Four formidable folk faultlessly ... and here I run out of F words - shifted stuff, swept & Jenna even Henried. Sending our best wishes to Penny. Another good deed completed at Planet Food.

Six of us returned to Danesmead Wood for some woodchip barrowing in the autumn sun.

With woodchip mounds at either end of the path we split into two teams. Team one was made up of the people who arrived on time and team two those of us who either couldn't find the meeting or misjudged the Wednesday night traffic. Jude from the friends of the wood was marshalling our work to ensure the woodchip lasted long enough for the whole path.

We made light work of the task, finishing just over the planned hour. New member Douglas was barrowing like a pro by the end of the task.

Sadly Jude had not had chance to make the usual traybake but she did provide us with some excellent rocky road from the local M&S so no one went away disappointed.

Tonight was another big night of celebrations as we kicked off with a round of applause for Amy W's 30th Birthday. The applause didn't last long though as it got Fergie the dog over-excited, so we then did a big round of jazz hands for all the weekend runners, especially Rich who completed the Lake District Mountain Trail whilst the rest of us were busy eating sausage rolls and drinking Gin at the Marathon du Malton. But the biggest cheer of the night was reserved for Barbara who has been part of GG York since day one and earlier in the week had completed her 600th(!) good deed. What a legend! 🎉

We then numbered off by naming our favourite style of potato featuring hash browns, curly fries and roasties. Then it was off to the task with Ed leading the meaning group, backmarked by Claire. Nikki, Amy W and Tess were the walking group whilst Vicky and Abi run/walked. After a brief pause for some wall squats we arrived at the task to be greeted by Maeve from St Nicks who set us off promptly with scything, raking and digging to spruce up this area of New Walk. Amy H and Tess were having their first scything experience so received a bot of extra tuition from Maeve whilst the old pros were hacking away like there was no tomorrow.

I feel like I should be topless doing this - Rich

The cuttings soon piled up and the dumping area was a fair trek away so we set off some speedy folk to be in charge of shifting the cuttings using a tarp, a wheelbarrow and also a ton bag on top of a plank with some coasters on it. Unfortunately it did mean that there was a bit of hanging around at the end of the task, but that gave us some time to sing happy birthday to Amy W whilst doing some birthday squats. In fact, there was enough time to do it twice so Vicky could record us!

Then it was off to Tower Gardens for tonight's fitness. This time out we played a game of rock, paper, scissors that involved jumping forward when you win or going back to the start if you lost. In classic GoodGym style half the people absolutely nailed it whilst confusion reigned over the over half. After several games (more than enough time to get a handle on the rules) Abigail and the boys were declared the overall winners despite some dubious jumping going on.

Whilst all this was happening Michal had also arrived with a cake delivery to compliment the delicious brownies that Babs had brought along, so there was no shortage of sweet treats available when we got back to CVS. We then said it our goodbyes whilst some people headed off to the pub

written by Jenna

Jenna arrived for the task at 2pm to find out she had missed all the fun. Apparently the fire alarm had been set off by a photo shoot crew in the church, and the planet food customers had all evacuated the cafe at 1.30pm. At least everyone had eaten! Michael and Jenna cleared away the tables and chairs, swept the floor and emptied the bins , with only this elephant and the staff for company! Good on us! You have to blow your own trumpet sometimes!'

Three GG Yorkies met on a bright but cold morning to join a group of other volunteers along with York BID to help improve the streets of York by repainting some street furniture. We started off with a safety briefing and a run down of what tools and equipment we'd be using and then we got into groups to cover the various areas in the local vicinity. We opted for the snickleways (also known as alleyways, passageways) group and headed over to Nether Hornpot Lane and parallel Finkle Street.

After carefully putting down some newspaper to protect the pavement, we got to work painting some white doors, whilst another volunteer tackled a black drainpipe nearby. Trying not to get in the way of passing pedestrians, we soon had the first set of doors finished and moved down the snickleway onto the next. At this point it was time for me to leave but the rest of the gang stayed on a bit longer to tackle more doors and drainpipes.

There will be another York BID session next week which GG are helping with again - sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/cleaning-and-repainting-street-furniture-at-the-york-bid-rejuvenation-day-round-2

Oh, and it was also my 600th good deed today!

*actually black and white!

Welfare visit