We were all over the maze, cutting edges, tidying and weeding the garden beds. The sun teared through the grey skies, the last bits of it as Autumn turns. A respectable spread of refreshments was on offer. Barney was happy with the tidying, and Good-gymers were rewarded with a raffle from the refreshments bag.

A general tidy up today at Manor Valley Woods. Our group split into several smaller teams and tackled the brambles in the new and old orchards, and cleared the path up to the rabbit field.

A wide selection of tools was employed - shears, garden fork .. and loppers.

We finished with one of the last bottles of MVW apple juice

A return visit to Brunswick was on the cards for a fabulous collection of GoodGymmers in surprising humidity. Runners and walkers set off in good time and were soon assessing the very dry grass with very green thistles and other weeds.

With path to find, weeds to dig and brambles to chop it was a hive of activity and fortunately not a hive of stinging insects. Though Vaguely Northern Darren upped the stinging game by tackling the tall nettles that had gone very dry but were evidently still potent.

Excellent weeding squatting technique was on show from Dushyant and Cameron whilst Phill adopted a more hamstring- stretching seated pose - great to hear that Phill's able to start a gentle return to running. A delicate forking and cutting technique was adopted by Richard, Russ, Marianne and Frances whilst Jason and Melanie cut back some reaaaaaalllllly long brambles that have grown over the Jerusalem sage we cut back earlier in the summer. A big-fork side task to dig out some human-looking fingers that were actually Acanthus Mollis that people pay to have in their gardens but grows like a weed i the Cemetery so some of it had to go.

And then we were off to Workout to be sad that regular barman Carrick has left but Paige the boss was there inducting new starter Charlie (maybe - note to check) and we explained that leaving the coffee machine on until 8.15 on a Tuesday is a good plan. All to accompany Marianne's fantastic mystery-ingredient "protein superfood" chocolate bites covered in hundreds and thousands. The mystery ingredient wasn't raw chicken but you'll have to come along to find out what it was.

We'll tell you next time we see you!

A short session for some of us today, due to the last of the hot weather. Kudos to Dushyant for arriving early and getting stuck in right away.

The task was to clear pathways around the orchard trees to facilitate access and in preparation for fruit picking later in the year. Following that, there was time to clear pathways up to the rabbit field - and to sample some of the early blackberries.

We finished with some locally sourced apple juice - as is the Manor Woods custom.