It was one of those odd days in Bath, when things are a little different. Missing were the bleached jeans and t-shirts of modern times, replaced by Empire waist gowns, breeches and top hats. Turns out, it is approaching Jane Austen's 250th birthday. So as much as Bath celebrates its connection with Jane Austen everyday, this year it's Celebrating with a big C.

Sydney gardens, I was informed today, is not far from where Jane lived; doubtless she would have frequented this pleasure garden aplenty in her time.

For the GoodGym gang that arrived today though, it was the usual red GoodGym T-Shirts and suitable clothing for gardening. Cosmo, Tanya, Bennath and Meyrick helped our Friends of Sydney Gardens with clearing the area around the ruins of the old outside dining room. We'd cleared this earlier in the year for a visit by the Mayor, but it had grown again, all our work undone by nature's persistence.

It's getting cooler now we leave summer behind though, so with any luck it won't grow back too much before spring.

Also finished moving the last of the sand up to the play park, so there was a sense of completion in today's work.

As I have frequently opined of late, this is one of the greatest summers I can remember. I've done a bunch of really cool stuff, but it's the consistently hot, dry weather that has been the catalyst for so many of those things.

Sunday morning, heading into town for another GoodGym mission at Sydney Gardens it was already hot at 10am; in fact, I almost borderline agreed with the voice in my head that said 'sweltering'.

Sydney Gardens, let me educate you, the gardens are the only remaining eighteenth-century pleasure (or "Vauxhall") gardens in the country. The Friends of Sydney Gardens meet twice a month to work on the grounds and we attend to help them.

This week, we welcomed a newcomer - Bennath, who joined Meyrick at the meeting point on the railway bridge.

This week's job was the same as last time, wheelbarrowing more sand form the storage area to the children's play area. A significant task indeed, as per the unwritten GoodGym rule, 'The further the distance, the heavier the load'. Fortunately, there were a couple of sand bags that had been delivered right next to the play area, which allowed us to make a much greater contribution in the hour we had, than is usually the case.

The kids love this play area, so whatever we can do to keep it awesome, so much the better.