A HUGE congratulations to GGSHF LEGEND Rachel for completing her 400th good deed!

Rachel donned the GGSHF cape and wore it in style last night as we headed just around the corner and up the hill from The Showroom to join our very welcoming friends at Common Thread.

With many donations building up we were on hand to help sort.

Labels were created and bags of clothes were thrown onto the floor for us to sort and sift through into categories ready for the next Common Thread event where people bring their own unwanted clothes to donated and swap them for a bag of clothes that they do want!

A great alternative to fast fashion and unnecessary consumerism.

We got through an elevator full of bags of clothes and said our goodbyes to the CT gang.

Some of us went to nearby food fave Mexican Street Food Chef to celebrate Rachel's achievements which was really nice!

Until next time, happy running! :)

There was an Abundance of volunteers this Wednesday lunchtime to harvest apples with Friends of Whirlowbrook Park, and thank goodness, because what a crop!

We met Nicola and other "friends of" at the entrance to the park and were led to the recently unearthed orchard, where there were 5 or so apple trees that had been hidden and not harvested for an estimated 30 years, plus lots of newly planted baby fruit trees.

Celine kicked things off with a wassail, blessing the trees with a verse, some apple cider vinegar and toast(!)

We then set to the usual work of clearing windfalls, getting in with telescopic pickers and then the fun of shaking the trees and catching fruit with a big tarpaulin. Yoseph was our intrepid tree-climber today, taking on the branch shaking from the top.

The bumper crop was quality control sorted into firsts, seconds and thirds. Most of the thirds were left for nature and, after we took as many as we wanted, the firsts and seconds will be distributed to good causes.

On a quiet and dry evening a team of goodgymmers ran up the hill - up and up all the way to the very top, but the views are as breathtaking as the climb up.

Garden angel Angela welcomed us to the school garden and laid out the tasks in store for us fir this autumn themed session:

• Sawing down dead conifers at the bottom of the garden
• bringing up the trunks and branches to the top
• hammering down stakes between which a dead hedge would be built at a later stage as a cosy home for wildlife

In no time, we had split into 2 teams, sawing away, wheeling offcuts and branches, hammering and bashing away all under a bright half moon.

Shout out to our hardworking crew tonight:

Lumberjack Rachel, scourge of the dead trees, joined by parent volunteer Rachel - yes 2 Rachels! Dead conifers beware! Wheelie good wheelbarrow driver Cat; Stake rhythm bashers Celine & Yvette; Masters of the hammers James and Yoseph; and recording the action and encouraging the team Annie still recovering from hip and elbow injuries - top marks for making it out tonight!

In under half an hour, we had cleared the dead trees and staked in the soon to be hedge.

We concluded all this sawing, wheeling and hammering actions with a gorgeous green tomato cake baked by Angela! Delishious!!!!

We then said our goodbyes to Angela and Rachel, promised to come back soon and rolled down the hill, a lot quicker than on the way up. Until next time for a winter inspired session!

Storm Floris was blowing, the rains had raged earlier, but the sun was now making an appearance and a "live and picking" team of hardened Goodgymers braved it outside to tackle the litter in the Grey to Green park and cycle path by the river Don.

To celebrate 300 good deeds, Céline was entrusted with the much coveted Sheffield GoodGym Cape.

Genial Gerry from Sustrans welcomed and tooled us up, and away we went into the Sustainable Urban Drainage System that are planted with beautiful flowers in bloom, pickers in hands and rubbish bags blowing like sails, buds in the SUDS!

Annie, right arm in a sling and picker in the left, undeterred by a recent gruesome fall from her bike, was determined to gather all the drinking cans - an amazing CAN DO attitude!

Both teams from GoodGym and Sustrans, all together, we managed to pick our way through all the beds along the river, and a real tower of rubbish bags was collected.

We were even treated to a welcome slice of chocolate cake from Gerry at the end, we got our just desserts, before heading for a meal at Sheffield plate to celebrate together.

Well, well, well, on the HOTEST day of the year we thought why not have a task at the TOP of Sheffield..

Well it was worth it!

The lovely Angela met us on site and let us in and showed us the fantastic grounds of the school and all the hard work that has been going on there to make it such a beautiful space for the pupils and the community.

Once we had had a snack of the fresh cherries on the trees and had a cup of water and some homemade flapjack we got to the tasks at hand. This week we were understandably watering the plants in the poly tunnel and also spreading some wood chip around the younger trees to help them get established.

What a wonderful space this is and it was a pleasure being able to help with its ongoing development.

We can't wait until the next time!