Lovely sunny evening, nice time of day for this work as the afternoon sun is beginning to wane. Right at the back of St John's Court is a lovely garden area used by the residents, in fact some residents rooms have French Windows that open directly on to it.

Our job today was to tidy this area up, there were weeds in the cracks, trees and invasive plants where they shouldn't have been and, as usual since GoodGym are involved, fun to be had everywhere.

Mary, Tanya and Meyrick were on hand to carry out this mission, and we did a brilliant job.

Making this place look nice for the residents is in the Mission description, and that is exactly what we did. Good job all.

Twas a rare event in this endless heat, rain falling from the sky. Refreshing, nourishing, wonderful rain. It may even have deterred some GoodGymmers from attending, "What is this scary stuff falling from the sky?", they said, "Tis is winter already?".

Nope, just some convective precipitation formed by a passing 'trough' kicking up the moist air and spinning up some cumulus.

It did limit what we could do today though, I think some painting was on the cards but niet. Instead we tended to the front of the building, which we've done before (remember planting Huey, Duey and Louis? and then Gary, Mark, Howard, Robbie and Jason?).

But stuff grows quickly innit? It had been a few months and the whole area needed a workover, resident live and love this area so it is important that we help keep it nice for them.

Have to admit, it was a little refreshing in the rain as well. Anyone remember the 7Up advert from the 80s? 'Rain, Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain..."?

I was in town early for the mission, taking some time out for myself and relaxing in Victoria Park reading my latest book on the origins of life in the Universe. Gradually intruding upon this wonderful calm was the growing rumble of thunder, getting louder by the minute.

Looking up at the sky I could see what this fuss was about, there were a fair number of cumulonimbus clouds bubbling up from the east. As a trained meteorologist, I fired up the lightning checker app on my phone (lightningmaps.org if you are interested) and could clearly see the lightning hitting all around the area between Bristol and Bath, and getting closer.

There is a meaning to this story trust me. I quickly scarpered, and besides it was all but time to head to the mission. Back at St John's Court again, to help make the place a brigther and nicer place to live for the elderly residents, I was met there by Emily, Tanya and James.

Ann, our steadfast coordinator at St John's, led us around the back to a couple of new wooden tables and a planting station that needed painting, this being our job for the evening. However, no sooner had we started than the heavens opened, and one of those cumulonimbus clouds I mentioned earlier was now above is and the downpour was merciless. Seeing as it's been quite warm and muggy it may have been nice to stay outside and get drenched (painting was out of the question though). However, I was a real killjoy and told everyone to go inside in case there was lightning (there was thunder after all), as not only was I concerned for the safety of my fellow GoodGymmers, as mission leader, but I didn't want to do a pile of paperwork.

When the rain ceased we had a half hour left of our mission but what we had been painting was now drenched so Ann had us do some weeding at the front.

OK, rubbish pun - I've done better. However, what a wonderful mission this was. It's beginning to feel like spring is here now, and this evening was dry and mild if slightly wanting for a little more sunshine.

We always love missions at St John's Court, we meet a few of the residents every time (and they are lovely). Their response to our presence is so warm and welcoming we really feel like we are making a difference to people's lives. These life-changing individuals were Ruth, Tanya, Emily, Bennath and Meyrick.

This mission was all about weeding, exactly the same section as we do every spring, the patio outside the common room gets overrun by the all manner of nasties and it's our job to remove them. Supplied with some awesome tools to complete the job, including a battery powered crevice tool (which to our credit we shared amongst us all before it's battery died).

We did a lot in the hour that we were there, didn't quite get all of it done but we are back in a month for more!!

We love St John's Court, it's always a popular mission for Bath's GoodGymmers. For half the year though, we don't get to visit, other than the two either side of Christmas to put up/take down their decorations.

The reason for this is that our visits are on Weekday evenings so we have to wait until the clocks change before we can reasonably expect enough daylight to see what we are doing. So it is always a wonderful that our return to St John's coincide with the beginning of Spring.

Big crowd for this one as well, Ruth, Kate, Tanya, Emily, Bennath, Nev and Meyrick rocked up on this lovely sunny evening to help this Retirement home look even better for the residents that live in it.

Ann was on hand, herself a resident, and the job was to tidy up the front of the building - trimming the hedges, clearing weeds and brushing the front yard. With the help of a more than decent supply of gardening equipment we set to and made a great job of this. We'll be back in month to help them even more, looking forward to it!!

Well this is always a slightly sad occasion, taking down the decorations at St John's Court that we had so enthusiastically put up at the beginning of December.

Never quite as popular as its retrospective counterpart, there were still a good number of GoodGymmers on hand to do the deed. Tanya, James, Bennath and Meyrick were brave enough remove all traces of Christmas for the lovely elderly residents of St Johns Court.

On a positive note, it only took about 40 minutes so we were able to leave early. See you next Christmas St Johns!!