Bozena, Leah and Rachel headed to Sneinton on Saturday to help with 'skip day'. This brilliant initiative was organised by the Sneinton Waste Action Group (SWAG), to enable local residents to dispose of unwanted items and waste in one time and place. Or rather, in two giant skips.

The base for the event was Lindum Grove Community Gardens where we have spent many-a-task previously, and on arrival we admired several recent changes including the growth of the trees we planted a while ago and a new perimeter fence (sadly replacing one of our dead hedges, but much needed to create a more contained and safe garden for children).

Skip day was in full swing with a group of enthusiastic volunteers taking receipt of various items of waste which were being dropped off by a steady stream of residents. These ranged from regular black bin bags of rubbish, right through to a large metal container resembling an oil drum and an old office chair, and everything in between. The team were sorting through items that could be re-purposed or gifted to others and the whole event had such a positive, festival vibe.

We spent an hour helping out by litter picking around some of the nearby roads and taking some items of fly-tipping to the skips. We managed to collect three bags full of litter, plus an old bike frame, a mattress and a slinky which had seen much better days.

Sadly we just missed the samba band who were about to start as we departed, but we had a great time playing a small part in this fab community event.

We were back at the AMC Gardens this week to continue our previous efforts to rid the kids' play area of brambles.

A small but mighty team of Bozena, Adrian and Leah got stuck right in (sometimes literally with those grippy little barbs), chopping out the bulk then digging up the roots.

Despite Leah's overly enthusiastic chopping breaking the handle of a pair of loppers, we managed to move seven wheelbarrow loads of these thorny customers over to the compost heap to rot down a bit before burning.

We're looking into organising some more sessions here in the near future, so keep your eyes on the WhatsApp and here!

Well done to Bozena and Kat who attended the Grownotts Wild about Sneinton day of action.

Read more about this amazing event and all that was achieved here

Nine GoodGymers returned to the Meadows Foodbank last night for our latest task. We've spent many evenings helping inside the foodbank, sorting donations, cleaning, stacking food and moving snooker tables, but on this occasion we had the pleasure of helping in the garden out the back of the Bridgeway Hall Methodist centre where the foodbank is housed.

We were met by Dave on arrival who gave us our instructions and some refreshments, then we set to work out in the last of the day's sunshine. The winter months had resulted in the garden becoming pretty overgrown with weeds, so our main job was to pull these up to clear the pathway and raised beds. We also chopped back some of the thorny bushes and collected some compost from the far side of the garden to be put into the weed-free beds. The beds will soon be planted with seeds and potatoes. There are also plans for the centre to install some secure bike parking in the back yard, so we may have a future task assisting with clearing this space.

We welcomed Adrian to his first GoodGym session, and Liz who has moved to Nottingham from Bristol where she used to do GoodGym. We're also delighted to see some of our previous GoodGym Nottingham folk return after a bit of a break, and of course we're always pleased to see the regular faces too!!