Definitely was a case of dodging the rain showers today. Mr A was very grateful for his shopping as it had been a bad couple of days. We had a lovely chat about the word “rigamarole”, not a word often heard nowadays. Mr A makes shopping very easy as he’s always on the ball with his list and it’s very clear about what he wants which makes it so much easier.

We have made so much difference to the winter view of the Burial Ground - lots of the previously-hidden gravestones can now be seen as soon as you enter the green space as the bramble forest has been cut to just a few inches - now to see what happens in Spring...

We were joined by Jen for the first time, a recruit from Greville Smyth junior parkrun volunteering, who quickly joined in the chopping mission to find the ground as well as the gravestones. Operation Find The Wall is now underway, having successfully cleared all the way to the far path.

Soundtrack for the evening was mostly experiences of volunteering at Glastonbury (trying to stop festival-goers contaminating the watercourses by encouraging them to use the provided loos) to childhood experiences of being blamed for things which a sibling had done, including sibling's graffiti-ing walls or windowsills in a less-than-sophisticated way. But also times the GoodGymmer had been the sibling causing the mischief...

Lots of chat and lots of chopping, Richard B as ever getting as much done in their Solo spot as the rest of us put together. The Whirling Dervish of Bristol GoodGym.

Time to pack up and move out, Vaguely Northern Darren went back to look for Melanie's missing non-gardening glove which was mysteriously found under the now quite soggy lights in her bag - if only there was a light on whilst putting the lights in the bag...

The rain and chill had lessened considerably for the journey back and we were lulled into a fall sense of dryness and warmth at Workout as we enjoyed our post-run/walk tea, hot chocolate, chai or pint. Until we were putting soggy hats, gloves and jackets back on. Roll on the bramble-growth of Spring but also warmer rain!

Our first visit to the newly rejuvenating Green House in Bedminster, under new management since the Council pulled out a while ago.

We were part of a larger volunteer gathering concentrating on the outside space - garden, seating, a pond and a LOT of piled up chopped branches and old wood combined with litter.

Choosing the live hedge-trimming and dead branch/wood sorting, we were soon chopping and dragging choppage away, plus a lot of chatting. We managed to get loads done and after about 90 minutes got called inside for homemade soup - what a treat!

We managed to pack up just before the rain started with a plan to be back again next week, fingers crossed.

It is a long way to go but always a nice place to be. Today’s task was topiary, according to the small child walking past amazed at what we were doing. Cutting back the brambles and Buddleja started last time we were here. Definitely not cutting the dog rose 👀

The usual coffee and tea at the end this time was paired with panettone. Forgot to take many pictures so if you see this report marvel at a picture of a bush.

Until next time…

I could hear the crowd from the Memorial Stadium cheering on The Gas, as i fought my own battle with the brambles in Ms L’s garden. It’s half time in both fixtures, but both Rovers and myself are winning ⚽️

What a great Group Run/Walk to welcome three lively new GoodGymmers, back at one of our favourite tasks - and INDOORS!

We were chock-a-block at Workout to meet Nachiket, Tanmay and Joseph for their first GoodGym experience - we hope it's the first of many.

Runners strode of and the walkers were hot on their heels, joined by Richard B "fresh" from their Arc of Attrition exploits at the weekend through horrendous weather. It made for much chat through Castle Park. So much so that we forgot to turn left and walked a longer way to Emmaus than ever before... Well, it is the January Challenge :-)

Xanne was waiting for us and we were in the warehouse of joy for the first time in a while. its all change with the mezzanine being cleared for a fantastic project with St Mungo's running apprenticeships.

Weird and wonderful jobs including boxing and shelving unsorted donations in a tidy semi-organised ways, constructing beds to work out which pieces were missing, clothes "tat or treasure" and carpet tile piling that was more skilled than it looked.

We were busy bees as Xanne knows us of old and is the only task beneficiary that has a back-up list of tasks to keep us going when we've been so efficient to clear part one!

As ever, there were treasures to be discovered, old racist/sexist newspapers, figurines of old naked people cavorting, an evil clown-y figurine and Kingsley bagged himself a keyboard stand, as you do.

We were soon off sgain, many of us to Franco Manca to trade our kilometre Strava pizzas for real pizzas - fantastic Tuesday, everyone!