There were bells on a hill
But I never heard them ringing
No, I never heard them at all
'Til there was you

There were birds in the sky
But I never saw them winging
No, I never saw them at all
'Til there was you

So sang a young Paul McCartney in 1963. The link between GoodGym Bath in 2026 and the Beatles is that we were ourselves using a 'Till' today, to till the ground. It's a tenuous link driven by the need to find a decent pun but I'll take it.

I have attempted to add to the lyrics with my own, describing the task that drew Ruth, Aaron, Bennath and Meyrick to Bath City Farm on such a surprisingly sunny and warm April morning.

There were four on a hill
But I never saw them planting
No I never saw them at all
'til there was you

Fifteen Hazel trees
But I never saw their saplings
No I never saw them at all
'til there was you

Then there was digging
And wonderful poses
They tell me on steep sunbaked hillsides
Of brawn and hew

There were spades all around
But I never heard them digging
No, I never heard it at all
'Til there was you

(And just for the purposes of copyright, lyrics by Lennon-McCartney-Williams)

OK, rubbish pun - I've done better. However, what a wonderful mission this was. It's beginning to feel like spring is here now, and this evening was dry and mild if slightly wanting for a little more sunshine.

We always love missions at St John's Court, we meet a few of the residents every time (and they are lovely). Their response to our presence is so warm and welcoming we really feel like we are making a difference to people's lives. These life-changing individuals were Ruth, Tanya, Emily, Bennath and Meyrick.

This mission was all about weeding, exactly the same section as we do every spring, the patio outside the common room gets overrun by the all manner of nasties and it's our job to remove them. Supplied with some awesome tools to complete the job, including a battery powered crevice tool (which to our credit we shared amongst us all before it's battery died).

We did a lot in the hour that we were there, didn't quite get all of it done but we are back in a month for more!!

It's always nice when someone comes to watch while you're on a GoodGym mission. You want to make a good impression in the hope that they might consider becoming a GoodGymer too. In this case our audience was a magnificent black ram. So no hope of him donning the red t-shirt any time soon. In fact we suspect he was only there to tuck in to the fresh foliage we provided with our weeding.

Yes we were back at the city farm, complete with pigs, goats, alpacas, chickens and the aforementioned sheep. Our task was to clear a patch of land of dead stems and very much alive weeds ready for sowing with a pick and mix pack of wildflowers.

There was added excitement in that the farm is set on the southern slopes of Bath and our allotted field was at quite a gradient. But Bennath took it in her stride and Cosmo threw himself into the task - almost literally. Jason and I operated at ground level - which was nothing at all like a game of pick-up sticks, I just thought it would make a fun pun.

We'll be back next week - those seeds need some sowing