It was a bumper turn out at this week’s task as 11 Nottingham GoodGymers headed to the Meadows Foodbank and Pantry. Mark greeted us on arrival and, once he found his to-do list, he set us to work on a variety of tasks.

Dayna and Elspeth took on the task of sorting and tidying the clothes in the foodbank. Matt, Bozena, Rafe, Nigel, Rosemarie and Vytautas did a huge clean of the floors, shelves and fridges. Meanwhile Peter, Tom and Rachel headed upstairs to tackle a flat pack Ikea table and a clothes rail.

As some of these jobs proved quicker than others, a few of the group then turned their hand to dating some of the food, and photographing and cataloging some toys and baby items which are going to form part of the foodbank’s Christmas campaign (see information poster in photos). Finally, as if we hadn’t ticked off enough different activities this evening, Nigel took on the important job of folding bits of paper for the foodbank’s raffle which was due to be drawn in the coming days.

We welcomed Rafe to his first GoodGym session, and also Elspeth who has recently moved to Nottingham from Leeds where she used to do GoodGym.

Also congrats to Dayna who has now done 10 tasks, and a big well done to Bozena who did the Robin Hood Half Marathon at the weekend!

GoodGym Nottingham recently decided to mark various milestones within the team with a task and pub quiz combo.

The group congregated at the Carlton Hill Sensory Garden (Garden for the Blind) to do a spot of tidying and litter picking. We had expected to pick up where we left off last time and get stuck into more of the overgrown bushes, however someone had beaten us to it and the garden was actually looking very clear and tidy. Leah managed to find one patch which still needed a bit of a prune, whilst the rest of the group split up and looked for litter and anything else that needed a little chop.

The group did still manage to fill a bag of cuttings and get quite a bit of rubbish from the surrounding streets, so it was still time well spent.

After the task, we headed to the nearby Brickyard Pub to eat pizza and do the pub quiz where we placed fourth. Not too shabby, although we have realised that our knowledge of James Bond themes and Thomas the Tank Engine needs work.

A select group of four Nottingham GoodGymers headed to Carrington for our latest task. Dayna, Matt, Rachel and, new member, Lara spent an hour weeding, tidying and cutting back nettles and thorns in the Community Garden, assisted by honorary GoodGymer, Councillor Nayab Patel. Nayab has been pivotal in getting the project to improve the garden off the ground and, as always, was keen to help out, hear about our latest work and provide us with treats after the task.

The garden is looking so much better than when we first began working on it back in June, although there is still a fenced off area of brambles which Matt was itching to get stuck into. Hopefully we can return at some point to make more inroads into the brambles and, with possible help from the Council, may be able to have that area cleared in the near future.

A big thanks to Nayab for her support, and to Matt for dashing home to get some bags for the cuttings. Also welcome to Lara on her first GoodGym task!

Last night GoodGym Nottingham paid our first visit to the Carlton Hill Sensory Garden (also known as the Garden for the Blind). We had been given instructions by the team at Hope Nottingham, who look after the garden in addition to many other community projects and foodbanks around the city.

Our task was to do some general weeding and tidying of the raised beds and around the garden, so we got stuck in straight away with clearing the weeds and trimming various overgrown and dead plants. Some of the group also did a spot of litter picking around the garden.

As this is a sensory garden, it seemed that all the plants had been selected specifically for their sensory properties, both in terms of the way they looked and, more notably, the way they smelt. As we pruned away, we enjoyed the smells of lavender, curry leaves and many other scents that we couldn’t necessarily name but were very pleasant. We all agreed that it was our nicest smelling task to date!

It was also one of our noisiest tasks. Usually we are tucked away in a quiet corner of Nottingham such as a hidden community garden or a church yard, however the Carlton Hill Sensory Garden is right in the heart of Carlton high street which was bustling on this warm August evening. There were children playing on the neighbouring park and a crowd of people enjoying an after-work drink outside the Wetherspoons opposite.

This actually came in helpful in two ways – firstly, Peter nipped over to the pub to borrow a dustpan and (very small) brush to sweep up the cuttings as we’d forgotten to bring our own, and secondly, a passer by noticed us hard at work in the garden and ‘papped’ us, posting on the local Facebook group in celebration of our efforts before we’d even finished! This was incredibly heart-warming (especially as some of us were referred to as ‘youngsters’), and gained a lot of likes and several encouraging comments.

After an hour of work we downed tools, cleared up and transported several bags of green waste to Peter’s car as he had kindly agreed to dispose of it for us. This was a great task and we hope to return to the Carlton Hill Sensory Garden soon to continue where we left off.

Thanks to this task's volunteers Dayna, Rosemarie, Hannah, Leah, Peter, Rachel, Tom and Vytautas.

A huge well done to Tom who we had not seen since he recently completed the Lakeland Trails ultramarathon in a massive heatwave!!