the growth and stop it encroaching onto the pathways.

Everybody else, over to the fence, it is time for a fence painting frenzy.

There was no stopping us, even a slight bit of rain fixing halt us. Thankfully the rain passed by quite quickly, so the painting continued along with the conversation of the task.

Have you got your own dabber?

Bingo, well that's the next social sorted then...

Lucy had moved on to dead heading roses and the painting crew had nearly finished the second large fence. No leaving until this parts complete. It was a quick run back, so we stayed on a little longer than usual in order to finish the fence.

Quick group photo, then off we popped.

Next week we head over to global gardens , join us for some active fun.

We welcome in December and Winter (depending on whether you're meteorological or astronomical), it was certainly a cold evening, but a nice jog around the City will soon warm us up. 3 met for the active travel from our start location to the Church, with another 2 people meeting us there and then joining us for a walk back.

The task tonight was helping the church to spruce up the grounds, removing the fallen leaves of Autumn, before they become a slushy mushy mess, we also had enough time to go outside and tidy up around the railings, making it much safer for the local residents when walking past. One such resident even came over to thank us for our hard work.

Thank you

We had all the tools tonight for cleaning up leaves, including a fancy scooping device which made light work of the piles of leaves that the sweepers created. Finally on the task was a little bit of weed killing, but this was not going to be done with chemicals - no ruining our land, instead it was done with a nice simple burning tool.

We were soon done and on our merry way back to the glassworks for a quick social and natter, join us next week for our last activity of the year, it's a new charity too. We are also going for food afterwards so if you are coming then please sign up to that.

A good turn out for our Tuesday task, but the numbers don't matter to the weather. But first, we welcome two new people to our group tonight for their first task.

WELCOME

Our task organiser messaged to say that they thought the rain would hinder our original task, and so a last minute change was required.....

PLAN B

We ran to a different location, a shorter route than planned but with plenty of jobs to keep us occupied. We had a LOT of weeds to remove, front and back of the building, a very LARGE T.V stand to put together for the biggest TV that I have ever seen.

We split into three groups, front group got to work weeding around the edge of the lot to tidy up and just make the Church look that little bit better, and then removed the grass from the front 'garden' to make room for more planting later on. The second group were inside, busy putting together the heavy duty stand, lots of head scratching and plan reading going on there.......The final group went straight to the back to tidy up there, it occasionally gets rented as a car park when there are large events in Cardiff, a nice way for them to make some extra funds.

Next week looks to be an amazing task, get signed up if you're not already -------> HERE