Another bumper turnout tonight to help rake grass at Millennium fields.

We started by naming and numbering off, welcoming new members back again, and saying a big warm welcome to Lionel who has returned after a break.

Mitch led the group out with Abigail, James and Abi leading a walking group.

When we arrived we were given several jobs - rake up the grass, pile it into bags or onto tarps, drag to the compost and make some sort of compost/grass lasagne. A select few also had a go at sything!

We managed to clear all the grass in the time and finished off with a quick game of whistleblower.

It was then back to base when a group then headed off for some well earned liquid refreshment!

Great to introduce folk to the York GG Tiny Forest. Despite the option of either weeding the edge of the forest to stop the grass intruding and taking the vital nutrients from the baby trees or taking artistic photos for sharing on socials, astonishingly all opted to weed. The Tiny Forest that York GG has created on Kimberlow Hill is there for all to enjoy. It was started in winter 2023 when we enriched the earth with compost. In spring 2024 over 600 saplings were dunked in mycorrhizal fungi and planted. The rest of that year was spent weeding and mulching. Despite the drought in 2025, the trees are all looking verdant and growing magnificently. If you feel like going back sometime, look out for sessions or post something on the social chat. It's a great place to connect with nature, watch the butterflies and have a picnic!

It was wonderful to see so many York GGers out & about on a summer evening. Despite the promise of plenty of bike racks - they were full, luckily everyone found somewhere to lock their bike. David led Nick & Steve out on an 11k route around Heslington. As they romped around the fields they managed to fit in some wildlife safari spotting including hare & various raptors. 🦅 Laura led the 5k runners. Not allowing any sneaky short cuts! She avoided the roads & we had lovely tracks through the green countryside. Abigail led the walkers with perfect timing, arriving at the Tiny Forest task just before the 5k runners. She even managed to gain a couple of runners who preferred to walk back to the pub. Something for everyone at GG York! 😉 Particular thanks to David, Laura & Abigail for sorting out routes & leading groups. It was good to explore some new routes. Whilst waiting for the food we had a quick quiz - all in aid of offloading a glut of cucumbers! who would like to see the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra? In no time at all the food appeared & was polished off. Tristan made an appearance, after having completed his 5k in under 18 minutes - extremely impressive. Thankyou all for coming, hope you enjoyed the evening as much as I did.

Tonight we welcomed new comers Liv and Mia to goodgym! Hope you had fun!

We then celebrated our goodgymer of the month for July which was awarded to the fabulous Nick. Nick is always one if the first to volunteer to go that extra mile. He took on the run leader duties when Ed and I were away and has been a great ambassador for goodgym from tje very beginning. He's basically a true goodgym hero!

We then congratulated the 10k runners and triathletes and in honour of international cat day this week named our first pets.

We were then off to Scarcroft allotments to help clear a plot. The main task was yo cut down and remove willow. Within minutes Nick was wedged in a tree wielding a saw and others were lopping, sawing and stripping willow. A team made several journeys taking the cuttings to the chippings pile (not chickens Jenna!).

Before we knew it time was up and the only injury was leanne's 'saw' hand. Everyone grabbed a pile of willow and we headed down the hill to drop off before fun fitness.

Following the cat theme we played a game of cat and mouse, which brought out the competitive side folk!

Back to base for a quick stretch and round up. See you next week!

So this week the big bosses Vicky and Ed were away on holiday but GoodGym York keep on running and not only did we have 23 returning GG folk but we welcomed Andrea & Nicola who both joined our group run for the first time.

We saluted David's weekend parkrun PB and celebrated Stefan who had hit a fab milestone of 300 good deeds completed.

Then in honour of the Lionesses victory in the European Cup yesterday we named and numbered with whichever animal we would like to be - mostly cats it turns out although we had a Crane, a Wolf and a Honey Badger!

Captain Pete led off the walking group and the rest of the crew ran a mammoth 900m to meet Charlotte from the York River Art Market at Dame Judy Dench Walk to do a bit of light weeding and litter picking to tidy up the riverside ahead of the next 3 weekends events.

We met Jan at the task and not only had she had arrived armed with her own trowel but she conjured up a wheely bin from somewhere for the rubbish.

Not content with weeding around the trees Becca instigated some weeding of the very steep bank - no one fell in so all good and we even managed to enlist a kindly random passing tourist who joined despite not seeming to know what we were up to or being able to speak much English!

We were soon all done and away for a double dose of fitness at Memorial Gardens - first we had 'serious' fitness followed by a couple of rounds of Amoeba Tag in which those tagged joined hands to capture the other players splitting into pairs once they got to a chain of 4. I think Charlotte & Mitch were the last players not caught by an Amoeba.

The runners took the 'long' way round managing to make it a full 1.5km back to base before we rounded off at the pub

Normal service will be restored next week!