Disclaimer - if you have never heard the Jessie J song 'Price Tag', please go and listen to it first if you want this report to make sense!

8 Goodgym folks ran, walked and cycled through the pouring rain to help out at the Samye Foundation.

Lorraine at Samye was pleased to see Michael, Adam, Emma, Aimee, Darren, Rosie, Dylan and Jonny arrive; she had pinned a task list to the door for us to crack on with!

Jonny and Aimee got on with pricing up items for the upcoming plant and book sale.....they under took the....

Price Task

Seems like everybody’s rushin’

Runnin’ through the rain, no hushin’

Volunteers with soggy shoes

Still smiling, got things to do

Why is everyone so serious?

Why am I leaf-clearing in shorts?

Can we slow down and just breathe?

Or at least get a towel, please?

It’s not about the price task, task, task

It’s all about the give back, back, back

We wanna make the world run

Forget about the rain splash, splash, splash

Just focus on the impact, impact

GG just wanna make it count

Even if we’re soaked and worn out

A little kindness, a little sweat

Volunteering with no regret

I ain't writing a song for every task.... :o)

There was plenty of vacuuming to be done so Adam and Emma (and Henry!) cracked on with that. Adam also washed the walls down in the hall to de-scuff them.

Some nominative determinism was in play as Rosie cut back the roses at the front of the foundation!...ably assisted by Dylan. Michael floated around (quite literally with the rain!) helping everyone, taking pics in the process.

The group were re-leaved to leaf Darren alone to sweep and clear up the.....you guessed it - leaves.

A little sodden we all really appreciated the piping hot Carrot and Coriander soup Lorraine had made to say thank you.

We all had a chat.........mainly about the old test card (click here if you are too young for this reference!) and dried off a little.

You may have noticed a non red runner amongst the pack, Jonny was being a good sport by wearing a Norwich City jersey as he lost a friendly wager with Darren and had to spend the evening in his rivals jersey! As you can tell from the pictures he was delighted! ;o)

The rain had got a lot harder but we ventured out running, walking and cycling back home or to the pub.

We were thrilled to be returning to the Samye Foundation, and even during yet another heat wave, nothing could stop us from getting back to one of our original charities that we have been helping since the very start of goodgym Cardiff.

Our very first run to Samye was back on Tuesday 26th September 2017 and the transformation that we have seen is amazing. This was our return after a break, and the garden project looked fantastic, the pond we helped to dig was now in full working order and sounding tranquil.

Our task tonight were ready as usual, set up on the flipchart at the front of the building. (I love a flipchart!)

Runners were the first to arrive, and quickly sat down under cover to rehydrate after the hot run. Walkers were next to arrive, and Michael quickly pointed them towards the water and squash - hydration was very important today, before any tasks started.

Our list of task for the evening were as follows;

• Move the 2 seater sofa from level 2 in building 252 to the front room in building 250.
• Cable tie the dogrose to the front railings.
• Cable tie the fruit trees in the back garden.
• Bring the spiky plants from the back garden to the front.
• Cut out and compost the red orach.
• Re-pot baby plants from 250 porch into new pots.
• Move the metal table from outside the cafe window to under the gazeebo .
• Display the plants for plant sale on the tables under the gazeebo.

There was a good list of tasks, and 8 willing volunteers to crack on with them. We split into 3 groups, moved to our relevant areas, and got started - wasting no time, eager to get as much completed as possible.

Aimee and Emma went into the back garden and tied up the fruit trees, then removed the red orach and cut it down for composting.

Jonathan, Dylan and Jessica took to the task of moving the sofa, the spiky plants and the re-potting some baby plants.

PIVOT, PIVOT

Emma and Flo moved the metal table, plants and tied the dogrose at the front of the building.

All groups gave an outstanding effort tonight, especially with the temperatures that we had to endure. We got so much done, and Lorraine from Samye Foundation was so happy with our effort. We finished up for the evening, and then sat under the gazeebo for some delicious parsnip soup. Then we all walked back, far too hot for anymore running.

The gazeebo was looking lovely now surrounded by all of the plants, they are opening this is every Wednesday for plant sales in case your interested.

See you all next week - sign up here

Learning Time

Atriplex hortensis var. rubra Red orach, also known as red mountain spinach is a species of plant in the amaranth family used as a leaf vegetable that was common before spinach; it is still grown as a warm-weather alternative to spinach.

What a celebration, goodgym CYMRU, we hit our EIGHT anniversary. Starting back on May 23rd, 2017, running to a community garden space, and here we after 8 years running to one of our regular community growing spaces Global Gardens.

We are very proud of how many community green spaces we have helped over those 8 years, and hope to continue the fight to keep Cardiff as green as possible.

Our groups tonight had cyclists, walkers and runners all making their way to Global Gardens. It was a great run through the park, a great way to spend our celebration run before the weather changes. Michael had both his goodgym and global gardens hat on tonight, as he got everyone into the site and ready to volunteer. Although the weather was due to change, there was still plenty of watering to do. The polytunnel needed a good soaking, as did plenty of potted new plants that were dotted around. We also had a second group tooled up and ready to get back to the removal of brambles and bindweed, people on wheelbarrow duty to run the weeds back and forth to the designated compost pile.

We had some returns tonight as we welcomed back Benjamin and Lucy, with the lovely baby Eliza and goodgym bunny. (is this a new mascot?)

After 30 minutes of volunteering (and baby holding), we were done and it was time for our group photos. We made our plans for afterwards to continue the celebrations with a few drinks and some food, and a catch up with each other.