Well done to mini GGer, Jack, for seeking out the interesting and unusual finds at Tipner shoreline! These included large pieces of rope, a flip-flop and 2 different-sized wheels.

With Laura, Katie and I to help pick up the smaller bits (including, of course, a sock!) we made a visible difference to the beach in just 45 minutes. Four heavy sacks of litter collected, and less litter to return to the sea on the next high tide.

Hopes dashed that the rain would hold off, I set about giving the rec a clear up.

Plenty of cans found. A used firework remnant! A hat, as there is always clothing! And spookiest of all (albeit slightly late for halloween), a bubblegum wrapper. Not scary on its own, however the 'are you afraid of the dark' podcast I was listening to had a discussion on bubblegum flavours at exactly the moment I spotted it.

Today we welcomed Elvis to his first session, give him a cheer! He got stuck into the big cut back and had razor sharp eyesight for spotting rubbish!

Dave was double good deeding, starting with us and the heading off to junior parkrun. Judy is also double deeding today with a run sandwiched in between. Top GoodGyming!

Favourite finds today were a rocking swan 🦢, corkscrew and mini football ⚽

Good work by all!

But not quite yet.... we were very lucky with the weather - warm and only a few drops of rain. Judy brought plants from home to put in our Friends of Victoria Park planter - they are hardy winter plants, taking the place of the summer flowers as they gradually die off. Today we were two groups, one digging up plants for re-planting over by the Civic Office and the other group doing the weeding and re-planting. Once finished, we went back to the Hub to enjoy a hot drink with some very tasty biscuits.

Victoria Park looked golden today with the bright sunshine and beautiful autumn coloured leaves on the trees. We're entering a period now in the Park involving general maintenance, and today we were pulling up all the flowers that bloomed through Spring & Summer. Re-planting those that wouldn't mind a bit of frost, and leaving the rest for the Park Keepers to collect and recycle. We ended the session with refreshments and biscuits, sitting in the sunshine and making the most of it before the wind and rain come back again tomorrow.

An early morning visit to the garden in order to avoid the usual crowds on the garden bench almost worked.... We had two local residents watching us work and chatting away!

We did a bit of weeding and pruning but the plants have grown a lot with the recent warm conditions so we will have to go back and do a bit more soon! We popped our prunings by an old bit of board to upgrade it from a 3* to a 4* bug hotel.

We filled two black bags with rubbish - mostly cans, McDonalds wrappers and bits of general litter. We also transferred a carrier bag full of glass bottles over to the bottle banks. Treasures that we found in the depths of the garden included a pair of Nike Trainers (we left them on the bench as they were pretty decent!), a hat, a pair of Star Wars pillow cases, pyjamas, a wrench, a sunglasses case and a handheld games console case. Enough to fill a Generation Game conveyor belt (minus the cuddly toy). There was also a discarded book of Dharma meditations which Dave read to us to motivate our Sunday morning clear up!

We will be back to do more, keep an eye on the listings for the next one