One goodgymer joined 5 Friends of Milton Common volunteers and the Countrside Officer to do a mega litterpick!

In just 3 hours we cleared a stretch of Milton Common and filled 15 bin bags with litter and fly tipping including a TV, 2 signs, a witches hat, a fire extinguisher, a bench, a trolley and 16 shoes!

We also had the time to identify 4 species of butterflies and 6 birds.

The birds were singing and the butterflies fluttering - Baffins is looking great. Glad to say there wasn't much litter this morning.

its amazing how much litter two goodgymers can find in just 30 minutes!

Two bin bags were filled, plus half a burnt traffic cone and a broken child's scooter picked up.

What a gorgeous evening and a beautiful location for tonight's task! The sun was shining whilst our tasks were in the shade of the trees at the People's Memorial.

Brenda had prepared two benches for us to paint, but within the hour we had managed to paint those, prep and paint two more, and weed the memorial garden too!

There were only a few whoopsies of people putting their hands or arms in wet paint, which considering Dave and Andy started painting the bench top before the struts was pretty impressive!

Six Good Gymmers attended the All Saints Foodbank today. After making up lots a crates in preparation we were asked to test a new change to the process to help reduce the number of swaps and returns that happen each week. Instead of standard crates, the foodbank customers were asked to state their preferences against a set list, this resulted in some logistical issues out back in the store cupboard but we gradually got into the flow!

Out front, Lucy covered the weigh-in desk and sorted out some tech issues with the weighing machine, and Fiona was on the front desk. Pat was on the teas and coffees.

The first hour today was all about weeding! Not our favourite task, but we had a great incentive to get on with it! Following this we were excited to finally be able to plant and wildflower seed the 'Friends of Victoria Park' bay which sits alongside the Greenhouse hub amongst several others. Each are being looked after by different groups with a mix of veggies, herbs, plants and flowers. Our bay will change season to season and the plan is to graft some of the plants elsewhere in the park, as well as have people bring from their own gardens to be sustainable. We'll each take responsibility to water, weed and generally maintain our bay to keep it looking fresh and attractive to insects and visitors to the Park. We celebrated it's 'opening' with a good water and for us volunteers some refreshments and biscuits!