It was quite a spectacle at Mousehold Heath this evening as we were treated to a beautiful rainbow as we were about to take our group photo.

Jen and Bobby lead the run from The Forum with several others cycling too.

This was possibly our biggest turnout since post-covid, with 23 of us making an appearance.

It was the last bracken pulling session of the summer. Will met us with pitch forks (in a nice way) so we could pile up the pulled bracken... and there was a lot of it!

What a lovely evening with the sunset coming over as we finished up for the evening. A few people stopped at the pub on the way back to have a well deserved drink.

Tonight 20 Goodgymer's (and 1 dog) ran or cycled 6km to Mousehold Heath.

We continued the work being done to improve the biodiversity of the heathland, by pulling up bracken to allow the heather to flourish underneath.

Always a popular task, and our second visit this summer, we covered a different area on the eastern side of the heath. Within an hour there was a large wide area that had been cleared, with all the bracken piled up and moved with pitchforks.

On our way out of the heath, local warden Will showed us an area that had been worked on over 3 years, and is now covered in a beautifully vibrant purple heather.

Tonight 18 GoodGymer's ran or cycled 6km to Mousehold Heath.

We returned to this 140 acre heathland to continue the conservation work improving the biodiversity of this historical part of Norwich.

Armed with gloves and forks we cleared two large areas of bracken, allowing the underlying heather and grass to continue to grow.

Kudos to Ed and Ana who completed their first good deeds, and a BIG shout out to Sarah for her 50th good deed tonight!

Despite the summer rain, we ended the evening with a picnic in the nearby bandstand for more 7th birthday celebrations of GoodGym Norwich!

Tonight 17 GoodGymers ran 6.5km to support the conservation at Mousehold Heath.

We welcomed first timers Elisa, Beth and Sam who joined us on their first group run.

Mousehold warden Will lead us to the areas needing work, so we split into 2 groups and started pulling up bracken.

Will pointed out areas we have visited before, that showed signs of less bracken and more heather growth and also encourages more insects and wildlife. So tonights task will hopefully go a long way towards continuing this conservation work.

After 50 mins of hard work in the warm weather, we headed home with another job well done!

This was our 2nd visit to Mousehold Heath this year.

We went to a different section of the heath. The task was to pull bracken again, but this time getting rid of it from an area where it was invasive to the native Heather, which in areas was in full purple bloom.

This evening was Katy's 200th good deed, marked by her and Bill bringing us some of their famous yellow courgettes.

Like always, the team worked incredibly hard, the before and after shots were yet again mind dazzling.

This evening marked 6 years since the launch of GoodGym Norwich, and I've had the pleasure of being there since the start.

We've been fortunate enough to help at Mousehold Heath since year 1, so it was very apt that we were visiting there this week.

Will, the regular warden of Mousehold Heath, greeted us with some pitch forks, as we then headed in to the heath to pull up some bracken.

As you can see from the before and after photos, we made huge inroads!

Clearing the invasive bracken allows for more wildlife to thrive in the heath.

We topped off the evening with a picnic in the park to celebrate 6 epic years, with many more to come.