On a fine and sunny Monday, the Oxford Goodgymers met at the West Oxford Community Centre for an evening of planting, painting, and plogging. After a run briefing and welcoming Gemma to the group we set off to our task, trotting down the Thames Path, ducking under low bridges and avoiding tiny dogs along the way.

We met our pal Tim from Oxford City Council at Hythe Bridge Street to collect tools, paint, and plants.

Our task was to put a second coat of paint over some graffiti which we had started to cover in June and to plant some ivy and honeysuckle in the area to dissuade more graffiti from appearing. Spades and paintbrushes in hand our merry band of 7 made short work of the painting and planting. After 45 minutes the walls were clean and painted (thanks to Aoife’s dab-dab-dab top tip) and the plants happily in the ground and draped artistically over the slightly unsightly bin store.

Bidding a fond farewell 'til next month we surprised people going for their evening strolls by enthusiastically using the benches by the Oxford Canal for our workout. It’s always fun to have an audience for squats, step ups and lunges, and we were all very admiring of Mark’s bouncy mountain-climber technique.

We took the scenic route back to base, meandering along the canal and heading towards Port Meadow. After a quick stop off to play on the monkey bars (props to Gemma for beasting them!) we ran across the beautiful Port Meadow. Sadly this is a big litter hot spot, especially when the weather has been so sunny. Horses and cows graze on the land and there have been some heart-breaking deaths after the livestock eat litter left behind by picnic-ers. We did an impromptu litter pick, filling our bag in less than 10 minutes, and then continued along the Thames Path back to base.

It was a fab evening, so lovely to keep the run off road and complete a task started earlier in the year. Thanks to Julia for the pun!