On a beautiful sunny day, 5 Goodgymers met in an allotment in Bath. The allotment space was dedicated to the Life Project a charity that helps disabled people in Bath.

We were shown an area of land which hadn't been used for years. It was overgrown with grass and becomes quite inaccessible in the summer. Our task was to clear the area so that wild flower seed could be planted. Rachel, Mark, Jer and Jane took on the challenge.

It appeared quite easy on the surface. However with the first strike of the spade to the ground the team found that the grass had other ideas. With limited rain in the past month the ground was like stone. The spades vibrated off the ground and the grass stood proud. They soon adopted a new technique, and some moved to forks and eventually they managed to begin to clear the area. It took a whole two hours of effort and sweat to clear just half of the area for four of the volunteers. Well done team!

Helen had a different task. Due to a bad back, Helen's job was to sand down the planters so that they would be ready for painting. An easy task it appeared on the surface, but too was not as it seemed. For Helen was given a trowel for the job :) A few hours later and with the help of Jer and Rachel, we cleared four planters of paint ready for the next time.

The team did a fantastic job for the charity, ate Jaffa cakes and got fit in the process! What's not to love.

We continued with our mammoth effort of creating a learning and adventure space at St Martin's school in Odd Down. This week we were laying down bark chipping on the areas that we had already added membranes to. There are now 3 sections that are nearly complete - all they need is a sprinkling of 'top-soil' bark chipping to finish them off.

Today we cleared the fourth big area, laid down membrane on it, added stakes and planks to form a border and added the first layer of bark chipping onto it. Clearing the area involved digging up some very stubborn tree stumps and clods of tree roots. The team transporting and laying the bark chip had their hands full as well with lots of trips up and down the slope all morning.

Luckily the rain held off for most of this session unlike a few weeks ago!

Next weekend is the final push to get the last section finished and add the rest of the bark chip. That way everything will be ready for when school starts back in September.