Freezing conditions tonight! Frost covered pavements, black ice on the roads and an arctic wind to top it all off too. Perhaps unsurprisingly the YMCA members didn't fancy meeting us on the allotment tonight. It was evident that they had been doing quite a lot of work up there recently though. Even in the pitch black we could see the differences compared to our previous visit. There were some lovely fairly lights twisted around the poles of the old poly-tunnel adding a nice sparkle to proceedings, alongside the twinkling moonlit frost underfoot. The paths were looking spick and span; there were no weeds in sight anywhere! Likely having retreated back into the -by comparison- warm ground beneath the paving slabs.

We decided to head down to GoodGym's bed at the far end of the plot to carry out some simple maintenance. The rainbow and standard chard that we planted ages ago is still going really strong! We always love to see the produce we've planted thriving away, especially in such harsh conditions. As well as the show stealing chard, there are also some really strong support acts. In the middle there is what I think is fennel, but it was too dark and frozen to be sure. The final act is an ensemble of onions at the far side. These seem to be fairing well still. We did a little bit of weeding in the bed and the path beside it to keep it looking in top condition through the winter months.

Our bed is the best looking one in the whole plot (I say in a completely unbiased fashion!).

We finished off our time in the allotment with some hand-numbing push-ups on the wooden benches. Then ran back down to Glasshouse to stretch off and debrief.

The nights are really drawing in now, and feeling decidedly chilly too. Good thing that the task tonight was of the indoor variety then. As ever we set off from Glasshouse at 6.45pm prompt. Before running to the task we did some warm up exercises. We started with some barn door openers walking through the courtyard area, much to the delight of all the people sat drinking in the nearby bar. Just to draw even more attention (and warm up the arms) we did some windmill arms whilst skipping too. What a sight to behold! Not satisfied with this alone, we finished the warm up by doing some squat jumps out of the Glasshouse compound. Following the warm-up it wasn’t much of a run down to the charity shop. It took all of about 2 minutes. At the shop we had a good ol tidy up and left it looking looking sharp.

The run back was a simple and short affair, finishing, as ever, with stretches back at Glasshouse.

First things first, to set the scene, this evening was dark, damp and dingy. We dutifully turned up at Buckley Methodist Church and after some messaging on WhatsApp we finally breached the threshold. We found the team already starting to get prepared for the night ahead. Jo was sandwich making, Trev was on hot drink duty making up flasks of tea, coffee and hot chocolate, and Jack was busy overseeing it all. Before opening the doors for the night we chipped in and made up some bags ready for distribution. The bags this evening consisting of a Rocky bar, a bag of crisps, a bag of select biscuits, either a cheese or ham sandwich, a carton of juice and a bottle of water. After aiding with the nights preparations we garnered some information about possible locations where people might be staying who don't make the trip to visit the drop-in. Tonight there were two or three main places to check out: the entrance porchway at St Mary's, the covered shelf outside one of the gyms in town and some of the greenspaces/parks in the center.

At St Mary's we found that the sheltered entrance area with benches had been security-gated off. How caring and good the church truly is! The homeless only used it at night and didn't leave a mess. We did a lap of the church to see if they were camped in the grounds like they used to be but only found a sleeping bag and cover stashed behind the bins. Further around we found a bag of clothes and bits left by the side of the road! Our next stop of the evening was the window shelf outside one of the gyms in town. This was a known camp location for one particular individual who speaks very little English. He wasn't there either and there was no evidence of anyone staying there (we think he may have been housed). Lastly we did a quick sweep of some of the other previous camp locations where we had previously found people, one of the pocket parks and some doorways. Alas, we didn't find anyone anywhere.

All that was left for us to do was head back to Buckley to drop off our bags and report what we had (or hadn't) found. It's likely that people are staying in the church area at St Mary's still so the BCDP are going to check there later on.

Tonight we were off to litterpick in Locke Park. The park in the dark can be a scary prospect. What might be lurking in the shadowy bushes?! I'll tell thee what, a terrifying amount of trash. Being in the depths of winter now we were on our own as Anne is hibernating.

Arriving in the dark park, bags and pickers were deployed and thusly used to remove litter from the bushes in the central area. We removed cans, bottles, wrappers and cigarettes. All of the usual gubbins. After 45 minutes of picking we started to wind up, depositing the bags of bits in nearby bins.

As the run up to the park is a constant uphill affair and we were persistently picking for an hour, an extra fitness session was forgone in lieu of just running back to base. Once back at Glasshouse, we stretched off and parted ways.

A drab evening in Barnsley was spruced up by a sprightly sprint up to Locke Park. Once at the park we accessed the shed near the sculptures and murals to retrieve some tools for a spot of grounds maintenance . The plan was to walk around the park inspecting beds and removing litter as needed. Armed with some bags, pickers and a trowel incase we saw any weeds, we skillfully circumnavigated the park. The darkness of the 'parkmess' made this task even more challenging!

The darkness of the parkmess

Two whole bags of litter were picked in and around the park, and a couple of pesky weeds that really stood out to us in one of the beds were pulled up too. After around 50 minutes in the park it was time to call it a day. A fitness activity was forgone, with it being agreed that the run up to the park at some pace was enough of a workout alongside the pick itself. Patting ourselves on the back we trotted back down the hill to Glasshouse to stretch off.

