We met Miki at the tiny forest, which is looking splendid, and admired the first of the bath-ponds he'd constructed. 2 more baths had been obtained (by non-nefarious means) and our job was to dig a hole for them each to sit into, with a spot of weeding in between when space was tight.

One site was a little easier to dig, and quick progress was made getting the mini bath in, once it's various accoutrements had been removed and plug filled with clay. We were briefly hampered by a Giant Boulder, but we quickly had it wobbled and pried out, leaving Mitch time for a quick GeologyGeek session. This was further enhanced by the lovely Pyroclastic rock we then found - ooh blue!

The second hole was seemingly into solid rock, and required a mattock followed by shovel approach. Eventually it too succumbed, and the final bath was in! After packing it in nicely, we wiped our sweaty brows and headed home successful.

Now all we need is some rain to fill the ponds..

Today's group run took an antipodean theme as we numbered off by stating our favourite things about Australia, featuring Koalas, crocodiles and a bit of Kylie. We also welcomed back Craig (aka Daddy Haggart) for his first group run in 2 years. Give him a big cheer! 💪

There was also a PB to celebrate with Debs smashing out her fastest ever 5k at the weekend 👏. And a milestone achievement with Stefan completing his 250th Good Deed early in the week. Well done guys.

We set off with Ed leading and Nikki and Amy backmarking, shortly arriving at West Bank Park to be greeting by Christine from the City of York Council environment team. Whilst waiting for Christine to finish unloading her van we had a quick round of Mexican wave star jumps, taking at least 3 attempts to make it all the way round!

The task itself involved us splitting into 3 groups. Team 1 were in charge of filling up a water butt over by the wildlife pond. Team 2 were tasked with restoring a soil area by the pergolas that had suffered from grass-creep. And team 3 helped Christine pack away some tools before turning over the compost area in the play park.

Team 1 dived straight in (not literally) and soon got into a rhythm of running water between the tap and the butt, even if they weren't entirely sure why.

Team 2 debated over exactly what edge they were restoring but soon made excellent progress, and made some clearly defined, if not straight, lines with their edging tools.

Team 3 made light work of the compost bins and started to look for additional work, with Max getting very engrossed in his benchmarking app! But before too long they were back at it with bags to fill with compost and some DIY to do to help keep the compost bins stable.

With time running out team 1 joined forces with team 2 to help them get tidy before it was time to wrap things up and get stuck into tonight's fitness sesh.

The fitness session loosely involved some core strength exercises, but was really just an excuse to make use of the dry weather to get people crawling around on the ground. Teams of 3 would alternate between going under and over their team mates in a race. As Ed was needed to help make up the numbers he was assured that there would be no cheating!

A fab session in the sunshine with lots of work done. Well done all

St Leonard finished their plant sale and required help tidying up after the event. The fantastic five helped out and accomplished the following:

Cleaned the tables ✅ Cleared away the tables ✅ Ate some cake ✅ Stacked and tidied the chairs ✅ Moved unsold plants and trees ✅ Ate some doughnuts ✅ Picked up litter ✅ Ate some more cake ✅

Overall a success!

Four of us went along on a sunny Saturday to help Treemendous check on the saplings up at Kimberlow Hill.

This involved taking a peek inside each tree guard to see whether its occupant was still alive, then pulling out any weeds, replacing the guard and straightening the stake if necessary. It turns out that tree guards make ideal vertical ant nests - so quite a few of our trees were sharing their living quarters with these high-rise apartm-ants! However, the trees took priority, meaning we had to knock down the nests to make sure the growing tree trunks weren't smothered.

7 of us met at Rowntree Park to help the Make Space for Girls project to finish off the area ready for this evening's launch event. This is aiming to reduce the drop off of park use in girls as they reach their teenage years. They had fundraised for a bench, basket swing and balance log which we tested in the interest of quality control! They had saved some log stumps from a fallen tree which we collected from various locations and helped secure in place with wooden stakes that were bashed into place either side with mallets and screwed into the logs. We then retired for a well deserved lunch in the cafe.

things we did tonight

ran * chatted * enjoyed sunshine * ate food * drank * had a very pleasant evening in the company of friends