What a night of celebration we have tonight as 15 goodgymers, old and new, join to take on the task at the community orchard.

Firstly we welcome our 2 new runners, welcome to the Cardiff crew Evie and Simon.

CROESO

Then we had our pre-celebration for a very special birthday for Llion, followed by a night of fun celebrations at the flyte club.

Penblwydd hapus

After initial greetings and chats, we set off the walkers first on a slightly shorter and quicker route, before Lucy led the runners off through the park on a different route. We had the return of our water rolling barrel baddies, the bowsers, which allowed us to transport 80 litres of water in total at a time. Michael ran with them initially, until we hit the park and then the running challenges could begin. Each runner took a turn of running with a single bowser, and this certainly engaged the concentration as those contraptions had a mind of their own at times.

Our first stop along the way was at the cricket changing rooms, where the outside tap was situated. we picked four people to stay back and fill up the bowsers, whilst the rest ran over to the orchard to meet up with the walkers. Michael gave a quick briefing on the tasks, and a quick overview of the orchard project - which was really looking well settled on just its second year.

We had a couple of tasks tonight, so we split the group up to tackle them,

• running the bowsers back and forth to get filled
• watering the orchard
• collecting seeds from a couple of plants

Michael handed out brown envelopes for the seed collecting, and showed everyone which plants we were collecting from and how to get the most seeds. Our plants of choice were foxgloves and honesty.

Did you know?

The Welsh for foxgloves is "Ffion", remember that next time you meet someone with that name. Other translations are "bysedd y cŵn" and "Maneg Ellyllyn".

After a good half an hour of running back and forth, collecting seeds and Michael eating blackberries from the bushes like a feral animal, it was time to collect everything together, including ourselves, take a group photo and head back. Michael had to leave us at this point to drop off the bowsers at another location so that he could then join everyone for the birthday celebrations and darts.

Thanks to everyone for coming, expect some foxglove planting sessions in the orchard next year thanks to all of the seeds collected.

What a night that was as a good 12 of the goodgym crew arrived eager to help out at this week's task. The gang, made up of joggers, walkers and a cyclist meeting us directly there.....All are welcome.

We were back to our friends for the first time this year at St. Edwards this evening, to do work in the Church grounds in support of Forget Me Not Cafe and the Gardening as Therapy Project.

Our Tasks

• Stripping Christmas tree branches
• Scattering Clover Seeds

Our area activator Michael has recently started looking into rewilding spaces and as such managed to get quite a few different varieties of seeds to help biodiversity. Knowing of the project, we offered some up to Kathie who was very happy to accept as part of their wildflower meadow. Our scattering crew, lit for the evening by Emma, were Dylan and Emily.

Whilst the rest of the team got to work as choppers, chippers and snippers - getting the stump! It was short work on the task as we filled the green waste bags ready for the council to collect and took the stump around to the front of the building. The stump (in case you were wondering) is going to be repurposed inside the Church for an Easter Cross.

A quick tidy up and group photo and it was time to head back, where most of the group were heading off for bottomless pancakes.

Join us next week as we head over to Samye - sign up HERE

Once again Coldplay took over the city, and transport started to move backwards.....Even Michael struggled to get to the start location on time for todays group activity.

Due to the concert some of our regulars couldn't make it into the City but we are goodgym and will not let a little thing like 70,000 people get in our way!

So to the task.......

We had received an email towards the end of last week from our friends at Cwtch Together - they had spotted some new plant popping up, and after some investigation discovered that it could be toxic for the children. After a few questions, Michael offered to bring to group to go on a plant hunt.

First - the health and safety - nothing without gloves today people.....and we will be fine, no eating the plants, they are not lovely berries!

Emma, Michael and Andrew were on spotting duty, with Emma and Andrew then getting 'deep deep down' as they dug up the plants, and as many of the bulbs as possible.

Martin and Nathan were on grass duty, cutting and strimming, with Llion weeding along the way.

And finally Emma.....

The Fire Starter

The job here, to use the weed device that heats the plants within the cracks of the pavement - stopping the plants growing. (Not quite as intense as the GIF)

It's Learning TIME

Common name Lords-and-ladies, cuckoo pint

Botanical name Arum maculatum

Areas affected Shady or woodland edge beds and borders, uncultivated ground

Main causes Self-seeding and distribution of rhizome fragments

Timing Leaves and flower spathes from spring and berries in the autumn, but tubers persist in the soil year-round

Plants can spread quickly by self-seeding and the unintentional distribution of rhizome fragments around the garden, for example in home compost. The deep rooting tubers multiply each year and are difficult to remove entirely, with fragments left behind in the soil regenerating quickly.

Tubers are swollen, usually underground, parts of a stem or root used to store food by the plant. They have buds that can produce new plants. Examples are tuberous begonia, cyclamen, dahlia and potato.