A lovely long run along the Malago Greenway today and past the berry maze for 21 of our 22 Saturday runners. Dave (our 22nd) had diverted to collect some bulbs kindly donated by one mission recipient to another and was meeting us there. Thanks very much to Richard for backmarking.

More woodcraft skills today as Martin introduced to the beautiful setting of Manor Woods Valley (largely unchanged over the last thousand years) and explained our task.

The lengths of hazel freshly coppiced on previous visits were to be bound together to form a 'dead hedge' - a great place for hibernation, birds nests and the odd toad. This would mean shifting them to the new site while cutting some into stakes and driving them into the ground. Since the space would be quite congested, two other small groups worked to clear more path with loppers and shears. It was important that everyone had plenty of space with so many sharp tools around.

I'm pleased to report that with the loss of zero fingers and toes a sizeable hedge was indeed constructed and after a group photo we headed back in two groups with some help from Matt, Clo and Dave as run leaders and back markers.

During the stretches, Chris (our resident GG Bristol supermodel - ask him next time you see him!) invited anyone from the run today to join him for a 12k training run tomorrow, meeting at Dom's coffee house on the centre. And oif course you're all invited to either of our group runs next Saturday - just remember to come half an hour earlier for the longer option to Streetgoat!

Welcome to Cat and Katy on their first GG run today - lovely to meet you both!

Saturdays have got HUGE. An awe-inspiring 27 people arrived at Mud Dock for our run today, including 4 new members and 3 DBS checks. This is absolutely fantastic. In fact, if you were to look up the definition of 'fantastic' in the Oxford English Dictionary then this would be it.

With such a large number, I was really pleased that Dave volunteered to lead a group although it turned out that his advertised 'steady' pace was actually pretty quick and the groups blended together especially nicely on the return leg down the cycle path where there was a red river of Goodgym shirts flowing beautifully down the hill.

Our task for today was to help out at the Haven. The Haven offers people who have issues around their mental health and/or drug/alcohol misuse their own safe space where they can relax, socialise and be involved with activity's such as gardening,art,sculpture, woodworking and nature conservation.The Haven is a service user led project- everybody involved has the opportunity to plan,develop and maintain the project.

On arrival we were met by Julia and led to where we were to dig a channel so that the existing water pipe could be run below the surface from one side of the space to the other. Alistair gave us a quick demonstration of the correct spade technique and then people spaced out along the length of the hose working towards each other.

Since we had so many people today we also had two groups working to clear brambles - in one case opening up a path from the top of the site down to the bottom of the hill so access would be a bit easier as the weather starts to improve.

Now, Chris suggested that maybe I was a bit too busy taking photos today rather than getting my hands dirty but in my defence I have to say it was an amazing spectacle to observe. Comments about how we were like locusts - but good locusts - were pretty much spot on as 27 people, many of whom had never met before worked in perfect harmony to finish digging the channel and clear the path, smiling and chatting happily as they did so. I know that Julia and Alistair were really amazed - this would have taken them weeks, so well done everyone.

On return to base we took a moment to celebrate marvellous Clo reaching 100 good deeds - and of course to pass on the GG Bristol centurion outfit to its new owner. Well done Clo - and thanks for bringing all the party snacks - but can you sit at our table with them next time ;) ?

PS Don't forget to log your run today on Strava or RunKeeper so it counts towards our monthly total. If you have Strava and forgot to record it you can add it manually as we all did 8.7km today! And if you haven't yet linked Strava or RunKeeper to your GG account you can do it here

Immense! A new Saturday record of 40 Goodym'ers turned up for our bonus Christmas Eve Eve run today.

Extra special thanks to our Cardiff and Bath friends for coming all the way over to join us today - it was lovely to have so many members of our GG West family over for Christmas. We should definitely meet up more often next year!

The original plan was to help out at the Christmas shelter, but they had been so well served by volunteers during the week that they really only needed a handful of people today. So rather than put all those good deeds to waste we split into 6 groups and spread out around Bristol. (Some of the details and photos may be a little sketchy for now - the group leaders are welcome to add to their sections as they see fit!).

