On a (miraculously) dry Monday evening, 9 goodgymmers returned to park lane to support an experimental planting project.

After a swift 2km run (where we managed to scoop up newcomer Steph- lovely to have you on board!) we got to work quickly. A few weeks ago we had been here to clear the sight of unwanted weeds and it was looking in much better nick! There we even some flowers popping through the spaces we had cleared previously. However there was still work to be done - after clearing the larger weeds last time, he smaller ones had been given chance to florish.

Although we didn't clear quite as many bags as last time, the impact was obvious. We have another sessions booked in for November - it'll be great to see the progress then.

Every Wednesday in a church hall on Sheil Road in Liverpool, Care4Calais run a drop in service providing free clothing for refugee/asylum seekers in the city. All the clothes are donated, with a huge variety of quality and suitability.

Our task on a sunny Saturday lunchtime was to sort through piles and piles of these donations, assess which were suitable to redistribute and then sort them into age, gender and type. While the Care4Calais volunteers took charge of the adults clothing, Ruth, Phillip, Heetu and Ema waded our way through a never ending sea of children's items. We did our very best not to get distracted by the utter cuteness of some of the outfits, and could only wish adults clothes could be as fun!

Thanks to Ruth, who is a regular volunteer with Care4Calais for helping to arrange this session.

The day started and ended with buckets of rain, but the weather gods were on our side allowing for a brief dry spell just for our community mission!

Seven of us arrived by running (Pauline, John and Eimear), cycling (Emma, Sallyann and Phil) and taxi (sorry, injury issues, but I did walk 6k home at the end!!) meeting Elaine and Steve from the Sustrans Liverpool Volunteer Group at the Broadway Bridge. We were shown a steep embankment covered in trees, bushes, brambles and lots and lots of litter!

The Sustrans volunteers do an amazing job keeping the Loop Line in great condition for everyone to enjoy, and their hard work is shown to pay off by the busyness of the line which is used by many walkers, cyclists and runners every day. It's a beautiful 10 mile route through the city from Hunts Cross to Aintree. Elaine also said that the Loop Line had been a bit of a life saver during lockdown, having a space like this to keep busy and enjoy was really valued.

However accessing the embankment to clear up the rubbish is tricky and takes some sure footed, goat like GoodGymers to do the job!

While Eimear, Phil and John did a great job clearing various patches along the route, Pauline and Sallyann worked continuously at the grottiest patch filling bag after bag with rubbish that had been building up all year. Between them they started a book club, collected a bunch of car keys, created a dystopian Mary Poppins tableau, went space hopping, and said it was a load of bollards.

Meanwhile Emma went on a mission unearthing 3 shopping trolleys, 6 car tyres, a calor gas container, a fire hydrant, a TV front, a rather large hammer and a whole bunch of other bargain hunt finds!

After 18 filled bin bags and enough items to fill a scrap yard, our now tyred team shared some chocolate biscuits and trolleyed on home!

We arrived at the building of Sanctuary Family Support to be greeted by Maddy, fast becoming an old friend on our fourth visit here. The walls of one of their therapy rooms had years of marks, scuffs and general muck around old posters and pictures so they were in need of some fresh paint to spruce the place up once more.

As occasionally happens the tools and paint available were not fully up to the task, so many of our amazing charities and community groups are struggling to get by with their core work let alone invest in resources to decorate. The paint was old and had gone off, so in true GoodGym style Eimear and John set off on a run to the local shops to pick up some new paint and some masking tape, with the rest of us walking behind to help carry, a bonus to add a little extra exercises into the afternoon session!

With no ladder and foam rollers that kept falling off their polls, we carefully worked our way around the room, taking full advantage of the taller GoodGymers, thanks John and Phillip, to reach the tops of the walls!!

It wasn't long before all four walls were completed and another GoodGYm task well done!

Shout out to Eimear and John for running there and back and me for speed walking!!

( in the end the walls were painted magnolia not white as it was the only paint available but we don't let a small detail like that get in the way of a good pun!)