It's the end of an era! Today a superb task owner led his final community mission with GoodGym and what a task it was!

A big group of us gathered in St Lawrence Park in Byker, the group including many regular faces and a few we were welcoming back- hey Emma and Charlotte ! There was also a triple celebration going on today as both Tanya and Damu celebrated 100 good deeds and gained their wings, while Sam gained the cloak of goodness for her 50 milestone. Give them all a cheer for so many days of dedication to GoodGym!

Mike has orchestrated and led over 100 sessions for us and they are always a real treat in hidden gems of parks. There was a lot of reminiscing today about tasks gone by (if you don't know about the rocks in Kenton Park, ask anyone there that day as it's forever etched in memories!) and there were so many great days to reflect on as we've worked with Urban Green Newcastle to make our city parks safer places to be. Today's mammoth hedge cutting task was another example of how we can work together to do a big job in a short space of time. The before and after is quite astounding!

Mike's tasks always end with tea and biscuits but today it was with a twist as we had Louise and Sam's amazing baking, as well as no-alcohol prosecco to toast with. We also gave Mike his very own GoodGym tshirt to remember us by... he has certainly earned it.

Good luck and thank you Mike, we will really miss you.

Leazes Park is a serene escape nestled on the heart of Newcastle, offering a peaceful retreat with its scenic lake, lush greenery and historic surroundings.

Today we tackled the recurring issue of weeds and bushes over growing the pathways around the lake. Not only does this keep the pathways a safe space for the community to enjoy, it protects the historic paving.

It was lovely to have a large group of volunteers, and we quickly split into two groups to work opposite ways around the lake. There is a knack to getting the weeds out from between the paving stones and despite how easy Mike makes it look it’s definitely a good upper body work out!

With so many pairs of hands, the weeds stood no chance! Our newcomers were a delightful addition and conversations centred around taking the leap to try something new - like a new city to live in or new hobbies and meeting new people.

By the end of the session, we’d made the park a welcoming space for everyone to feel at home in. Check out the before and after photos.

On a very agreeable Sunday morning, we had a sweat inducing task, in a cute hidden gem of a park.

That pesky grass was up to its usual tricks of encroaching on the paths, so the it was time to edge back - an Urban Green classic.

We took one side of the path each and quickly got to work; getting some lovely comments from people of the local community as we toiled.

I'd highly recommend visiting this little park if you are ever in the area, as well as the mini nature spot in the bowling green next door :-)

There was a fantastic turn out this morning for a gardening task with Urban Green in Exhibition Park. Ranger Rhian had two large flowerbeds near Wylam brewery that needed weeding ready for some new plants.

We split in to two groups and quickly began to tackle the weeds. Liz, Debbie, Sam and I attacked the thistles and weeds. Red stalks out, wood stalks stay!

Louise, Dan, Ellie, Tom and newcomer Matt took on the bigger bed supervised by one of the resident swans.

The two hours flew by and the flower beds looked fantastic. Check out the pictures to see the difference.

The morning ended with an impromptu social in Urban Green Cafe.

There's nothing like "taking the edge off" a stressful week than spending a Saturday morning on an Urban Green/Good Gym task :)

Mike took Max, Chris and myself to the "edge of reason" by giving us 2 tasks - edging a path (taking it to nearly double its width) and then also edging the Junior skate park. Fortunately there was the usual UG provided coffee & biscuit break in between. Much appreciated.

It was a great workout, good craic, and to top it all, a lovely chat & expression of thanks from a local lady. Fab morning.

Two GoodGymers helped Urban Green in Hogdkin Park. I was a bit late filling in for Louise who was unwell and by the time I arrived Max has already starting helping task owner Mike with edge and clearing a path in Hodgkin Park near Benwell Dene.

As we were shoveling the beech tree seed pods Mike explained that beech trees don't produce seeds every year to avoid animals seeing it as a reliable food source and then year 5 years or so will produce a load of seeds which are so numerous they can't go be eaten by the animal which grantee some seed should survive.

We had a tea break half way though and Mike showed us Benwell Dene, which despite me doing a number of tasks with Urban Green in the park I had never seen. It is a beautiful hiden path by the dene which feels completely different to the rest of the park.

We then carried on cutting back and edging another main path in the park, cutting the vegetation back and trimming over hanging trees to make it use to use the paths. Mike also cut back a dead ash tree which had feel vicitum to ash dieback. Which lead to a discussion about if they can breed ash trees which are resistant and how a similar thing had been done with Elm tree which are resistant to Dutch Elm disease.

When we were done it was great to see what difference we had made in the park with the two paths we had worked on looking a lot clearer!