On a hazy, hot May Sunday morning, a quartet of Goodgym helpers joined forces with the Friends of Festival Park to rejuvenate a corner flowerbed of the Chinese Gardens site. And, we packed a punch of "p" plant love with some gardening heave-ho to boot! Festival Park friend Kate guided us in the necessary steps to plant out a peony tree (frilly flowers will come), a paeonia (related but different), a pittosporum (completing the "p" theme), all rounded off with a row of hebe (no shebe) shrubs. So, with that lot of plants lined up in their pots, we had work to do. Bekah and Dan cleared the mulch topping from the flowerbed, and unpegged the underlay to expose the bare soil ready for digging. Lucien and Sian swiftly and neatly snipped back the ivy overhanging the stone wall. Thank you secateurs. Kate pointed out that however glorious the sunshine, the lack of recent rainfall has dried up the nearby lake and hardened the earth. That left our trusty spade trying to dig holes for planting out, but to no avail. So, out came one mattock (a tool akin to a pick-axe), followed by a second, heavier specimen, sourced by Kate's husband and Festival Park friend Steve. Dan quickly got a grip on mattock number two. He unleashed a surprisingly zealous degree of power to achieve the planting depth required. Bekah set about distributing the water brought in from off-site, to hydrate the plants comfortably into their new homes. Nurturing attention. Lucien and Sian gently loosened each plant's roots, all the better to dig themselves in and set firm foundations. Then, delicately sprinkling soil back in and around, they completed the re-housing job together. Tender and touching. The team reset the underlay and raked back the mulch evenly, standing back to look proudly across a new border-full family of plants. They already looked at home, and with plenty of space to grow in the months ahead. Zooming our gaze out of this one flowerbed, Kate and XXXX relayed the value of their team's volunteering at Festival Gardens. Regular efforts keep the park tended for horticultural and recreational enjoyment alike. More friends had been simultaneously restoring neat and safe order to the children's play area towards the promenade, now fit for fun for little-uns once more. The spot we worked on is part of the Chinese Gardens, which received a major makeover back in 2011. That restored some original features from when it was created, as part of the hugely popular International Garden Festival, in 1984. That event transformed the site from an industrial wasteland and welcomed over 3 million visitors, all those forty-one years ago. Alongside our flowerbed, the Chinese Gardens also include a moon wall - a circular gateway feature which is typical of Chinese garden design. Around the other side of our spot is a large pagoda, standing impressively atop a wooden platform, beside the (currently dry) lake. It includes decorative tiles sourced in China and offers a strong flash of fiery red against the green vegetation, even with its slightly tired, mature paintwork. Above today's flowerbed once stood a second, upper pagoda, which was removed in 2015, to protect it from further damage. Our work today should contribute to a new view and experience of the Chinese Gardens. It is a Liverpool park area which holds mixed legacies of dockland communities, festival celebration, housing developments, community toil, and also the perfect place for a peaceful picnic. Back to those "p"s 😀

On this beautiful Monday evening, we headed back to Everton Park to help out Friends of Everton tackle the unwanted brambles and trees.

Armed with clippers and Saws we split into two teams to tackle two key areas of the park. It was great to welcome newbie Jessica - looking forward to see you at another task soon!

One area of the park required us to clear the brambles from the orchard, so the fruit trees could thrive. The other, to clear the trees so the Love Everton sign was visible for all!

The difference was astounding - excellent work team! However, we didn't quite get to the bottom of it, so we will be back soon!

Rather unexpectedly there was a bit of an incident when a Goodgym member's belongings had gone missing. Fortunately quick thinking and commendable reactions rectified the situation, and ultimately no damage was done. But one takeaway was the support of the whole Goodgym team, who pulled together to respond and support each other. It really demonstrated the adaptability and team-spirit of the group, and was lovely to see how well GG members look after each other.

Well a lovely big group of us turned up to Urban green-up, some cycling, some running and others walking in sunny weather.

Elaine from Urban green-up explained our previous favourite nettle pulling tasks had now made enough space to plant some robusty plants to hopefully take over the space instead of the stingy aggressive growers!

So we proceeded to layout 140 plants in a natural pattern explained to us 3 same plants together evenly spaced out and one off on its own as the black-sheep making its own new territory. Elaine then expertly checked our layouts and we started to plant away. Some of us still loved the satisfaction of getting hopefully the last of those nettles from their roots! Others also expertly litter picked the garden space to ensure the plants were the centre of attention.

With one of the first tasks where no lights were needed and several thank youse from passers-by, we pow-wowed through the session to: -pick a big pile of nettles to their roots -exterior designer layout 140 plants -proceed to plant said 140 plants -collect 2 bags of litter tightly packed

A perfectly powered up team!

