We're becoming quite the young-tree-care experts in the last few weeks! We've had a run of tasks trying to nurse saplings through the drought conditions, and this Wednesday was another one for our tree tally.

We were at orchard triangle this time - a patch of land near St Nicholas' Primary School which was mostly brambles only a couple of years ago. We helped clear it and create a footpath through in Autumn and Winter 2020, and the community has planted fruit trees and a hedge and installed a bench. It's now a very popular spot - along with the daffodil bulb planting it's one of the community's favourite things that we've helped make a reality.

Tonight we weeded around the fruit trees and hedgerow saplings, laid cardboard as a weed-surpressing layer and topped it all with mulch and a glug of water. Bethan and Joe dug out a very determined bramble, Sophie mowed the long grass to give the wildflowers a fighting chance next year, and Sophie, Laurie and Matt made sure the hedgerow plants had stakes and guards to give them a better shot at getting established. Mark is no longer the only GoodGymer to break tools on a task - yours truly managed to snap a fork clean in half trying to lever out a bramble root! It won't go in the bin though, as the handle part will make an excellent bulb planter. All the same...Oops!

MUCH better running conditions than we've had for a few weeks, so we very much enjoyed taking the scenic route back to Cowley with chitchat about Couch 2 5k (Henry's smashing it) and parkrun plans.

Heat wave weeding

In a nice (if worrying) change from the 2020 trend of getting soaked to the skin and covered in sticky mud at Marston Forest Garden, lately we've been basking in sunshine on our tasks there.

This week's plan was to weed around lots of the saplings and fruit bushes to stop them getting choked by perennial weeds. Bind weed, thistles, brambles and nettles were the main targets, with bonus points for Mares Tail which seems to be having a good year. A power hour of weeding and de-tangling got a lot of the plants de-weeded, uncovering wild strawberries, blackcurrant bushes and many more. We also grabbed a couple of loads of woodchip to replenish the mulch around a few plants.

This week's fun fact courtesy of Bethan: the bindweed flower is a symbol of affection. We almost feel bad for pulling so much of it up this spring and summer.

Weeding hour over we gathered under the oak tree for watermelon, biscuits, brownies and chat before heading off running, walking and cycling to seek shade and/or a bit of river to jump in.

Prize for most enthusiastic GoodGymer this week goes to Cassie the pup, who seemed to have a wonderful evening running around and keeping us all in line.

Congratulations to Holly and Kieran for reaching their 100th and 50th GoodGym Good Deeds (respectively). I failed to spot it ahead of time, but also congratulations to Sophie who did her 10th good deed with us yesterday.

Welcome to GoodGym Oxford Ellen.

Big THANK YOU to Alice for gathering up the runners and leading them on the route to MFG after I got delayed.

10 Energised GoodGymers ran 4k to make 17 beds at the American Church and demolished a 20 minute circuit for fun!

On a night of multiple Goodgym boarder crossings we had the pleasure for helping out our friends in Camden continuing their weekly task helping the American Church prepare for their Winter homeless shelter by making up 17 beds!

After welcoming our GG newbie Matilda and congratulating our returning Big Half conquers we headed off to shhh Camden as GoodGym Camden had their massive Southbank task and need all hands on deck for that!

A surprisingly short run given we crossed boroughs enabled us to get stuck in early. Laying the game of bed Tetris first to squeeze 15 beds into the main room with a further 2 into the back room.

We then had the big debate of the evening, Which is the best way to put a duvet cover on??? Seems this is a highly controversial topic and might have to go onto a band list as so many of you are wrong!! Only Francis had the right method!!

A very enjoyable task making up beds for 17 of the most in need people around! Getting a great insight into how the homeless shelter works, who they help and hopefully maybe a lead so we can find similar projects in Westminster.

With some time on the clock we zipped over to Bedford Square to unleash some circuits mayhem!! Flipping between Cardio, legs (lots of legs), a burst of upper body graft and some plyometric moves to round out 20 minutes of muscle pumping fun!

A recovery 2k back to base with plenty of chat of possible Spring/ Summer Running races going on!!

On that note as I said I have a special GG discount code for Hackney Half! Here it is vsgoodgymhh18 I also have discount codes for the British 10k and Oxford Half marathon in October. Drop me a line and I will send those over if you want them!

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel