An excellent evening after some heavy rain, GoodGymers took to the heath once more to pull bracken. We went to the same spot as last year and could see that the bracken had not grown back as strongly, so we got pulling.

A big space became clear and lots of heath was re-exposed, so much so that insects and dragonflies immediately swooped in as we were clearing to get to the nectar in the plants that were previously obscured.

Other highlights were a flying visit from GoodGymer Ian as he ran past our spot and seeing a hornet’s nest thriving in an dead tree, which made groundskeeper Will very happy to see.

We had a great turnout for an evening of bracken pulling at Mousehold Heath.

It was a shock (but a very pleasant one) to see the return of Panda Dave, who was actually completing his 50th GoodGym deed!

Will the Warden took us to an area of the heath where the evasive bracken was preventing the heather from thriving. So our task was to clear as much bracken as possible, to allow the heather to breath and flower.

It never ceases to amaze me how much the team get done. We transformed the area we were working in.

Leo and Emrys (the GG Norwich mascots) also enjoyed the evening.

The star of the show and centre of attention was Leo, the new GoodGym Norwich puppy mascot.

We visited the ever popular Mousehold Heath to start the summer task of pulling up bracken, to help conserve the heathland.

Thank you to Bill and Katy for bringing along some fresh homegrown strawberries.

We welcomed Grant to his first GoodGym deed and what a great one to pick as your first.

We met Will, the Mousehold Warden, who then took us well into the depths of Mousehold Heath (I'm glad he was there as I would have got everyone lost otherwise!).

There were 3x tasks for the team to get stuck into this evening.

1) Pop and Pull out self seeded birch trees (which will be replanted in more appropriate areas of the heath). 2) Remove some cut back gauze bushes (this is where the gauntlet gloves were very much needed). 3) Pull up some early growing bracken.

It was a very sociable evening with a great turn out of people.

We visited Mousehold Heath again. A new task this time (before the Bracken pulling commences in the summer), which was pulling up self-seeded Birch trees amongst areas of the heath where they don't want then to be growing.

It sounds crazy but we must have pulled out well over 100 of them! They have been temporarily been replanted in another area of the heath before they find new homes.

We returned to Mousehold Allotments to continue the work we started there a couple of weeks ago.

Firstly, we have a few mentions:

A big welcome to Vicky, who joined us for her first GoodGym task.

Well done to Sam who was completing her 50th GoodGym deed!

Congratulations to Woody who was completing his 100th GoodGym deed!!

The jobs this week set by Lizzie and Will were: 1) to lay down cardboard on the middle area. 2) load compost into a wheelbarrow 3) transport the compost and spread it over the card board 4) remove as many old ground sheets from the ground as possible

We discovered lots of little frogs in the grass areas, so were extra careful of those. It was great to see that none of us had a fear of frogs.

Everyone did a great job.