Hey team,

We had a lovely spring evening for our return to Everton Park! It was great to enjoy the longer daylight hours and kick off our year's events with John. The sunshine was a real bonus, and those views across Liverpool and out to North Wales? Absolutely stunning. Big thanks to Bekah for leading our team, and to Liam, Dan and Amina for jumping right in!

Our main focus was clearing a patch of ground that had collected a fair bit of litter – think plastic bottles, general bits and bobs, and even a few rogue firework cases! We got stuck in and managed to fill four whole bags, which is a fantastic result. Plus, we gave some overgrown bushes a quick trim to tidy things up a bit.

It was brilliant to be back at Everton Park, and it was super satisfying to see the difference we made. Looking forward to heading back there soon for more volunteering fun!

"There ain't no party like a Goodgym Party"

Happy Birthday to us! This March, Goodgym Liverpool turns 7, and we were determined to mark it in style.

We were fortunate to be able to use the fabulous Events Space at DoES Liverpool, which was the perfect setting. We had a brilliant turnout with many members making the effort to come along, and it was so lovely to have some purely social time - a rare treat, without those pesky tasks getting in the way!

It was wonderful to see how absolutely everyone contributed to make the event a success, we really took the can-do energy we bring to tasks and saw it come to fruition at our own event. From the bunting and party hats, to an absolutely fabulous buffet which included home-made: fried chicken, chocolate roulade, goats cheese & caramelised onion tarts, a variety of salads, salt & pepper sausage rolls, oat & raisin cookies, & chocolate brownies! Plus a huge selection of sides, snacks, and sweet treats - not to mention a fabulously decorated and personalised Goodgym birthday cake.

Alas, this celebration also marked the final - and 1001st - task of original Goodgym member Pauline. Pauline was there at the very first session 7 years ago and has been a committed and dedicated core member ever since, taking up Coach sessions as well as tasks and missions. It was very emotional to know this was her last session, but we sent her off in style with flowers, champagne, chocolates, a beautiful memory book with photos and memories of her sessions over the years, and a one-off bespoke personalised blue Goodgym t-shirt, in the colours of her beloved Everton FC. Pauline, it's been an absolute priviledge having you as a member, you've supported GG Liverpool and its members endlessly, and your enthusiasm, calm can-do attitude and easy way socially has been a blessing to literally hundreds of people in the community. It's a real loss to lose you but we wish you nothing but the best as your start a new chapter of your life with wonderful husband Miles. The door is always open to come visit us in the future.

It would have been remiss not to celebrate last-man standing Sophie, our dear and dedicated run leader who is now the only remaining member from that very first Liverpool session 7 years ago. The ever-thoughtful Sallyann presented Sophie with a small gift as a token of our appreciation for all the work Sophie does for us.

Sally Ann also had the wonderful idea of us writing down what Goodgym means to us, and taking a photo of the collection of comments for posterity. Check out the photos to see what we came up with - it was quite emotional seeing the impact GG has on the lives of it's members. It's certainly a two-way street - our wonderful members put so much in to helping their community, and in turn the GG community gives so much back. It was lovely for task owner Vicky from Litter Clear Volunteer join us too, Vicky works tirelessly making the local community a lovely place to be, and it was a treat to see her socially and share this special evening with her.

The "thank you" list for last night is long, but in this case it's worth stating, as everyone put in effort to make the event the huge success it absolutely was. We had the best time and it really re-iterated what makes GG special.

With special thanks to:

• Siân, Lucien, Clara for the homemade food and helping with set up & post-party clean up

• Miriam for the amazing birthday cake and all the hard work on Pauline's beautiful memory book gift

• Sophie, Emma, Eleanor, Jo & Liam for the contributions to party-ware and the buffet (including a very generous bottle of champagne!)

• Steph for the homemade brownies

• Pauline for the lovely cakes

• Dan for the festive bunting and homemade roulade

• Asavari for bravely joining us at a social for only her second session - so lovely to see you again!

• Ema for making a huge effort to join us despite ill-health, and for the fun party hats, banners, and decorations

• Sallyann for her tireless hard-work, effort and thoughtfulness which massively contributed to making the event really special

• Bekah for finding that gem of a venue, and the famous salt and pepper sausage rolls

• And shout out to Heetu who sadly couldn't join us in person but was very much there in spirit and contributed her time and effort so generously to Pauline's leaving gift - Heetu you're an absolute genius

It was a really beautiful night showing just how special Goodgym and it's members are. Thank you all for your phenomenal effort both with our party and throughout the year. We all left on a real high, grateful to have so much to celebrate.