We arrived at the Princes Park run on a wet Saturday morning. It had been cancelled but a lot of people were milling around unaware Sallyann went into promo mode and handed out goodgym leaflets. She managed to recruit three people to the goodgym special run, Lillika, Daniel and Dan. Sallyann , Steph and Bekah embarked on the run with the three new friends while Lucien Leonardoand Miriam walked to the final meeting spot, the Oasis cafe in Sefton Park. The runners ran out of Princes park, did a lap of Sefton and then ran to the cafe. For Bekah and Steph this was one of multiple 5Ks this weekend with the Santa Dash on Sunday morning and Bekah taking on a third this afternoon. Steph was really pleased with her result today as she had wanted to run under 40mins and managed a 37mins. Lillika, Daniel and Dan didn’t join us for breakfast but Ellie came along just in time for the awarding of stickers. Lucien celebrated a full card of stickers- 12 for 12 months of park runs plus a bonus red glittery sticker for the added park run we did when our London friends were visiting. Bekah nearly filled her card just one off, Eleanor gained a fifth sticker and Leo confessed to washing his card in the washing machine. So aside from an addiction to stickers what is the incentive to collect stars?… Sallyann suggested that there might be some awards at the Christmas party this week! There was some discussion about next year’s park runs, what cafes we could go to. Looking forward to another year of park runs.

On the first day of December, whilst the last of the evening showers continued, 6 determined Goodgymmers met at our usual suitcases spot for the run to the task. This was to be my supervised run session to consolidate my Goodym fitness leader training. I was grateful for the motivated bunch that met me in the rain, showing that classic Goodgym Liverpool support.

After a welcome and warm up, we weaved through the streets of Liverpool Central, to finish at the 2km mark on Park lane, where Bekah was waiting to welcome us. Joined by Lucian and Elaine, we were ready to start our evenings task.

The idea of clearing some of the more persistent nettles and thistles had Lucien eagerly rushing into the Park Lane garden to get stuck in Bekah , on the other hand, had an hour of exposure therapy. She braved her fears to provide much needed light and nettle spotting expertise for the group!

After an hour of weeding, a little bit of December and January planning and the mandatory group photo, the runners set off back up the notorious parliament hill! Having well tested our fitness levels, we arrived at the suitcases for a much need stretch. I was thankful to receive some lovely feedback from the group. We said our goodbyes and headed off into the night towards home. Another successful task completed!

This week we were back to join Elaine on Park Lane for a mammoth weeding session.

We have been working on this sight through thick and thin, contending various weeds at different times of year. This time, it was the turn of the thistle and the site had become somewhat overrun with them.

Thankfully we had a fabulous team of 11 goodgymmers to wage war on them!

In no time we had cleared the majority and left the site in a much better state. Well done everyone!

The Liverpool Goodgym team were lucky this evening, as the rain had just eased off an hour before the task. We met up at Park Lane to complete some much-needed litter picking of the surrounding residential area.

Returning faces gathered and discussed the tradition of naming interesting or compelling items to keep good spirits on a cold night. The group was slowly reminded that Halloween had just passed, and this became a re-occurring theme.

As we put on our gloves and grabbed our litter-pickers, a black cat was spotted running across the street after hiding in the shadows. Notable finds we two mismatching gloves and a missing wallet, which was handed-in to be reunited with its owner.

Under the moonlight, Goodgym Liverpool was thanked multiple times by onlookers heading home or into the city, noting the work was much needed in the area. One such person was Liverpool Council woman Angela Coleman, who kindly asked for a picture to highlight the work Goodgym does.

When coming back together at the end of the task, our member Heetu (give her a cheer!) found the most interesting item of the night, a witch’s hat! This was made all the spookier by counting up 13 bags of rubbish!

What a lovely way to fondly look back at the last season’s festivities before we make our way into the Christmas Holidays. Thank you to all the members who attended and those who cheered us on as they walked by.

It was my third visit to Mr K. I was a bit early because I’d been Christmas shopping locally with my sister. It had been a frosty morning so I wasn’t sure if the grass would he too wet to mow. I got to Mr K’s and asked if he’d like me to tackle the front or the back. He said while it’s dry we could get the back done. It was dry and the frost had long since gone. The worst of the grass had been cut in a previous visit but there were long tufts of grass at the edges that were more tricky to tackle. I got stuck in with the strimmer and managed to get the tufts cut. With a bit of raking I even managed to re-establish the borders of the lawn. Mr K spotted a sycamore tree that had started growing so I cut that back. Mr K was helpful as always but I urged him to get into the warm because it was a really cold afternoon. Once I’d done I chatted with Mr K and we exchanged Christmas cards which was my first card of the season! I advised Mr K that we could leave the back now until the spring but I could make another winter visit for the front.

Lovely dark dry night we headed off to a new spot, with Urban Grow Liverpool. Several runners from the suitcases, some from home, couple of cyclists and others met us at the urban growing space. It was a great turn out and also so lovely to have our smiley Laura Laura back!

We sadly needed to help dismantle Urban Grow’s raised beds as they were being moved out of their current home trying to find a new one.

So we all got into the task immediately all our hands like little piranha teeth removing all the “mattress-meat” in the raised beds leaving only the springs and frame carcass behind!

The original planters better described as a hugglekultur beds with logs and wood at the bottom with all the soil around them were swiftly turned into 15 plus a car full of compost bags (full of very huggly cultured soil).

We could not believe we devoured the task in less than 40 minutes which was very satisfying plus being likened to efficiency of piranhas made our day!

We can’t wait to hear where the huggly cultured soil ends up and wish Urban Grow lots of luck in finding their next new home!