On a dark Thursday evening 4 green fingered wonder women gathered to give mother nature aka Fiona the task owner, a helping hand. Steph arrived early as per usual and eagerly awaited the 2 newbies and her fellow red runners. Area Activator Ema arrived via taxi (due to injury) and was eagerly welcomed by both Steph and Fiona. Joanna and Izzy both ran about 3km to the meeting point. After a briefing regarding health, safety and if you fall down the ditch expect to hear laughter before assistance. We got to work digging holes and planting yearlings of various flora. Due to prior injury Ema and Steph tag teamed and Steph dug the hole while Ema planted the yearlings.  

We planted various flora that had all been donated to the Broadgreen Hospital by the Conservation Volunteers so Fiona was even more made up that donations were also being planted by volunteers. We planted field maple, mountain ash/rowan (which will grow little red berries to increase wildlife) hazel, grey willow (which produces fuzzy catkins which are early pollinators and again great for the wildlife), common dog, goat willow (which is the main food source for the stunning purple emperor butterfly!), Downy birch, bird cherry (known for its almond scented blossom, a big hit for nectar loving animals) and dog rose.  

Joanna and Izzy showed extreme talent in the task and as we got to know each other better the time flew by! Some rather in-depth conversations regarding Liverpool’s general inclusiveness and how long one must wait before declaring themselves and honorary Scouser.

Before we knew it the 2 hours were up and we had planted approximately 100 trees. Feeling rather proud of ourselves we helped Fiona tidy up the tools and eagerly arranged to see each other soon! Fiona is looking forward to working with us again at both the Women's Hospital on Monday 7th February for our Group Run session and Thursday 24th for another tree planting Community Mission this time at Aintree Hospital planting more trees on the 24th.  

As always a very good job well done. Wonderful faces, wonderful experience (none of us had planted a tree before!) wonderful people doing a wonderful task. In the words of Louie Armstrong “what a wonderful world!”  Well done guys!  

On a calm warm evening, eight Goodgym members came to Broadgreen Hospital to have a run and to do a bit of landscaping.

Once we located each other and met with Fiona, we did a quick warm up before running to Dovecot Park and back fitting in two miles.

Fiona explained the task and we set to building the planters, filling them with rubble and compost. Once the five planters were built, we spent some time figuring a layout. Squares? Diamonds? In the end they were in square diamond formation! ‘Wilf’, the aptly named veteran wheelbarrow squeaked its discomfort as it helped us move over a tonne of compost to the planters.

Meanwhile Pauline and Fiona made grass Swiss roll piles to tidy another section ready for work. After a test of the new outdoor gym enough exercise was had and there’ll be plenty more for us to do to help green up more recreational natural areas. Well done all for the difference made