Another warm night for the assembled GoodGymmers to tackle the bramble takeover at Hebron Burial Ground - that which was looking clear in Spring is definitely NOT now, so we took on the task of clearing some space (and eating berries from the older growth. Brambles without berries? What is the point?!

Lewis joined us for his first task and made short work of the path to the compost heap with Jason, Tom and Rach otoived there was an elderflower/berry tree in the middlenof the brambles whilst Caroline, Richard and Frances tried to meet Melanie on the other side of the space where berries COULD be seen. Alas, nor quite enough time, but at least 3 cats were seen

...You owe me five farthings, Say the bells of St. Martin's.

When will you pay me? Say the bells at Old Bailey.

When I grow rich, Say the bells at Shoreditch.

When will that be? Say the bells of Stepney.

I do not know, Says the great bell at Bow.

Here comes a candle to light you to bed, And here comes a chopper to chop off your hedge! Chip chop chip chop the last man is dead.

Slightly contrived, throwback to a children's nursery rhyme that many of you have probably never heard, but there you go. Education.

We were very close to being rained off having not seen rain for weeks BUT we are known for being a pretty hardy bunch and insisted we'd be fine - as was the weather for our task at Dame Emily Park.

Armed with shears, loppers, secateurs and a lot of energy, the hedge (site of last year's skilled shaping and sycamore tree removal) was significantly shortened from around 9 foot to 5-ish, to improve line-of-sight and reduce anti-social behaviour.

Split into big choppers and small choppers, hedge was turned to mulch to be used elsewhere in the Community Garden and we were soon being rewarded with slices of fresh watermelon and posh amaretti biscuits - the perfect amuse bouche for our July Eats meal at Sooyan/Sweeyan/Sooayan back at Queen Square.

Another GoodGym Bristol triumph!

It was full-on Bristol after a weekend of Harbour Festival loveliness to see hot air balloons back in the sky with the International Balloon Fiesta a few weekends away (and a cancellation of Ashton Court parkrun - you've been warned!). The general GoodGym rule of "see balloon, must point" was well-practised by the group of 5 walkers and 7 runners who'd joined forces to help clear some Southville Ward streets of weeds and save them from Bristol Waste's glyphosate.

Roddy found us by searching for the red t-shirts, Frances caught us up by searching for the right red t-shirts (there's no pulling the wool over Frances' eyes) and we all found the wheelbarrow of tools and made a plan after only five or so minutes chatting.

We were soon tacking the weeds on Murray Street, off Catherine Mead Street (not necessarily names after this Catherine Mead, but she's in the Academy of Cheese so deserves the name-check), Cameron making great in-roads beyond the parked car and Tom (named after the first King of Croatia, obviously) was a pro with the long-handled weeder-knife-thing, putting Vaguely Northern Darren's short-handled weeder-knife-thing to shame. Roddy was great at scooping up the piles of weeds and dusty dirt pulled out and swept up by the assembled mass of GoodGymmers.

Despite what the photos might suggest, Richards B and G worked really hard, too and Caroline, Jason and Helen seemed to have a race to fill the bin bags as quickly as possible so we soon ran out of official bin bag space and resorted to domestic bags.

All the bags were moved to the normal Bristol Waste pick-up spot, where we took credit for a number of green bags already there, Bristol waster will be thoroughly confused as we'd used clear (recycling) bags for the green waster and some of the green (non-recyclables) bags were blatantly full of drinks cans and bottles. Such a dilemma!

A great, if once again slightly warm, evening, finishing with a drink by the harbour at Workout where Caroline had a HUGE jug of oat milk with her pot of tea, we established everyone's birth month except Frances who protects her privacy with aplomb, and wished Ed well on his adventures to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow for his wardrobe-enhancing volunteering stint (and he's no longer on the naughty step, if anyone's asking).

See you all next week?

A warm walk, a good weed of Jerusalem Sage, dill-looking Mare's Tail, Dock and dying Sticky Bud plus some skilled shaping of berberis and then back to Workout in time for the kick off with surround sound (delayed feed) TV coverage preempted by the crowds watching outside at The Apple.

And bumping in to Richard G for a chat - all lovely.

A bit of a warm one (something of a habit this year) meant, once again, everyone joined the walking group across the city to Brunswick Cemetery for the removal (destruction) of the beautiful Jerusalem Sage and Acanthus Mollis before they spread their seeds and take over even ore of the gardens - anything that's described as a "vigorous" plant and, in this case, also "robust" make for good planting and robust, vigorous GoodGym-style weeding!

i don't think we've ever had a pile of green waste that's taller than our GoodGymmers, but we have now! We know we'll have a short-lived feeling of being in more control of the wildness in the Cemetery for a couple of weeks after all that effort, and rewarded ourselves with the July edition of GoodGym Eats at Rudy's ridiculously speedy pizza place - great food, lovely cocktail-style soft drinks with slightly furry fruit plus the usual, weird, GG Bristol chat. With air con. Perfect.