Report written by John and photos taken by Belinda Thank you both

On Monday seven of us returned to Heene Road Community rooms where we had previously done some weeding and clearing ready for early spring planting. Our return visit has been somewhat delayed due to the recent poor weather - the impact of which greeted us on arrival! The wet conditions and reasonably mild temperatures has triggered the regrowth of the weeds, and seems to have strengthened their resolve to continue the defend of their territory against tidiness and neat planting!

Fitting in the fitness

Meeting at the task meant there was to be fitness opportunities during the task. It seems that John was the only one to acknowledge that a proper gardening session is a good all over workout. Clearly they didn’t all dig it!

Julia sent off a trio of runners; with Paul mistiming his arrival slightly (just a minute later Paul, just a minute….) his brief hesitation when asked “was he running” was declared an affirmative and he set off with Sarah and Craig on a timed run.

Belinda and Daisy opted for the walking route, and Julia and John got stuck in to the clearance task.

Little weeds

Luckily the work previously done wasn’t a completely wasted effort. Much of the weed covering was rooted only just below the surface so loosening the soil with a fork enabled them to be lifted. This also meant we could avoid disturbing the bulbs which are beginning to sprout telling us that despite how the weather seems currently spring is really on the way.

I don’t give a fork

On return from their first run, the three speedsters were keen to get stuck in. Paul had brought along his own fork, and he was soon working like a human rotivator. Craig wrested the fork from a very reluctant John, who clearly was desperate to carry on digging, but graciously gave in. John must have already done a lot of the hard work. How else could it look as though Craig’s efforts were more efficient and successful. Sarah went in search of some accessories!

The walkers return

This heralded another quick change of role. The runners were sent off again with a simple instruction, nay, demand, from Julia: “Be quicker!” They were! Daisy got stuck into some weed gathering and bagging while Belinda focussed on ensuring our efforts were suitably recorded.

By the time it came to the final (“you must be even quicker!”) run Paul had clearly realised that a ‘fork holding workout’ was a ‘sufficient workout’ and he threw himself fully into single handedly clearing a huge patch of weeds.

It’s mostly fun

Although intriguingly there is, to date, no Strava evidence to support this, Craig and Sarah declared their final run as the fastest of the evening. Clear up and group photo time followed. John is still adamant that he was NOT throwing dirt and weeds at Daisy. She just happened to be in the “discard” area. It was no more than unfortunate timing. Honestly!

Absent friends

As always when we are working in a reasonably closed space there was plenty of time for chat. We discussed Sarah’s intriguing, but clearly successful rotational system, and asked after ‘absent’ GoodGymers wellbeing. Particular care and concern was expressed for Ryan who according to Sarah had had a ‘slight’ slip at the parkrun finish on Saturday when he may have ended up a ‘little’ dirty.

Just like Arnie

“We’ll be back” - here next week hoping to get the last of the area cleared ready for planting. And there will be beer (or other beverage of course) with a GoodGym Get Together following the task.

Great report and photos- thank you Belinda and John :)