On a very sunny Saturday five goodgymers met at a community garden to help out. There were plenty of jobs to do. Some, such as planting strawberries and weeding, were more fragrant than others, such as turning over the compost (and discovering more worms than we’d ever seen before!) but they all made a big difference for a much loved local space. A big welcome to Leanne, Kevin, Carmelina and Phil, all of whom came to their very first session. Great to have you along and hope to see you again soon - hopefully for a less wormy task!

A change to our normal group run day, the threat of pouring rain, and a huge challenge to shift hundreds of bags of compost up a big flight of stairs did not put off a small but hardy group of GoodGymers last night.

Easter Monday meant that we made the decision to change our usual Monday run to Tuesday, which did leave us feeling a little discombobulated, but we had been asked by Doddington garden to help with a huge job and we did not want to disappoint! They have been donated hundreds of bags of compost by the council, but the volunteers who manage the garden are having trouble getting it all up to the roof garden.

So after a warm up, during which we discussed footie teams (the only true fan was Dylan, who supports enough teams for the all of us!), we ran down in the increasing rain to the community garden.

The challenge was immediately evident - four huge pallets containing about 60 bags of either 25 litre or 50 litres of compost sat waiting for us. Wasting no time we got stuck in, each taking a section of the stairs. There was no doubt it was hard going, and proved to be an excellent workout for both arms and legs. After 45 minutes of very hard work, we called it a night, and covered in mud and soaked through we headed back to base.

An amazing job, well done everybody! Next week we're going to be helping out at Waste not Want Not, hope to see you then.

We also have loads of community missions coming up, from litter picking to emptying raised beds back at Doddington, so keep an eye out for one you fancy!

Eleven GoodGymers, two tasks, 52 playing cards and one great Monday evening - that was last night in numbers!

It was great to see some familiar faces back (even if it's only briefly - we'll miss you Eva!) and to welcome new ones. Great to have you join us James, especially as you bring with you gardening expertise!

After some warm ups we went round the group revealing what star sign we were, and if we believed in what that was meant to say about us. There were some definite skeptics, a couple of believers, and the majority were unsure either way. With stars in our eyes we set off for our tasks for the evening.

The Omnibus theatre is a charitable organsation that aims to the arts to everybody. They receive no central government funding, so we're happy to come along and support them where we can. Last night we had the choice of washing down the many (many) windows, or working in the garden, a space we have custodianship of with the plan of growing crops to donate.

While most of the group opted for the garden and got cracking digging over the soil ahead of the mulch delivery we are getting from the council this week, Jordan, Eva, Beth and Sophie began preparing to clean the windows. Unfortunately a few issues beyond our control, including a sick DM, meant that we weren't overburdened with equipment. However, there was plenty of GG spirit to go around and some makeshift cleaning stuff meant that the windows were given a bit of love. Just don't mention what had made a home under one of the buckets in the courtyard!

Before too long the garden had been thoroughly dug over, the weeds removed, the fig tree admired, the future of the peas debated, and everything was looking much better. Great job everybody.

All that was left was our fitness session, which this week involved two teams competing for who could win the most cards. After several minutes of hard fought competition, the result couldn't have been tighter, in a nail-biting 17 v 18 finish! What an effort from everybody.

Next week I'll be away, so we'll be replacing the group run with a community mission at an Age UK centre, which will be lead by the brilliant Catherine. Feel free to run together as a group from the BAC as normal, or meet at the task directly. You can find all the details right here. Have a great week everybody!