Today, two goodgymers cycled over to Gateshead to the HerbHub Allotment, to help out with the efficiency of a big ol' water butt.

This involved moving 10 heavy concrete slabs (four of these being really really heavy!!) a short distance - from the wheelbarrow to the new position in the pictures. This is so any rainfall doesn't have to navigate a complex guttering system, and instead pour pretty much straight into the butt.

With some impressive weightlifting on show, the task was completed in around half an hour, but was one of those tasks that could've easily been left for months to happen - so HerbHub were definitely grateful indeed :)

Hopefully Chris' blister from a pesky pinch point doesn't prove too painful!

Two GoodGymers helped Newcastle Council with weeding in Walker park. Me and Chris got stuck in and weeded around the out of the wild flower area be make the edges look neat and tidy. It was a very satisfying task!

After a quick tea and coffee break so then started pulling up bond weed from an adjacent flower bed which was smothering all the plants in the flower bed. We managed to pull up a lot of it and fill several bags.

Finally for the last ten minutes we help dismantle a form which was very cool but unfortunately was a massive fire risk of being set alight by teenagers!

Overall the season flew over with a variety of taskes!

It was lovely to see Jason back in the toon, on a sabbatical away from Leeds - fingers crossed your St James' Park experience is a good one.

Alongside Damu and Chris and Charlotte from Newcastle Parks, we had a mission with some weedy cobbles.

We filled trug after trug (another word for those plastic buckets) but as ever with these kind of tasks, there is still plenty to tackle next time!

Five GoodGymers helped with the phase two of the carpark project at Sandown Allotment on a sunny Saturday morning.

Last year we helped Sandown Allotment to level one side of their carpark to put in woodchips and planters. This year we were back to work on the other side of the carpark which they are also trying to level to hopefully put up a structure on it for them to have a dry space to host community events and share the vegetables grown there.

As task owner Corretta showed us the area which would need clearing we were all struck with a feeling of 'how will we even make a dent in this mammoth task?' Not being defended by a good challenge we chose an area to focus on and all got stuck in to do as much as possible in the 2 hours we had. We started by moving a small pile of rocks out of the way to allow easier access and Chris made the neatest rock pile I have ever seen. Then Lucy and Anna starting clearing sticks and branches from the top and me, Max and Chris started digging.

There was alot of discoveries in our digging. Anna found two seperate parts of what looked like a small fancy table and was very satisfied to put them back together but we never found the top. Lucy found a rush latch and Chris managed to dig out some sort of oil can. Conversation turned to The Traitors, with Lucy declaring she could never be a traitor, and then suspiciously vanishing!

We had a nice tea break around midday. We sat on a picnic bench near the other side of the carpark which we worked on previously. There was tea or coffee and a selection of biscuits, chocolates and sweet treats.

Anna casually dropped in that she is running a half marathon tomorrow! Good luck Anna! What a way to warm up with a whole lot of digging!

Just like last year, when we did the other side of the carpark, the before and after pictures just don't do it justice, see other pictures for the amount of soil we dug out, the hug pile of rocks excavate and the weird buried finds. We felt like my made a huge difference in two hours!

A very different sort of task for us today as we learned the skills needed to operate some powerful pieces of equipment for future tasks. Excellent Urban Green Newcastle ranger Isaac put us through our paces today to help us to understand using hedge cutters, large leaf blowers and strimmers, so that in future UGN park tasks we can help to do more. This was a really informative session with lots to learn that will really help us to make the most of our time in Newcastle green spaces in the coming months. Thank you UGN!

A big welcome to Patrick who joined us for the first time today, we really hope to see you back to help us make a difference again soon.