Great turn out to give Kairos the final push they needed to help get this garden finished for planting, with 12 GoodGymers showing up to support them.

We split into 2 groups, with four of us walking to Kairos while the rest of the group ran and then Nigel cycled to meet us there. Hannah and Lisa were there to greet us with a whole heap of jobs for us to get stuck into. Claire and Georgia took on the painting of the inside of the summer house and Chris and Hesper teamed up to dig a hole ready for the new water feature. Laura and Nigel focused on turning over a patch of soil towards the back of the garden and James, Joe, Lilian and Graeme turned the soil, removing any large peices of rubble on another area of the garden. Allan came equipped with his drill and tool box ready to tackle the flat pack table challenge once again.

Whilst we worked we were able to admire the planting that had already been done by the users of the centre, they have lots of flowers and veg growing and the garden is already showing signs of life with butterflies and caterpillars which is amazing!

Once the sink water feature had been placed into the hole and the soil had been turned, the big bags of compost were then carried/wheelbarrowed in to pour on top. Everybody got involved with emptying the bags of compost and then stomping on it to flatten it so that they could get as much in as possible.

Claire and Georgia managed to get as much of the 'forget me not' blue paint on the 2 walls of the summer house which was looking lovely and Allan completed coffee table number 2! Everyone worked tirelessly right to the end then we enjoyed a much deserved drink and snacks supplied by Kairos. Thank you all for your hard work, I know it is really appreciated by everyone at the centre. You are amazing!

If you would like to see pictures of what it looked like at the start you can see from this report how it was when we started... it really has come a long way thanks to you guys! https://www.goodgym.org/reports/let-s-get-ready-to-rubble-35570d88-7f35-4bcd-b596-1906739adf8a

After a week off due to poor weather conditions 8 GoodGymers were back ready to continue our work on project Sanctuary Garden. We enjoyed a short run to Kairos and already half way there, completed a spontaneous good deed as a pile of Sainsburys crates had fell into the path. Realising this was a hazard, Greame started to move the crates back onto a trolley and was assisted by Jackie and Nigel - nice one guys!

Arriving at Kairos (in the light for a change!) we were greeted by Hannah who had a 'menu' of tasks for us to choose from including digging, painting and flat pack assembling. Allan took on the flat pack challenge, Lil and Deb armed themselves with the paintbrushes while Jackie, Nigel, Laura and Graeme got stuck in with the back breaking digging and removal of the never ending rubble.

The rubble needs to be dug up to make way for compost so that the areas can be used for planting, Jackie and Laura were digging and filling bags with the rubble, while Nigel and Graeme lifted and wheelbarrowed the bags of rubble to the van out the front. Deb and Lilian were painting the insides of the newly erected planters with bitumen while Allan was inside wrestling with a the flat pack coffee table.

By the end of the session we managed to fill the van with as much rubble as possible and paint the inside of 2 and a half planters. The table wasn't quite finished but Allan was determined to stay longer and complete the job with the help of Graeme. It was decided that the rest of the group would run back to base while they stayed to complete the flat pack task.

Before the run back, we enjoyed some madeleines (not mandalorians) courtesy of Graeme which were delicious along with some other delights bought by Kairos and had a group photo around said flat pack table.

Excellent work team!

Table update - Half an hour later and mission accomplished, one complete coffee table which Allan never wants to see again! Well done and thanks to you both for staying on to get the job done.

7 awesome Goodgymers made their way to Kairos to pick up where we left off 2 weeks ago.

Allan, Liz, Laura and Lil were turning soil, removing rubble and rocks from the earth while Maddie and Laura D were shovelling sand. We filled lots of bags with the unwanted material which Greame wheelbarrowed outside to pile onto the back of a truck. We were joined by other volunteers so we all worked together to try and get as much done as we could.

Before we knew it, time was up! It was some back breaking work so thanks all for your amazing effort, everyone worked their socks off giving 100% right to the end. Hope you all managed to get out of bed ok this morning!

The garden is slowly moving in the right direction and we always look forward to going back to help support the incredible work that Kairos do.

7 GoodGymers made there way to Kairos tonight with a walking and running group. The running group took a longer route while Sharon and Laura walked, arriving at Kairos at pretty much the same time.

Tonight we had the pleasure of meeting our newcomer Steve, we welcomed back Sharon and we also had Graeme join us who we haven't seen for a while, great to see you all!

It was lovely to be back at Kairos they are making great progress and have assembled some vegetable planters where the shed was which look great! Esther from Team Springboard explained all the tasks that needed doing and we split into groups. Graeme and Sharon shoveled the top layer of soil into bags ready for compost to be spread on top while Steve got to work trimming the overgrown bush. Deb, Laura and Maddie were shoveling the piles of rubble, that we moved last time, into bags ready to be taken away in a van tomorrow and Graeme and Steve then moved all the heavy slabs. We had a bit of a change around, as the shoveling was pretty tough going, and everybody just going stuck in helping each other when needed.

We were busy from start to finish and it was a great team effort. We tidied up, scoffed some goodies that the Kairos team had kindly bought (this was definitely Steves favourite bit!) then we made our way back to CBGC.

We shall be back to help them some more in 2 weeks. Good work everyone!

10 Goodgymers returned to help Kairos WWT with the next part of their garden project.

It was great to see the progress that had been made in the garden since our last visit, including the very exciting summer house that is now in place!

This evening's task was another great workout starting with moving some heavy slabs out of the way, some of which will be used to put a new path along the side of the centre in the future.

Next we dug up a large area of sand and transfered this in a wheelbarrow into some large builders bags out of the way, making space for some better quality compost to go down in the future.

Whilst this was taking place, others in the group were attempting to move a shed into the space that had been made by the removal of the slabs but unfortunately this came to an abrupt halt as the shed was screwed to the ground. A task that will have to wait for another day when we have the right tools!

We finished the session with a fitness session running "the maze" whilst mixing it up with various exercises such as squats, lunges and press ups!

It was lovely to have double figures at our run this week and great to welcome Andy to his first ever Goodgym Group Run!

5 Goodgymers got a great strength workout this evening supporting Kairos WWT with a complete overhaul of their outdoor space.

After a short jog from our meeting point we arrived at Kairos to be greeted by Hannah and Lisa, along with the familiar face of Esther from team Springboard CIC. We were shown the courtyard area that was currently covered in slabs and fake grass which the team have aspirations to turn into a garden sanctuary where the women who Kairos support can relax, as well as learning new gardening skills.

Today's task was a real display of girl power, with a few different tasks taking place simultaneously. Lil, Laura P, Deb and Katherine worked with Esther to lift around half of the slabs in the area and piled them up out of the way. Laura D helped with lifting the fake grass, rolling it up and then moving it out of the way before doing her best Edward Scissorhands impression, trimming back all the buddleia and bushes that were hanging across the alley along the side of the building.

With all the required slabs lifted and the grass cleared in record time, we were able to get going on the next part of the task which was to start clearing the rubble that had been laid underneath the slabs. This involved first picking up bits of concrete/hard core that had been used as a base and transferring these to a big pile in buckets/plant pots/supermarket crates. Next came the shoveling of the rubble which again was transferred via containers into the big pile we had now created, before finally removing the weed control barrier. We then placed a cover over the top to protect the soil ready for when the next part of the project can be completed.

It was great to see that the soil underneath the slabs was actually looking quite healthy and there were certainly lots of worms enjoying it, including what can only be described as a mini snake - the fattest and longest worm that we had ever seen! Fingers crossed some great plants and vegetables can also enjoy that soil one day soon.