Tonight we returned to Greenfields for another night helping out the fab team there. But before setting off we congratulated Jane for completing an epic half marathon at the weekend, Matt for a very speedy relay effort, and Ed for managing to drink a fair bit during a half marathon round Sheffield 🥂

Jamie led the run out with Vicky, Babs and Pete bringing up the rear and as soon as we arrived we were off to work focusing on 3 key jobs. Team 1 were in charge of picking the apples from the main orchard area, Team 2 were tasked with tarting up the entrance to the community garden and Team 3 were trimming weeds and bushes closer to the storage shed.

There was a bit of confusion over at Team 1 when some rotten apples kept appearing in Leanne's good apple tray but the crises was soon averted (even if no one did own up). Meanwhile Jane got a lesson in how to use a little hand scythe thing and Becca tried her hand at modeling.

Things appeared to be going a bit smoother over at Teams 2 and 3, although there was a fair bit of stoppage time to get some pretty photos of the sunset, the tasks were completed promptly, even though Ed struggled to get a photo of Abel as he kept hiding behind a tree!

Once the task was done it was time for the obligatory symmetrical group photo, as is tradition at Greenfields, with the team getting more and more adventurous with their poses. There were even bikes involved in this one!

Then it was time for a quick fitness game featuring some skipping, some rock paper scissors and a bit of carnage to decide an overall winner!

We started the evening with what was supposed to be a quick and fun beanbag name, but turns out it works better with well behaved children than goodgym!

We celebrated Matt's Great North run and other achievements before splitting into two groups- a faster group with Ed to Clarence Street Gardens and a steady pace plus walking group with Vicky to the Groves.

At the Groves- we were met by Tracy plus a lady from York TV. The group split and headed off to do various tasks- hanging lights in trees, shifting slabs, weeding a courtyard, moving soil and raking piles of earth. Whilst all this was going on John kindly did the interview for tv.

In Ed's group

The Clarence Garden crew arrived and quickly continued the work that we'd started a few weeks ago. Mostly filling sacks full of the wildflower cuttings, shifting them over to the skips and then tipping them out.

The skips quickly filled up so Michael and Ed, in the absence of our usual bin dwellers, got stuck in and trampled down the cuttings so we could continue to pile the loads on top.

With time running out and the skips being fit to burst, we finished off by filling up the remaining tonne sacks and making a quick dash back across the gardens before leaving them next to the skips with just enough time to get creative for our team photo

We then all reconvened at the art gallery for a bean bag race with the new teeny tiny beanbags and hoops, posed as statues, then headed back to base.

Another successful night!

There were a few tired bodies as we made our return to the Monday night group run after an epic Goodgym camping weekend in Derbyshire. But that didn't stop our group from shifting a load of cuttings from the stunning wildflower meadow that we'd previously helped to plant at Clarence Gardens 💪

We started the night with a small but perfectly formed group celebrating the new male half-marathon wolrd record by naming the things that they believe they could hold a world record in. Turns out we all really back ourselves when it comes to eating challenges! It was then off to the task with Vicky and Babs heading out in the steady group, Jenna on bike and Ed leading the main group with Abigail backmarking.

Upon arrival we met a few other Goodgym Yorkies who had gone straight to task, and after some very simple instructions (basically shift the cuttings from A to B) from taskowner Iain, we were soon up and running. Nick and Micheal armed themselves with the tarp and made great progress shifting huge mounds of the cuttings whilst the rest of the gang raked and collected what they could into ton sacks.

Over at the skips James and Kit worked their hardest to trample down the cuttings to ensure that we could fit in as much as possible. Such was their dedication to the cause the Kit almost managed to get himself buried under a tarp load of cuttings at one point! But with the skips filling up and time running out attention turned to raking up and shifting as much as we could before calling it a night.

After a quick stop for a photo we then had time for brief fitness sesh which involved 4 teams competing against each other to see who could jump the furthest and run the fastest whilst shifting a cone from one end of the field to the other. It was a photo finish and to be honest Ed possibly wasn't paying close enough attention to see who actually won but it was definitely Jame's team or possibly George's!

We'll be back at Clarence Gardens in a few weeks to finish off the job!

Tonight we saw a bumper turnout for Holgate Community Allotment which meant there were plenty of hands on deck for a proper evening of GoodGym gardening.

Before we set off we celebrated PK and Leanne's epic hike up Kilimanjaro, as well a some great 10k running from Stef at the weekend.

When we arrived we were met by Helen who had a long list of jobs. We got stuck into turning the compost, cutting back brambles, watering trees and clearing the school plot, giving everything a much-needed tidy-up. There was also a group of scrumpers sorting the windfall apples. 🍎 Because there were so many of us there was lots of opportunity to stand about and have a chat too!

We rounded off the evening with a lively game of Fitness Splat, proving that even after all that digging, chopping and clearing, there was still plenty of energy left in the tank for a bit if fun!

A bumper turnout, a bumper workload and finally a bumper crop of apples. A very productive night at Holgate! 💪🌱

see you next week!

🏅 A gaggle of excellent GoodGymmers gathered for our weekly group run. First of all, we heard about some incredible running over the weekend. David Barrett won a race and not just any race, a (very) extended bleep test! Much kudos to David! Meanwhile, Matt won a parkrun (not a race, apparently...) And Ed did a Hardmoors half (but sadly got injured partway round, and still completed it, somehow!)

🦸 Next, it was time to celebrate 3 more heroes, of the 50 good deed variety. Huge well done to Jen, Matt and Jamie, who got to split the 50 cape between them!

🪏 After a quick warm-up, it was time to start running/cycling to Greenfields Garden for some (slightly) guerrilla gardening. We were helping the no-dig crew tonight, digging up grass to put on layers of cardboard to mulch down onto the bed below. There were a few tool options available to assist, including spades and loppers, or some of us used our hands...

🦗 A few grasshoppers/crickets were spotted (hence the pun), leading to a discussion about how to tell one from the other. It turned out no one was quite sure how to tell them apart but the internet tells me that crickets have longer antennae and are nocturnal. So we probably saw grasshoppers...

🍎 Anyway, it was hard work digging up grass so when we given the option to search the orchard for windfalls, many of us took it with open arms.

💪 Soon, it was time to down tools and start fitness with Nick. He claimed to find a way to make squats and planks fun and was almost right, though our moving tunnels of planks ended up in some particularly itchy grass!

🍪 Time to head back to base for a cool-down stretch and birthday biscuit-beer combo at the pub (thanks Nick!) We heard about lots of fun things coming up this week so plenty to get involved with. Thanks everyone!