Tonight was a task of a different sort to usual. We were helping Small Peter with drafting work experience advertisements for business studies students. This involved a lot of creative thinking and gave the old brain muscles a good work out... It was nice to have something very different to do at the shop from the usual fare of sorting clothes and moving stuff.

Snakes and ad(min)ers

After spending an hour doing lots of admin based tasks to help out the staff of the charity shop we said our goodbyes and trotted off to stretch back at Glasshouse.

What a lovely sunny evening for a run up to the beautiful Locke Park. An evening made all the more lovely courtesy of Raleigh, GoodGym's new partner, who provided us with special treats- a card containing two speciality chocolates and an exclusive offer of 10% off at www.raleigh.co.uk for GoodGym members in attendance on launch night. The varieties of chocolate on offer tonight were dark almond sea salt (51% cocoa), dark (71% cocoa), white raspberry popping candy, white and milk hazlenut. We like our new sponsor already!

Up at the park we were met at the storage locker by Anne and Zak. The jobs in store for us tonight included raking leaves from the bank sides beneath the trees down to the bottom of the slope, then scooping them up and putting them into rubble sacks for later collection by the gardener. The sacks can only be filled to a certain weight or he won't take them away. the rule of thumb was to fill them to about three quarters fullbut this was dependant on the wetness of of the leaves in each bag, and the size of the bag too.

There were various methods employed to get the leaves from the ground into the waiting bags. A piece of board held in each hand to grab up the leaves, two hand shovels used in a similar fashion, a rake and spade combo, and the classic hands only approach. Daniel focused on raking the leaves down from the top of the bank, Kirsty was also on raking duty (though at lower altitudes), Anne was bagging, sweeping and generally doing everything, and James was using the two boards to scoop up oodles of leaves and also organize the rubble bags. Meanwhile, Zak was guarding the trolley with all of the equipment in. Working as a team we managed to fill 6 and a half huge bags full of leaves. With all available bags filled we dragged them into a line for the gardener to collect and also for a good photo op.

After all of the bag and leaf excitement we said goodbye to Anne and Zak for another month and headed in search of the movable exercise equipment. When we had all located the equipment (after first heading in different directions) we heard what the fitness session would entail. Everyone was to choose a piece of starting equipment and we would do 45 seconds of full exertion exercise on that piece before having a short break to move onto the next piece. This was repeated until everyone had completed a high energy exercise on each piece. James set a timer for 45 seconds on his phone which was started once everyone was in position on their machine. Everyone put in a stellar effort on every one, and before we knew it we had achieved a full body workout having utilized all 8 machines.

All that was left to do after the super effort put in on the machines by everyone was to finish the run and stretch off.

Super job, as always, tonight everyone!

This evening we met three Peter's to help out in the Hope in Community charity shop. Tall Peter and Small Peter were tonight joined by Big Peter, making up a terrific trio of Peters. We had our own topnotch trio though, made up of Cracking Kirsty , Jolly James and Daring Daniel.

Our task for the night was to move goods from the lock-up premises, near the old BCDP location, down the road to the Hope in Community charity shop. We only had one set of keys for the storage location so there had to be someone minding the building at all times, and we rotated who held this role. There were lots of bags of donated clothes in bin bags to be ferried down, large boxes full of disposable cups and many, many boxes full of Old Spice shower gel!. Most of the clothes were in very thin and weak bin bags, which Kirsty found out first hand when crossing a road with some full bags; the bags split half-way across said road and the clothes within spilled out onto the asphalt below. Thankfully there were no cars coming and James was nearby carrying a box of cups, able to offer assistance. Some of the fallen clothes were placed on top of James' box and the rest were safely carried by clothes horse Kirsty! Meanwhile Daniel was busy lugging crates of shower gel down the hill, and James was transporting boxes of cups with bags of clothes hung beneath. It was hard to see where to walk whilst carrying a huge box of cups so it was best practice to walk with someone else, especially because their were scaffolding poles to navigate, a busy road to cross, and quite a few slightly tipsy Irish people in skirmishes around the pub we had to walk past, still on the go from St Patrick's day it seemed. Some of them even tried to force their way into the charity shop, hence the need to keep doors locked and a Peter inside. Undeterred however we carried on carrying, even running back up the hill after delivering goods down it, eager to save time and get some hill reps in too!

The Spice Routes were perilous, but we ran through ramshackle ramparts and past treacherous taverns safely with our trolleys of exotic Old Spice!

It was such a big job tonight that we stayed slightly later than usual (with everyone's agreement) and it was decided to forgo the exercise session that I had planned for afterwards as we were doing a lot already- the heavy lifting, trolley pulling, trolley pushing, trolley steering, bin bag dropping, car avoiding, bin bag carrying, crate filling, crate carrying, hill running and box unpacking being more than enough exertion for the night.

We had managed to get a whole side of the shop cleared and moved in the extended time that we had been there. I'm always amazed by how much GoodGym Barnsley can get done in a relatively short space of time! The 'after' photo doesn't quite show all we did, as we decided to shift the last few crates too; never leave a job half finished... apart from sometimes!

With the job well done, we said our goodbyes to the now two Peter's (we had mislaid one of them during the course of the evening) and headed back to Glasshouse for a debrief and a stretch off.

Great job GoodGymers and the three Peters!