Time fliers pie as Charlie out reaches herself to all points central

Charlie led her group of runners around central Bristol, distributing fliers from the Christmas shelter to anyone sleeping rough on the streets. Each flier was accompanied with the offer of a mince pie, sadly without cream though.

Lisa and Graham pushing the envelope to reach All Hallows Church

Lisa and Graham kindly took on delivery of a bunch of shelter fliers to All Hallows Church in Lawrence Hill meaning that if you were to run the whole perimeter covered by our groups today you would have been taking on a 14 km run around Bristol (see photos)

Dave turns over a new leaflet at Southville

Dave's gang headed out to Southville to place GG mission leaflets at cafes and shops along North Street. The hope is that this will mean lots more elderly people will find out about Goodgym and we can brighten up their January and February by helping out with a bit gardening or simple jobs around the house.

On the way back they gave out a couple of fliers from the homeless shelter

Maria experiences St Peter's Hospice-tality as she helps out at the Broadmead branch

A last minute call to our friends at St Peters Hospice this week meant that we were able to set up yet another task for a group led  by MariatoMtoto help out at their Broadmead branch.

Matterhorn goes native-ity in epic 9K to St Albans church

Of course it had to be our very own ultra-running Matt (check out his new badge) leading the longest run today out to St Albans church in Westbury. This task to set up the Church for Christmas (including a nativity scene) proved very popular, especially when the possibility of some mulled wine was discussed.

Saving Private Room Paul to take a group to the shelter

And finally yours truly took a group out to the shelter itself where a couple of us helped out around the kitchen while the rest of us attempted to re-organise the dormitory and pass a very important message about a potential flood back from the Quakers meeting hall. Thanks to Alex once again for helping out during my more scatterbrain moments.

200 Good Deeds!

Thanks to all my group leaders and photographers. And last but not least, huge congratulations to Richard for hitting 200 good deeds today. He's too modest to make a big thing out of this, but I think everyone at GG Bristol values his kindness and loyalty - and of course enjoyed his fabulous Canal Run earlier this month!

Happy Christmas everyone - this is now genuinely the very last group run before Christmas, see you in the New Year!

Our last time at Roll for the Soul today :-( GG Bristol has been meeting here for over four years - that's an awful lot of halloumi wraps. Thanks to everyone at RftS for making us feel so welcome for all that time, we'll miss you.

Our task today was a bit of an experiment and somewhat of a challenge. We were to help out at 7 different branches of St Peter's Hospice in one morning! Most of these were in and around Clifton (the so-called Clifton cluster) which meant we were definitely headed uphill!

Special thanks at this stage to Jack, Dave, Lisa and Mel for helping to make this possible by navigating to the Broadmead and Clifton branches, freeing me up to lead the ascent up St Michael's Hill to cover the remaining 5 branches, dropping pairs of runners off at each one along the way.

So we had:

Jack and Lisa sorting clothes with Lisa learning all about men's shirt sizes and Jack learning about dress sizes.

Chris and Sarah steaming clothes and sorting dvds (does 'The' go under 'T'?)

Sarah and Fi also steaming donated clothes (with Fi demonstrating excellent refill technique - see photos)

Caroline and David steaming and sorting.

Nick and Jenny sorting donations, dvds and admiring the slightly uncanny bfg / snow white scene tucked away in the rafters (again, see photos).

Alex selling raffle tickets and Joe sorting donations (the steamer was taken).

Meanwhile Mel and Darren sorted dvds (a prize to anyone who can detect an error in the photo ;-)), Caroline on price gun and Dave and Louisa on sorting - welcome Louisa!

And by purchase:

*Raffle tickets - Alex, Nick, Jenny, Paul The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monserrat - Sarah Poncho - Caroline Gloves - Alex Tube scarf - Fi

So challenge accepted and completed! Nice work everyone.