6 GoodGymers helped out at the Kite Festival run by the wonderful Norden Farm. This is a lovely, free event, and the people of Maidenhead turned up in their droves. Viv helped with the set-up of the event, putting up gazebos and signage to help with the smooth-running of the day. Lisa was stationed at the entrance, encouraging people to make donations to help with costs and fund future events. Rachel and Sheila armed themselves with litter-pickers, although generally not much litter was dropped. It was perfect weather for kite-flying and it was lovely to see so many kites airborne and whoops of delight from the children. It was such a happy atmosphere. Georgeta and Jen joined us for the take-down but not before we had enjoyed some of the music and joined in with the bird rave (you had to be there!) . Jen took down all the signs from around site whilst we did a final litterpick, and then were sent out to remove the big advertising banners from the roadside with some rather inadequate scissors! A fun event that was great to be part of, and Jen can recommend the gelato!

Lisa, Sheila, Sol and myself made our way to the Community Allotment this evening to tend to the veggies, because we do give a fig! as a figure of speach, thanks to Sheila for the suggestion 😀 We watered the plants, we refilled the water butts and we bravely tackled the brambles and nettles overgrowth in the little orchard! And we were rewarded with the sweetest and juiciest figs that we've ever tasted, picked straight from the fig trees we've planted and replanted and tended to! All in great company!What more could one ask for?... Happy with the fruit of our labour we all headed towards our homes, some walking, some cycling.

10 Goodgymers gave an out-sanding effort tonight helping Norden Farm prepare their beach for the Summer.

12 x 1 ton bags of sand had been delivered earlier in the day, caught on camera by Amy.

Many hands definitely did make light work tonight, leaving time for us to celebrate lovely Tessa's fantastic 100th good deed.

As usual we presented a medal, ate cake baked by the wonderful Amy who also recited another one of her awesome poems:

Lots of us met Tessa on a GoodGym good deed, But I first got to know her whilst planning the Big Read.

She’s brainy with words and knows an adverb from a noun. She’s looked forward to this poem, so I mustn’t let her down.

‘Where would she go for inspo?’ I thought to myself And headed to the library, and books upon the shelf

I found heroines and superstars from cover to cover But none as brilliant as Tessa, the GoodGym Bingo lover…

When Tessa’s given a Bingo card, it’s like a magic wand It gives her wings to do great things in January and beyond.

Roahl Dahl’s little heroes had chocolate and a peach But 100 GoodGym good deeds were well out of their reach.

Never mind Red Riding Hood, three pigs or bears Tessa Allanson carried bicycles up stairs!

Forget Ingalls Wilder, forget about Heidi! Tessa helped us make the nature garden tidy!

Potter, Grainger, Weasley move aside! Tessa Allanson helped make the path more wide

Hal Beck never solved a cemetery mystery But Tessa battled ivy to reveal Spital’s history

Whilst the Famous Five drank ginger beer in Kirrin Island fort Tessa did a litter pick and wrote the run report!

Austen’s protaganists had sense and sensibility but Tessa marshals parkrun with energy and agility!

Frodo and Samwise might be legends now But I bet they’ve never been to GoodGym in Slough!

So what if Mary Poppins made the medicine go down? Tessa teaches kids to read all over town!

It may sounds like fiction, but this is a fact Tessa Allanson is a proper class act.

So put your hands together for the star of our story Tessa, deserving of all the cake and glory!

"Wilted" was the word that came to mind when brainstorming, as Lisa, Sheila, Neeta and myself met at the Community Allotment to tend to the plants on such a hot and dry summer evening. 🌞🥵🥵🌾🌾 We gave the wilting veggies a good drink of water, we couldn't refill the water butts because the tap top went missing and it's whereabouts is still a mystery, and then moved on to doing some weeding. It was really good to welcome back Neeta to GoodGym, after a long time. She's brought along her two furry babies, Coco and Bella, who both kept a watchful eye on us, while we were going about our gardening tasks. Since Neeta didn't want to be photographed, I took the opportunity to post a photo of Bella... or was it Coco?... I hope they don't mind. 🐾🐶