A perfect sunny day for a run along the river to St George today.

We were due to help Wellsping Healthy Living Centre with their allotment but since there was only really enough to keep 12 people occupied today and since we hate to waste a potential doing-good-opportunity we picked up a few litter pickers from Bristol Waste and put together a small task force to 'plog' around Netham park.

Strawberry Lane

The allotment at Strawberry Lane was particularly beautiful today - with the little pond looking very appealing in the sunshine. It was well worth the steep climb to get there from the river (or at least I though so). On arrival, Louise tasked our first group with moving a variety of pieces of timer and pallets from around the sheds into a pile at the other side so that they can all be burned to make more useful growing space. This involved a variety of techniques including the well-loved human chain, a few wheelbarrow loads and some pair work with the heavier sleepers.

A second group worked to move a pile of stones - some of which looked pretty heavy! The group got through this in no time and proceeded to help out with the timber and get cracking on a little digging.

In the 40 minutes we were on site the timber and stone was all moved and we look forward to returning to help fill the raised planters in a few weeks time!

Netham Park

It turned out that there wasn't actually all that much litter to be found around the park, but I'm pretty sure there was none to be found at all by the time Charlie and her team were finished. The team also found time to make friends with the group playing football there who I believe were involved in an outreach initiaitive to Ghana - even getting themselves invited to a BBQ! Thanks to all of you for agreeing to take on this less glamorous task - its always massively appreciated when everyone willingly distributes themselves where they are needed when we have multiple tasks like today, and its why I love this club so much.

Thanks to Charlie for leading the Netham group and to Jack both for back marking mine - and also for todays pun (swipe left if you like it).

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend everyone!

A day of many happy returns today as we were not only wishing Tom a happy birthday but also had two group runs on offer returning to two of our favourite task venues. Could today's big turnout have been influenced by the promise of cake from Tom? Or was it the choice of a long and short run option and two fabulous tasks, giving everyone something to look forward to?

We welcomed Russell along for his first GoodGym group run and hope you enjoyed the experience Russell!

We also congratulated Chris and Alison on their London Marathon heroics last week and Hugh who had completed the Paris Marathon a couple of weeks earlier - well done guys!

The longer option was wonderfully led by Richard who expertly guided us through town and along the gentle ascent of the Bristol Bath Railway Path to The Haven.

The Haven is a 1.3 acre oasis of countryside near Greenbank cemetery where people who have issues around their mental health and/or drug/alcohol misuse can have a safe space to relax, socialise and be involved with activity's such as gardening,art,sculpture, woodworking and nature conservation.

Here we were met by Julia and Alistair who got one group pulling out weeds and nettles from a raspberry patch, taking care not to get stung in the process and then barrowing the waste over to a compost pile. Working efficiently they soon had the patch looking clear whilst taking care not to pull out any raspberry bushes.

The other group helped out with building a dead hedge to encourage some wildlife to inhabit the area. Under the careful supervision from Alistair, including some excellent axe instruction, the group managed to strip down branches for the hedge and make stakes for supporting the hedge and by the time we left this was looking great.

All the while a duck busied itself foraging for something to eat - I'm not quite sure how successful it was but seemed very content getting it's beak dirtier and dirtier as it patrolled the area, whilst a chicken pottered around nearby.

Meanwhile, Jack led the shorter run option to Windmill Hill City Farm. Beth from the the Farm showed us the around and it was clear we were going to have to get out of a bind (weed)! The farm was in need of bindweed haircut and the team duly obliged. Grabbing the weeds and securing them in buckets to be disposed off, so they hopefully don't grow back. A robin made the best of the situation and was eating up the earthworms as we dug out the weeds!

Chris had a bit of a different environment to the hot streets of the London Marathon and found himself ankle deep in horse muck. Debs and Emma decided to test Chris's shoveling skills forming a rapid two woman wheelbarrow gang - racing to ensure that they never ran out at the other end, where it was emptied onto the ground so provide a bit of fodder to get the veggies growing well on the city farm. There was just enough time for a cup of tea and a look at the new spring animals and goat kids and lambs were very popular with all, we look forward to going back to Windmill Hill City Farm again soon.

