The Friends of Ravensknowle Park are amongst GoodGym Huddersfield’s best customers, we tend to run down there to provide some practical help a few times a year. And so last night in warm and humid conditions we set out to run the 2K there in order to tend to the park’s Memorial Garden. The garden was created in memory of all the Huddersfield Service People lost in conflicts over the years, and with its low walled individual beds stocked with a variety of plants and shrubs provides a lovely space for users of the park to enjoy.

It also provides a lot of work for the Friends group to keep looking neat and tidy, so Ann Denham who is the Chair of the group (and probably the Park’s best friend) is always appreciative of a little GoodGym labour helping out. Although Ann couldn’t be there last night our own Louise Galvin, who is pretty friendly with the park too being one of the founders of a Junior Parkrun there, had the keys to the Friend’s hut so we could access the tools.

Suitably tooled up we were soon we were straight into gardening mode, cutting, weeding, digging and generally doing what was required to keep the garden looking good. Whilst David Bilton and I scraped weeds and moss from the block paving surrounding the memorial stone, Meg Deacon and Peter Phillips were weeding away, and our resident gardening Wendy Redmile was assuming her usual role advising what plants were weeds and what were something more significant. Mark Donnelley did also point out that his recent GoodGym gardening activities were leading to questions at home, mainly about why he’s not putting as much effort in doing the garden there!

Meanwhile Ben Godfrey and Louise Galvin had found the herb garden and were getting busy on the many weeds there. Vicki Knight-Phillips was busy brushing up, doing her best with a ridiculously small brush, until we found her something more substantial. On the warm, still, calm night the fragrance of the herbs hung heavy in the air and we all gravitated there to complete our time in the garden.

As is traditional at Ravensknowle after the work we retired to the hut for a drink and biscuits, before setting off for the 2K run back to the Stadium. Thanks to all last night’s GoodGymmers, I hope you all had as good a thyme as I did!