Nine magnificent individuals joined me in the continuous rain today to participate in both a bizarre swim-stroke-style scythe warm up (sorry) and more importantly to help out at two Bristol events.

Shona kindly volunteered to take one group out to Netham park where Bristol Scythe Group were looking for a few extra folks to help with the scything and subsequent raking. Fortunately they had scythe master Sarah with them though she told me afterwards that she also sees strong potential in new scythe padawan Alison (who may actually have scythed many times before, in which case apologies Alison and consider yourself immediately promoted to scythe master). They were all under the tutelage of our good friend Hayley from Urban Buzz and apparently yes, you can scythe in the rain.

Everyone else headed up to Filwood community centre to meet the amazing Makala and help her to prepare for hosting Knowle West Fest later today.

We were tasked with stringing some outdoor lights along the exterior walkway which proved a good puzzle solving activity as everyone tried to work out where the closest power points were and how best to route the cable safely above everyone's heads using a combination of cable ties and tape.

The event also offered the opportunity to capture some more informal moments^* of our favourite GoodGymers off duty and letting their hair down a bit^**

^* Apologies for the terrible stage photography but that photo really makes me laugh for some reason

^**The bar wasn't actually open so no alcohol was consumed while in hi-viz

On Tuesday night GoodGym Bristol painted the town* red! And blue! And green! And yellow!

*aka the railings of Filwood Community Centre

Yes, after our previous fun painting at Filwood Community Centre, nine GoodGym runners decided to head back for a Community Mission to carry on the job.

Richard and Clo led the long and hilly charge from Workout Bristol, taking five other runners up there. Alex, having injured her back on the weekend, was keen to take part nonetheless and cycled up the hill to meet them at the task.

At the community centre, our host Tim told us while the front of the railings had been tremendously painted, there were areas on the back which still needed a few layers. The group decided to split up into four teams, each team using a particular colour. With our more thorough approach, large parts of the railing were complete within no time, particularly thanks to the speedy trio of Red Team!

Afterwards, Alex cycled and everyone else ran back to Queen's Square for some cooling down. This was followed by some socialising at well-deserved pies at GG Bristol's monthly Eats!

Who would have thought a humble line of railings could have such an impact on the look of a place? Certainly the primary colour sections outside the Filwood community centre make the place look that extra bit more fun and welcoming, so it was great to be able to help out with some of the painting today.

After a (fairly challenging) hill up from Victoria park we were split into teams by our host Tim, with one group for each colour and one for a bit of extra scraping and brushing down.

The bulk of the painting had already been completed during some previous volunteer sessions so our job was to find any bits that had been missed - and make some difficult decisions about which colour to choose on some of the boundary supports between adjoining sections!

There's really nothing as satisfying as a bit of painting so it was fab to spend an hour out in the sunshine helping to support the amazing work of the new administration team at the centre - which even looked in danger of closing down at one stage.

Welcome to our new recruits Andy and Tom - we certainly needed the extra pairs of hands today.