Nice work everyone today and big thanks to Richard and Jack for getting everyone there and back safely!

Massive Saturday turn out today for our trilogy of tasks. Big thanks to Dave, Alice and Matt for helping out so we could cover all the bases and spread the red round all todays projects.

A warm welcome to Beth too for coming all the way from WorthingWandsworth to visit us in Bristol - hope you had fun!

Bear Pit Community Action Day

Our headline attraction was participation in the Community Action Day that was taking place in the Bearpit. Sadly, times have been pretty tough for some of the folks down there in recent months. In fact its been so tough that the independent businesses are having to move out after years of working to shed the space of its 'no-go' reputation and create a genuine community feel to the place. One of our longstanding hookups with Incredible Edible is also situated there - one of their flagship areas of urban edible planting.

Rather than go out on a low, all the stakeholders decided to stage one last community action day to give place a general spruce up and clean. We joined them with some weeding around the planters (which we originally painted together with Bearpit Social) and in the edible bed itself. We also had a compost team working hard to rotate the contents - and its nice to hear they managed to make this competitive with Caroline and Hugh turning their section first!

It was pretty chilly today but the morning sunshine meant this was a very pleasant way to spend a morning and we warmed up at the end with a (rather chaotic) three-way running train race around Queen Square which seemed in keeping with todays triple theme.

Shed Smash Part Deux

A second group headed off to finish off the shed we began demolishing last month. By all accounts this was also a very pleasurable way to spend a Saturday morning - especially as it involved a sledgehammer. Kudos to Dave for coming back with an empty accident book!

The shed was rather derelict and needs to be removed so Emmaus can make the very best use of the house in their work with previously homeless people.

Willow Weaving - Taking a cake from it all

Finally, Matt and Alice led a group back to Hannah More primary to finish off the willow weaving we began last weekend. This turned out to be the perfect choice as there was apparently cake on offer and Matt has history here.

When we set out this morning for Hannah More primary school I was wondering whether we'd have enough gooding for our 23 Goodgym'ers. We were due to be helping out with their Willow arch and it seemed like with so many enthusiastic helpers we might be finished in 10 minutes.

But I had reckoned without Ruth, our fantastic host who was completely prepared for us with a shopping trolley full of litter pickers and four or five raised beds containing spades and forks borrowed from Windmill Hill community farm down the road.

Willow Taming

The Willow tamers were instructed by our second host for the day Veronica, and were soon trimming low level off shoots with secateurs and winding and tying together the higher lengths to reinstate the arch, stopping only for a short chocolate biscuit break (thanks for the biscuits, Ruth!)

Double Digging

The diggers were to double dig the raised beds used for instructing the children in all things horticultural. Double Digging involves aeratingtwo spade depths of soil by removing one layer with a spade and then loosening the layer below with a fork. Sadly I hadn't done my research this time and had forgotten how to do it, for those who are interested there is a nice animation here - note that it's not actually necessary to rotate the layers but it kept Liam busy and I'm pretty sure the beds were well aerated by the end!

A different class of litter

Our litter picker team worked hard throughout and were reinforced by the diggers towards the end so they could blitz the remaining area at the front of the school. Our resident teacher Darren nodded knowingly as he removed a couple of pairs of scissors that appeared to have been cast out of a nearby window and recalled various other random items which had appeared in his class from time to time as children 'redistributed' the contents of the Scrapstore playpod.

Meanwhile, Dave and Chris had noticed some stray items up in one of the trees in the school field. Borrowing a ladder from the Willow tamers they succeeded in removing the objects including a hula hoop which was sadly not demonstrable having been cut to remove it.

Four Hundred Good Deeds for Dave

This was the week that Dave, our amazing Godfather of Goodness and all round Mission Master passed 400 good deeds. Congratulations Dave - thanks for all you do for us here in Bristol in co-ordinating all our missions and in the run leading and amazing support you provide on Saturdays.