The cold weather has arrived in earnest but it didn't stop a hardy team of goodgymers rock up ready to go off to the trenches for their weekly workout.

We started the session by celebrating Barbarapassing her 700th good deed and Laura her 50th, and welcoming new comer Alex to the group.

Vicky set off first with the party pace group and were met at Glen Allotments by an enthusiastic team. Ed's group arrived very soon after and we were all armed with spades and set to work.

The task was to dig one trench of 30 metres and another 20 metres, in preparation for a water pipe. There was some discussion about how deep 18 inches is - quite deep it turns out! No problem for our crew, who rose to the challenge! Within our alloted time we'd completed the task and were rewarded with home made flapjack.

Vicky set of back with the party gang whilst Ed's group did a spot of fun fitness.

Back at base we were rewarded by more delicious homemade biscuits courtesy of Laura!

A very enjoyable task!

Team GG got to work turning over an allotment that had become a bit too overwhelming for its owner, Marjorie.

Colin, from the allotment group didn't expect too much from a group of 5 with a 1 hour time window, but we more than impressed him and he was overwhelmed with just how much we managed to achieve.

We may have pulled out a few of the Gooseberry bushes, but all in all it was a job well done and the allotment is now ready to have grass seed planted in order to make it a bit more manageable

So as the beautiful blue sky and gorgeous sun faded, the rain clouds gathered. We celebrated our GG Yorkie of the month for February: Andrew! We also welcomed two first-timers to the group Lee and Rachel, make sure you give all 3 of them a huge cheer!

We warmed up by practicing our hands-free greetings. Such as ankle tapping and elbow bumping!

We ran through town to Glen Allotments where we met our very enthusiastic task owners who quickly set us on 4 main tasks. The first was skillfully knocked out of the park by Mitchell and Stefan, moving a bunch of metal sheets and large waste to an area in front of a 'No Fly Tipping' sign. A slightly suspect start!

We then split into 3 groups. Squad 1 was set upon a patch of overgrown communal land that they want to plant some wildflowers in. They worked on sifting out rubble and weeds into separate areas. Lizzie wasted no time snapping a fork in an attempt to remove the biggest weed. She quickly jumped on an opportunity to redeploy as a raker when she could.

Squad 2 were on a Goodgym York classic task of loading up wheelbarrows to transport woodchip to a school's allotment and to refresh the layer for a path through the allotment. On the path section a complicated one way system would be required. Leanne made do using a gardening fork to spread the barkchip out.

"Dump it where you are" my inadvertently crude instruction to the wheelbarrowers.

Unfortunately when Lizzie turned up with an actual rake, she found the area was a little tight for two rakers.

Squad 3 was a risk assessment nightmare, finding every hazardous object in the book! They skillfully quarantined the hazardous areas and focused on the areas they could make a difference on. After securing a couple of seceteurs, and rebranding as the Seceteur Squad. They quickly filled a crate with waste brambles and safer waste. One thing is for sure Charlotte, Chloe and Laura definitely had a memorable evening!

As the rain picked up, we collected up our tools, headed off for a quick fitness session. With sprints combined with silly walks. Arriving back Egg was ever so kind to coordinate a Happy Birthday Squat song as unfortunately it happened to be my birthday!

Cheers all for a task well done! And a great birthday to boot!