Last night we returned to Makespace to continue the tasks we started earlier this spring. It was lovely to see that there was already a raised bed and planting where we'd cleared the ground last time.

This time we sanded benches (much competition for the electric sander), we painted the benches a jazzy turquoise-teal, we weeded around the picnic area and entrance, and we watered all the pots.

Well done Joe for completing your 10th Good Deed and tolerating the Garland of Joy.

Welcome to GoodGym Raúl!

What a lovely day to be out on the river!

Today we teamed up with the Falcon Boat Club to clean up the river and river banks between Donnington Bridge and Heyford Hill ring road bridge. We've worked together to clear litter from the river many times now, so we know we always recover a big haul, but it still surprises us every time JUST how much stuff we pull out of the river and off the banks!

Today was no different, with the canoe teams getting creative to float a drowned moped back to base, 2 trollies wheeled up to the road from under the bridge, and many many bottles and cans picked up. In sartorial news, the garment of the day was shoes - we found sliders, a pair of trainers, and several socks to go with them - but honorable mentions go to the buried coat and the pair of shorts.

Great work once again team - that was a brilliant amount of litter cleared up.

Welcome to GoodGym to all our new GoodGymers today: Adam, Dima, Muireann, Nazanin, Daniel, Deb, and Carmen!

On Wednesday we did our own mini Morse plog around Oxford.

Taking inspiration from the locations used in Inspector Morse films we set off to visit the sites of significance in central Oxford and Jericho, litter picking as we went.

From the Oxford police station (sadly, no Morse cut out in the windows) to the Phoenix Picturehouse we ran and walked our way across the city, amassing 2 sacks of litter and covering 3.75 miles.

Favourite sightings: The Oxford Story Museum telephone box (definitely worth a detour down Pembroke Street), and the murals on Canal Street.

It's our Birthday!

To celebrate GoodGym Oxford being 6 years old a bevy of GoodGymers got together at County Hall. Of course we had to include a Good Deed in our birthday celebrations (no Wednesday is complete without one), so we packaged up 3 boxes of old trainers to send to JogOn for repurposing and recycling. These had been collected up from friends, family and colleagues over the previous few weeks, saving them from going to landfill.

With 26 GoodGymers in attendance that task was complete in record time, leaving us the rest of the evening to chat over drinks and nibbles, reminiscing about the past 6 years and speculating about what the future might bring.

Our 6 year Good Deed count is 8038. Happy Birthday to Us!

We usually try to get to West Oxford for a litter pick early in the year, and despite the ongoing challenges of accessing the Botley Road, we headed there last night for a clean up.

We split into 3 groups and allowed ourselves an hour to blitz the trash. Given the cold weather we found a surprising amount of discarded clothing (wouldn't you notice that you'd left your coat on the cemetery gate?!), as well as a bags full of the usual suspects (cans, bottles), and more unusual items (a whole block of cheese, part of a car bumper, MANY Christmas trees, a French dictionary).

All in all, a good amount of rubbish got picked and bagged, leaving the area looking a little more loved.

Welcome to GoodGym James!