9 Goodgymers and 1 head of the PTA made their way to all saints school for a round of hole digging for the planting of trees by the children, bin emptying followed by the collection of nearly 2 hippo bags full of leaves!

It didn’t go unnoticed that it was the first task Louise has lead where it didn’t rain! which has clearly now jinxed the coming tasks

A play on the scooters found in the bike storage ensured that we were entertained and warmed up nicely before we all made our way home to warm up frozen toes and noses!

7 Goodgymers met up in the cool, dark Oaken Grove park to help task owner Catherine move a big pile of wood chips from one end of the park to another.Special shoutout to Juli who walked over a mile with her wheelbarrow and shovel as there may not have been enough for everyone (cue collective gasp).

Sorry Juli, but the plan had changed. The gentleman who manages the park grounds had offered Catherine to transport the wood chips in his truck, saving us multiple trips with wheelbarrows. No one does improv better than GoodGym-ers; gloves on, we got to work. With head torches and steaming breaths, we were a sight in the dark parking lot!

Rachel, Angela, Ben, Juli and Diya got shovelling wood chips onto the truck while Amy and Sophie hauled themselves up on the truck to spread and stomp to make room. Ringo, the man's dog supervised, albeit a bit fearfully.

We managed to fill up and complete two truckloads in the hour and the pile was impressively smaller. Everyone was nice and warm by the time we said goodbyes. Hope there aren't too many sore muscles tomorrow.

10 Goodgymers made their way to Nature's Haven where we met with Claire, our taskowner, who was already setting up the firepit and stringing up the lights. It promised to be a good night! In preparation for an important visitor in a few days days time, we had lots of jobs to do. In typical Goodgym fashion, everyone set to work on our various tasks. One group weeded an area and transplanted some hellebores, while others tidied the spare pots. Meanwhile others dug trenches in a bed and planted a row of box plants after first sawing off half their roots to ensure they fitted in the holes. Others weeded the beds and paths, and Ben proved to be very handy with the broom, leaving everything neat and tidy. We were rewarded with hot chocolate and marshmallows to toast over the firepit. Fantastic. Great work, Goodgym

The team assembled on site, with a small group having walked together and everyone else making their own way.

We were met by Jon who showed us the stacks of bulbs for planting and instructed us to fill the areas with as many bulbs as possible and then with any left put them in the flowerbeds in the playground.

Everyone armed themselves with tools and bulbs and got to work making a whole lot of holes and bedding the bulbs in!

Although all our work was hidden below ground we hope we will be able to see the fruits of our labour in the spring!

Last night, Sophie and Anne Laure met at the community centre and set off for the 1.2km run to the task location whilst Jess and Jen were already en route walking. The other Goodgymmers all met at the task location of All Saints Church who mostly ran, walked or cycled to get there and we were greeted by Jo who was one of the Church volunteers and directed us on what we needed to do.

Our job was to remove ivy and bindweed from the fencings along the A4. There was a LOT and we spent an hour making it look a lot better and removing multiple bags worth into the church grounds which will be disposed of at the tip in the coming weeks. We also swept and raked to make the pavement look at clean as possible. Thank you Jess for remembering to take before and after photos!

It was a great evening with good company, thankfully only a bit of light drizzle and passers by thanked us for our efforts. Well done everyone!