Sadly our post-Goose Fair litterpick at Forest Rec didn't live up to the excellent rubbish standards of last time we cleared up after a major event there – Nigel's inflatable alien really will take some beating, it seems!

That's not to say we got a bad haul though! Despite someone (the council maybe?) managing to give the place a good cleaning between Rachel and Peter's pre-task reccies and our arrival, we still managed to fill a good few bags of rubbish.

Hannah's crank took the prize for most unusual bit of litter, while Elspeth and Leah managed to find half a loaf of very stale, very mouldy bread, followed by its bag a few metres further down the fence.

Shoutout to Scott for coming to his very first task with us – hope to see you again soon!

Someone please remind me to charge the headtorches, looks like we'll be needing them for outdoor stuff from now on!

It was a bumper turn out at this week’s task as 11 Nottingham GoodGymers headed to the Meadows Foodbank and Pantry. Mark greeted us on arrival and, once he found his to-do list, he set us to work on a variety of tasks.

Dayna and Elspeth took on the task of sorting and tidying the clothes in the foodbank. Matt, Bozena, Rafe, Nigel, Rosemarie and Vytautas did a huge clean of the floors, shelves and fridges. Meanwhile Peter, Tom and Rachel headed upstairs to tackle a flat pack Ikea table and a clothes rail.

As some of these jobs proved quicker than others, a few of the group then turned their hand to dating some of the food, and photographing and cataloging some toys and baby items which are going to form part of the foodbank’s Christmas campaign (see information poster in photos). Finally, as if we hadn’t ticked off enough different activities this evening, Nigel took on the important job of folding bits of paper for the foodbank’s raffle which was due to be drawn in the coming days.

We welcomed Rafe to his first GoodGym session, and also Elspeth who has recently moved to Nottingham from Leeds where she used to do GoodGym.

Also congrats to Dayna who has now done 10 tasks, and a big well done to Bozena who did the Robin Hood Half Marathon at the weekend!

Five GoodGymers headed to the Edwards Lane Community Centre in Sherwood recently to help out with tidying their garden and grounds. This was our first visit to the centre, which is home to the Chayah Development Project, and we were warmly greeted on arrival by Hya, Chayah’s Founder and CEO.

Our main task was to mow the lawn at the front of the building, a job which had Matt’s name written all over it. We all held our breath while Matt and Hya’s husband attempted to get the mower started, but once it was up and running it was full steam ahead as Matt attempted to mow the lawn before the light faded.

Meanwhile, Leah, Peter, Nigel and Rachel did some general pruning, weeding and tidying of the area around the carpark and driveway (Nigel is missing from our group photo as he needed to make a dash to the airport for a pick-up).

We very nearly completed this task in the daylight, but as the sun started to go down just before 7.30 the mower also ran out of petrol. There wasn’t time to refuel and so a small patch of grass remained un-mowed for the time being. However, this was still a job well done and we hope to return to the community centre for some indoor tasks over the darker weeks.

A big thank you to Hya, her husband, and to Councillor Nayab Patel who also came out to support us.

Eight intrepid Goodgymers returned to Sherwood Methodist Church to tackle more of the overgrown garden.

With loppers, secateurs, brooms and wheelie bins ready we all got stuck in. Peter and Rachel finished off the cutting down at the front to finally reveal the Methodist Church signage. And no branches fell on any heads at all (sorry Rachel!)

Elsewhere, high roses were cut back and wheelie bins were filled to the brim with cuttings and branches and Matthew!

Huge thanks go to Tony and Janice from the church who supervised us so expertly and even made us a cuppa after before we all left as the heavens opened!

Massive congratulations to Tom for hitting his 100 good deeds - Goodgym gives you wings!

The latest heatwave didn’t put off 7 GoodGym Nottingham volunteers as we headed to Green’s Windmill and Science Centre for this week’s task. We hadn’t been to the Windmill for a task for some time so it was nice to be back in their beautiful garden which was just perfect for a warm summer’s evening.

Jamie met us on arrival and opened up the science centre so that we could park our bikes inside. We then set to work on weeding and tidying the pathways in between the raised beds. As much as we love gardening tasks involving heavy duty tool-wielding, chopping, pruning brambles etc, we all agreed that a gentle evening pulling up weeds was perfect for such a warm day as we were all pretty low on energy. It also meant that we didn’t have to use much brain-power in deciding what was and wasn’t a weed as we just needed to pull up anything that was not in a bed.

Alongside the weeding, Nat also took on the task of picking up several apples which had fallen from the trees into the garden, separating out the ones which could potentially still be sold as windfall.

After an hour, we were satisfied that all the garden paths appeared to be weed and apple free and we were ready to head on home to cool off. Before we did, we had our usual group picture plus a special one of AJ with the Windmill’s solar panels. He had been involved in a project at work which had contributed to the installation of these panels a few years ago, but had not had the opportunity to come and see them for himself until now. A perfect way to celebrate what was his tenth Goodgym task - well done AJ!