☔️ 20 excellent GoodGymmers braved the risk (and reality) of rain for our group run this evening.

🦸‍♂️ We celebrated Stef’s 200th good deed with the multi-coloured cape of glory (sensibly removed for the digging part of the task).

📚 We named, numbered and warmed up while recommending good books that we’ve read recently.

🪲 We had a two-task session tonight so Ed and Nick jointly led half the group to meet Nicola from St Nick’s for some nettle-scything/tansy beetle-spotting.

Here’s what Nikki had to say:

Penny and I decided it was the best type of GoodGym task: mild peril + destruction 🙂 we had to employ the scythe and dive technique to not get nettled in the face by the giant monster nettles

And Ed added:

We got to put together the scythes then got to work on the nettles which we hacked our way through pretty quickly, so had plenty of time left to wander down to millennium fields and go tansy beetle spotting. 🪲

🚸 Meanwhile, the rest of us headed to Dringhouses Primary School, via a slightly scenic, mostly off-road, courtesy of my sketchy knowledge of York and Leanne filling in the gaps. We were met very enthusiastically by Claire who had been there all day, with a bit of help from a few staff and pupils.

🌺 Our main job was to dig over a patch of turf, add some compost and transform it into a flowerbed. As it was starting to get a bit crowded round the flowerbed, a few people started clearing and litter-picking the area behind the bike shed.

🌼 With a 5-minute warning coming just as the planting was about to start, it was all hands on deck to get as many plants (plus a tree!) as possible planted in the remaining few minutes. A hive of activity followed, with teamwork absolutely making the dreamwork. We had dig-and-plant pairings while Claire and Joanna tackled the big tree.

🚮 Meanwhile, Sherilyn found an awkward layer of plastic matting in one area, which she and Michael managed to excavate very effectively. Michael even gave back the soil that had attached itself to said matting.

👍 We were thrilled to be able to plant all the plants and leave the area looking much better than when we arrived. Very satisfying all round.

💪 Opting for the direct route back, we met the rest of the gang for some on-the-minute fitness. A few quick bursts of energy later, we were ready for home/the pub and the delicious pastries that Abigail had brought 🥐

💪 22 excellent GoodGymmers gathered for the workout of the century (until the next time) at Hull Road Park with St Nick’s. We congratulated everyone who did the York 10k yesterday, and thanked the water station heroes 💦

🎉 We also said a huge congratulations (in their absence) to Amy and Ed on their wedding on Friday (the first GG York-born wedding! In the spirit of celebrating, we named, numbered and warmed up by discussing how we enjoy celebrating special occasions. Drinks of different varieties featured fairly highly, along with food, travelling and lie ins 😴

🥳 The party pacers partied off while some of us went via St Nick’s to collect plentiful wheelbarrows (amongst other things) ⛏️

🗻 We regrouped at the park to continue tackling “the big mud mound”. We set to work swiftly and soon perfected our system to maximise efficiency, with mattockers, shovellers, barrowers, lifters and rakers all doing their thing to build up the bank for the local wildlife 🌱

🦋 Jonathan explained that this is part of a bigger project to transform this area of the park and basically make it a bit more natural and wildlife-friendly. They’re already seeing the benefits and the hope is to attract water voles to burrow into our new bank so look out for those 🦫

🦺 Max did a health and safety briefing about the risks of careless mattocking on top of the mud mound, which James and Martin definitely heeded…

👍 There was shovelling with a gusto, running with barrows and co-ordinated barrow-lifting, with Vicky impersonating a supermarket checkout tannoy at times, to ensure maximum efficiency. Abigail and Martin jumped the fence (which will hopefully be surplus and therefore removed once our bank is properly established) to rake the tipped mud onto the bank. Care had to be taken not to fall into the bog and Abigail soon learned why some of us have dedicated GoodGym given the amount of soil that ended up in her trainers 👟

🏃‍♀️🚴 Having made a huge amount of progress with the mud mound, it was soon time to head back. We replaced the fitness session with extra mud-moving and ran back to base where we stretched off.

🍳 We also discussed the parkrun-breakfast-community mission combo on Saturday (and why it’s especially important to come to at least breakfast this week given that post-parkrun Knavesmire breakfast days may be numbered 😳

Six well read Goodgymmers visited Tang Hall Library to set up the monthly booksale.

Despite the tardiness of two unnamed Goodgymmers, we got to work straight away setting up the tables and bringing out the stock.

With so many veterans of this task, sorting progressed quickly. Some books were also veterans of previous sales but one that will hopefully be snapped up immediately is the book by GoodGym's own Jenna we found in the stock.

There seemed to be a lot of children's books this month and sorting them provided a few moments of controversy. Our initial categories of teenage fiction and books for small children left a definite grey area in the middle.

Eventually with set up complete, a few of us moved onto the pub to discuss the Barbie film, co-parenting and how long it is acceptable to go without a shower.

Thanks Leanne for the title pun* Four great Good Gymers got on their bikes and cycled to Kimberlow Hill. Sherilyn managed to get in extra exercise as she circumnavigated the campus, trying to find us. We were helping Treemendous York Partnership voluntreers to maintain a memorial woodland planted 2 years ago. The biodegradable sapling guards had degraded before the trees outgrew them. Just under 150 were removed and old used plastic tree guards that had been gathered from elsewhere on Kimberlow Hill were recycled and put to good use protecting the memorial woodland trees. The sun shone, the meadow flowers were blooming but sadly it was too windy for the butterflies. Leanne's tool of choice was an axe, which she wielded well. She avoided chopping down any saplings whilst resuscitating some badly damaged by those pesky rabbits. We finished off with healthy homemade granola bars (which I think we all agreed would be improved by having some chocolate added) to give us energy for the cycle home. We were thanked by Treemendous who were very pleased & grateful for our support.