On a bright and warm Saturday morning, Henry, Axelle, Jango and myself headed to Cutteslowe Greenhouse. The raised beds the GoodGym team worked on a few weekends ago were looking good. They were filled with healthy looking lettuces which were very perky in spite of the heat.

Michael asked us to clear away a section of the site and while we were outdoors, we were thankfully in the shade! We moved bricks, rocks and pallets while Jango bounded around the site charming everyone he met. Our next task involved cutting back brambles, nettles and dead plants to access some giant planters which needed emptying. This all went smoothly until we discovered the final planter was filled with soil and chunks of polystyrene. I’d say we dug out about two wheelbarrows worth of polystyrene before we were able to dump the remaining soil onto the compost heap!

Our shady spot began to shrink, so we eventually called it a day and headed off into the afternoon sun!

(If anyone knows why you’d bury a load of polystyrene in a planter filled with wisteria, please let us know)

The Town & Gown 10k is a very popular race in the Oxford calendar. It usually seems to herald a hot and sunny sunday, but today we had grey skys and quite a chilly wind.

A quartet of Goodgymers were part of the team looking after the bag drop tent. With a record 7,000 runners at the event it was quite the undertaking.

We managed to keep things in order, not break our ankles hopping between the rows of bags, AND reunited all bags to their rightful owners at the end of the race. We were awarded with cups of tea and a very cute certificate.

Well done to Fred for his 10k PB. Lovely to see Muireann too!!

OxGrow is a gorgeous community garden nestled in the Hogacre Eco Space. Access to said garden is over a VERRRRRY tall railway bridge. Any deliveries for the garden, and any bulky rubbish leaving the garden can only go one way, up and over the bridge.

Over the years we have carried woodchip, manure, a sofa and even a very delapidated organ over the bridge and today it was the turn of bricks.........

Fortunately many hands make light(ish) work and we only carried what we could manage - LIFT WITH THE KNEES!! After a bit of puffing and panting, some excellent team work and canine encouragement from our beloved Jango we managed to get them all moved and in position for their new life as a border for some herb beds. A quick spot of bramble management and we headed off into the evening sun.

GREAT work team.