Today on a bright, sunny day, 6 goodgymers helped Friends of Brislington Brook with coppicing Sycamore trees that are taking over the woods at Nightingale Valley. It's a lovely location and a satisfying task which we liked especially as you couldn't go wrong!

Richard was enjoying sawing down the larger trees whereas the rest of us easily lopped the smaller ones with great success! I thought we might lose Dave up in the midst of the woods but we found him again, phew!

We brought more light to the woods and hopefully this will encourage more growth from other trees and plants.

A hour later we posed for a group photo and half of us shot off for our next task, thanks for having us FoBB it's always a pleasure to help.

4 Goodgymers (or team of superheroes..you decided) headed to St Anne's wood today to help their efforts in bashing a serious amount of bramble!

After helping a scared dog navigate the path around a box of tools which had seriously spooked him, we picked our weapon of choice and got to work with some other volunteers who had come to help.

Chris and Dave went for the impressive slicers whereas Zdeni and I had a more delicate approach with the loppers. Despite our difference in tools, the results were v.much the same with big piles of brambles ready to be raked away by the team and the path looking clearer.

Thanks Clo for setting this mission up :-)

After running to St Anne's, myself, Julie and Lexi were about to refuel at the local cafe; when we get a message from Zdeni saying she's inside, where are we... It turns out she's at a different cafe across the road! It was worth swapping anyway, you should see Zdeni's huge pancakes..

Anyway after being refreshed we thought we should probably go start some work. So off we go through the squelchy muddy woods to find Mary from the Friends of Brislington Brook who is very pleased to see us. They do a brilliant job at tidying up St Anne's Woods and Nightingale Valley Woods and it was a pleasure to help them.

They wanted help to bash/cut back the brambles to help widen the pathway on the slope. This would mean people would no longer have to slide down the muddy slope but could walk down on their feet.

Hannah soon joined us and did a cracking job with the slasher. Fi had unfortunately been taken a long way round on her bike but still arrived with a smile. Shortly after, I look up the hill and see Chris running down who took great enjoyment using the slasher! After talking and walking, bashing and slashing, cutting and throwing the brambles far away, Mary suddenly shouts, we must stop for the day. Looking up we could see everyone had done an amazing job.

I had a lovely morning which flew by so fast it was as if someone had pressed fast forward.

On the way out of the woods Super Mel runs in towards us! Mel had been to Wales for a parkrun and because she's so committed to goodgym, she had then run over to meet us but unfortunately she had been stuck behind a fence like a prisoner so she was unable to help us. (I really hope that wasn't my fault) Great effort though Super Mel, we love your spirit!

FoBB have their next working day on the 9th Feb to clear more of the brambles, hopefully we can join them again.

It was looking like a rather compact and bijou group at Mud Dock this morning as four or five of us grabbed a pre-run coffee but somehow we managed to leave Queen Square with 17 runners. Add to that the six others who joined us at the task and it was a very respectably sized mob of red T shirts that finally descended on Nightingale Valley.

This was good news, as the Friends of Brislington Brook were hoping for lots of pairs of hands to join them in tackling the Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera - a relative of the Bizzy Lizzy) growing up the side of the valley. Our host Mary gave us a quick run down how to identify this invasive species - light green leaves, celery-like stalk and virtually no root. This last aspect meant that it was very straightforward to pull up, making for a satisfying and productive half hour eradicating the invasive intruder from its adopted home. Patrick even took on a bonus assignment; wielding loppers to remove some sycamore.

All in all this was a very pleasant way to spend a morning with Goodgym'ers scattered all along the bank above the brook and sheltering from the worst of the heat under the canopy of the trees that line the path.

And finally a brisk run back to base meant hopefully everyone got fit and did good today - well done all!