This week, we visited St Laurence's Catholic Church for the first time. What a day for it, too! Because of the >35°C heat, we cancelled the run element and met at the task under our own steam - which turned out to be bikes all round! 🚲

The team this evening comprised Alan, Catherine, me and the returning Izzy. Welcome back! 🙌

Our task began with a few moments of serenity, enjoying the shady garden. It was lovely to take a pause and unwind after a busy day! The green-fingered Alan keenly set about identifying various plants using a cool app, and was one step ahead when we received our instructions 🔎

Today, we were to pot on various small plants to help them reach their full potential, and hopefully produce bountiful crops to be shared amongst the community. Alan made light work of turning the soil while Catherine, Izzy and I transferred some peppers to planters. We then made a highly efficient and somewhat organised production line (dig! water! potting mix! plant! cwtch! water!) to plant the aubergines and tomatoes into the freshly prepared ground 🌶🍆🍅

We hope these little plants handled the move and grow big and strong to yield fruitful crops! 🌱🪴🌳

GoodGym Cambridge was back at SIN Cru this week, once again combining a group run with a community mission 💪

Scott, Christopher, Kate, Beth, Catherine and I met at Parkside Pools to lock up our bikes and set off on the 3.6 km jog to our destination (at least my watch recorded the whole distance! 😛). Along the way, we chatted about recent holidays, restaurant visits, parkrun tourism/obsession and how much we need some rain in Cambridge. Little did we know...

Sandra and Alan were waiting for us at SIN Cru, with Sandra ready to capture our majestic "Baywatch" moment after being too in awe to do so last time. Following the obligatory dog-petting, we got to work in the garden space. Today, Alan and Chris quickly got a handle on some very active shovel action, clearing rather compacted soil and leveling the ground ready for a patio space which Kate and Beth gathered bricks for. Sandra and Catherine cleared an impressive amount of ivy from a wall, whilst Scott and I enjoyed the more sedate task of dead-heading the plants. Once we'd filled the compost area (and scritched the dogs some more), we gave the refreshed plants a much needed watering with some collected rainwater. Oh, how naive we were...

Then, we were off: it was party time! Sandra and Alan led the way by bike, meeting Ilse at Jesus Green for our July social. Beth and Kate joined on foot, while the rest of us legged it back to collect our bikes and grab more party food. Only mildly questioning the dark clouds, we gathered for a picnic. Amongst the MANY tasty treats were some homemade pastry wheels, courtesy of Ilse - a firm favourite amongst the snacks! We look forward to sampling your future recipe experimentation 🤤

It turns out I really do like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain: not long after we'd sat down and set up the picnic, the sky opened and gave us ALL the rain we'd been missing these past few weeks! We stood our ground until we feared for the structural integrity of the snacks, eventually taking shelter and laughing at how unfortunate our timing was. A key moment of the night was celebrating Beth's 10 deed milestone - congratulations!! Sorry we temporarily blinded you, but hope the Colin made up for it 📸

Once the rain had eased up enough, we escaped to a nearby pub to warm up and dry out for the rest of our social. We didn't let a bit of water spoil our fun, but fingers crossed next month's is a little drier! 🤞

This week, GoodGymers Catherine, Daiana and Alan headed to Fox Den Allotment for an evening of gardening, wildlife spotting and plenty of hard work! 💪🏼

This was my first visit to Fox Den, and the 10th good deed with GoodGym! I was pleased to see the nice work done there and I could also learn a lot about gardening, plants, medical effects of the plants and how rich and diverse the environment can be! 🌳

Our first task was creating a hedgehog highway. 🦔 We cleared an area before carefully layering some logs, smaller branches, twigs and finally leafy cuttings on top to create the perfect habitat for our prickly visitors. Alan’s strength and speedy log-moving certainly made light work of the heaviest part of the job! 🪏

Following this first move, we turned our attention to preparing a bed that will become part of the site’s growing forest garden. We learned how these gardens become increasingly self-sustaining over time, with established fruit trees and bushes already thriving. After turning the soil into a rich, nutritious bed ready for planting, it will soon be home to raspberries, artichokes, strawberries and plenty of other perennial plants. 🌱

As if that wasn’t enough, we also shifted some hefty rubber sheets into place to cover borders that had been overtaken by weeds. The sheets will help suppress the weeds over the coming months, leaving the beds ready for even more planting later in the year.

There was plenty of wildlife to enjoy too! We spotted a tiny cricket, rescued a thirsty bee with a well-timed drink of water, and a ladybird seemed particularly fond of Alan’s T-shirt – a very fitting companion for the evening. 🦗🐞

A brilliant evening of teamwork, learning and getting stuck in. We can’t wait to see how Fox Den continues to grow over the coming seasons! ✨