Charly and Ben met up in Manchester city centre to embark on a litter picking trail through some of the green spaces in Ardwick 🌳

After a short run to Gartside Gardens, we made a lap of the park, picking up litter as we went. In the high winds, lots of apples 🍎 were scattered around the park from a couple of apples trees 🌳 After filling a sack of rubbish 🗑 and enlisting the help of locals, we moved up to the Hanworth Close allotments, where we found lots of discarded clothes, condoms, butchers dog food, and lots more besides.

More was to come, with the narrow ginnels, alleyways, and footpaths containing some fly tipping, including rugs, pillows, and several Barbie figures, but also the normal plastic bottles and tin cans 🥫🍶🧴

A final collection in the Groom St and Grosvenor St areas gave another few sacks of rubbish, making sure to empty any bottles that still contained liquid.

7 full sacks plus several other large items collected in all. Good collection from a few green sites, particularly following storm Floris.

Laura and I volunteered at Fletcher Moss parkrun event number 258. 476 runners and walkers completed the 5 km course on a pleasant August morning 🏃‍♂️🏃🏼‍♀️👣Lots of buggy runners and dogs! 🐶🐾🐕

Laura was park walker. Ben, ably assisted by Juno, helped with the pre event course check & set up, then marshalled at Mount Fletcher (#3). We had a small contingent of cheers and clappers to encourage the participants back up the slope for their second lap!

22 volunteers helped in all 🦺🌳

Tonight we returned to St Matthews Church for the first time since 2019!

Hazel, Ben and Laura got to work painting the back room in the church a beautiful shade of light blue.

The high ceilings and arches were an added challenge, but Hazel took the ladders whilst Ben navigated the extendable pole with roller and we transformed the room in no time.