It was great to welcome back Mel and Paul for their second task with us - Luckily it was dry and marginally less dark than their first task with us last week! Both got stuck into digging a trench for the bulbs to be scattered in. Progress was swift!

Propped on a bench, it was also great to have our dedicated photographer, Belinda who is re cooperating from a foot operation capturing some lovely shots. Thank you for turning out on a November night when you could have snuggled on the sofa with a boxed set and Jellybean the 🙀

Gillybean was in charge tonight and armed with boxes and a large sack of daffodils and other spring flowers she shared out carefully between us all.

Paul and John dug out the border on the other side of the garden before planting the allocated bulbs there too. All work tonight was aided by Uncle Ivo's GG work lights :)

Paula dug out a half moon bed where we had previously planted sunflowers. Whilst the area needs a lot more TLC, this garden should look very pretty in the spring months.We will return to sort the grass and weeds another time!

Whilst the rest of the team went home , Mel and I headed out for a very sociable and enjoyable 2 km run.

Job well done :)

Have a great week and see you next time

Julia xx

**A big GG Worthing welcome 🙏

On a dark drizzly night at the end of October we were really pleased to offer a very warm GoodGym welcome to Mel and Paul who joined us for the first time on our task tonight. It was so good to meet you both and we sincerely hope it will be the first of many tasks together.

Despite the darkness and rainy conditions there was plenty of cheery chat :)

There is an area of Goring Greensward that is not covered by Worthing Borough Council bins and attracts a lot of rubbish. As a dog walker in the area it has been bugging me for a while. Last month myself, together with Mr and Mrs Robinson ( aka John and Belinda) we had made a really great start but tonight, with more people and armed with our trusty GG work lights together with bright head torches, we continued this fantastic work.

In the course of the task I learned that Sarah and Ryan have recently been to Italy - did anyone know this ? If they hadn't before the task they certainly will do by now ! However, on returning from running, both of them completed their virtual Great south Run on Saturday and Sunday in signature style - well done both of you :)

Ricky had also completed his VGSR in true Ricky style and pace - many congratulations :) Ricky was very illuminated tonight ( see the photo) which, given the theme of the evening @thisgirlcan ' lifting the curfew' was perfect timing.

Daisy also happened to mention about her up and coming holiday in the Lake District where the weather looks forecast to be dry ! Regardless of the weather Daisy will love it - tonight she especially loved clearing up all the litter ( quite competitive ! )

As ever, Paula and Barbara dug in tonight with their usual energy and good humour helping to ensure that, despite the weather, the task was a really worthwhile one.

With the dark nights here we will continue to do good in the community throughout the winter months - your continuing participation and support is much appreciated. In addition to the Monday night tasks and community missions, I will be adding in fitness and socials to help us through too :)

Have a great week

Julia xx

Fading light

We arrived at St Botolph's on what had been a very gloomy day, meaning the light was fading fast. It was our last visit of the year to this pretty church garden under the watchful eyes of Rik and Val. However we will be aiming to get some work done at Heene Church rooms over the winter months,

Roxy and Suegot stuck straight into sweeping leaves with Belinda getting her steps in, wheelbarrowing big piles of leaves to and from the compost heap.

Paula and John worked on digging over the doomsday font that we had spectacularly unearthed several years ago before planting up some palms and other shrub that Val had provided. John, Roxy and I also moved a huge stone from the font area around the corner to where the other large stones/ rocks reside - Roxy stepped into help after I got distracted after completing 50% of the task !

Sue from Heene Cemetery did some great sweeping whilst Rik and Val, our leaders, beavered away weeing and clearing moss from gutters.

Happy Birthday to me!

Roxy had very kindly made me a yummy chocolate cake birthday which was still warm so we shared it out and I took home the remainder-such a kind thought. Thank you Roxy!

Next Monday

We are at Heene cemetery for our final visit of the year - Ideally we would like to start at 5:30 pm to catch the light.

*Welcome *

Tonights pun is dedicated to the newest members of our GG family

Handsome Ben was born to our very own Natacha and Steve last Friday whilst Nick and I welcomed our beautiful granddaughter Frankie Bea into the world last Wednesday. Very exciting all round ( and busy !) May they both have a wonderful life - maybe they may date each other one day 🤣😍

Mondays task

Back to this evenings task ..... We met up with Val and Rik who coordinate the volunteering in the church garden. Val is always super organised and has all the tasks on a board which is colour coded for both choice together with intensity guidance.

Gillybean got stuck in with digging out more unwanted shrubs ( I can't remember the name of them 🤣) It was good to learn that her heel is gradually improving and that she's getting the medical help she needs to expedite the process.

Belinda and Sue picked a high energy and very prickly job of pulling out very large brambles. They managed to clear a huge area so a great job done 👏

John also picked the strenuous job of digging over the area behind the old air raid shelter . The aim was to try and get it levelled too. Its fair to say that John went a long way to make this happen !

Barbara and Paula buddied up to pull persistent ivy off the stone wall. Paula was fresh from her 60th Birthday celebrations 🍾 and it was great to hear all about her adventures - especially the zip wire one! 😀

It was great to see Anne tonight who was helping Sue from Heene Cemetery with some pruning and sorting whilst Val dug over the compost heap and generally organised the whole task 😇

With the October light fading fast we finished up with a group photo and some chatter !

We are back next week for our final visit of the year to St Botolphs before the light goes.

Have a great week everyone and spare a thought for the sleep deprived new parents!

Julia xx

Birthday Celebrations 🍺 for John

It was a great turn out for Johns special day.

We spent 45 minutes doing a very productive litter pick of the surrounding areas. The Birthday boy himself, John teamed up with Mrs R, Belinda and together with Daisy Roxy and Paula they headed off in the direction of Windsor Lawns. For Daisy this was an irresistible opportunity for a competition to see who could fill their bag more 🤣 which they all good naturedly joined in with. For Mr and Mrs R it must surely have also been a trip down memory lane where they used to live.

Heading out in the opposite direction were our intrepid explorers Sarah and Ryan who were fresh from a weekend walking from Hove to Hastings. Joining them today was also Gillybean and Sue. We all feel for Gill who is missing her beloved running with a heel spur injury 😪.

Finally Barbara myself and Sueconcentrated on the area around Splashpoint where there was loads of rubbish caught in bushes 🥺

After completion we all headed up to the pub to raise a glass and knife and fork to John where we were joined by parents to be Natacha and Steve together with Ricky and Nick too. Happy Days 😍

Little by little

This was our third visit back to this leisure centre garden. It's a project that we have kind of adopted as we found it sad to see it uncared for. Gillybean has always led the way on this task and we are always happy to get behind her ideas to give a helping hand.

Tonights task was to get the rectangular area of ground prepared and planted with grass seed.

Belinda armed with John's pads got straight down on her knees to weed. Paula was also part of the weeding team and the two of them also chatted about their up and coming BIG Birthdays and how they were feeling about the milestone together with how they may be celebrating them.

John himself, got some great pruning of shrubs and brambles done at the far end of the garden where its very overgrown whilst chatting to Daisy who was busy raking reading for sowing.

Roxy in her signature style got into some energetic digging followed by scattering the grass seed and watering.

Gillybean was part of the weeding, raking and sowing team with me pitching in wherever needed including lots of watering, plus the all important, taking of photos.

We will wait to see how the grass seed takes and return to dig some borders so that we can plant lots of bulbs which will make it look wonderful next Spring

Next week it's John's Birthday so we will be combining a litter pick / walk / run with some celebrating 🍾 😀