Six GoodGymers set out to clear up Kings Road and Queens Road on Monday evening.

Armed with our new litter pickers and bags from Reading Council RAYS (Reading adopt your street), and joined for the first time by Narah and Daniel who is going to be leading GoodGym Basingstoke, we set off!

After another day of rain showers, we were lucky with a dry evening, however, the wind seemed to have blown quite a bit of the rubbish away... or so we thought!

Even on our 2km loop, we still managed to collect 6 bags of rubbish between us! As luck would have it, as we were finishing up, we met the leader of Keep Reading Tidy, who thanked us for our work. Maybe there will be a future collaboration for us!?

We were back at the Weller Centre for probably our last outdoor task of the year without needing headtorches before we'd finished!

There was hedge trimming to be done and shredding of the already cut bags of branches to get through. We started by dragging the deceptively heavy bags around the building, where Shirley donned safety gear and got to work on the shredder. Jenni and Chris, joined by taskowner Katie, worked on the hedge. With the extra long loppers we were able to get some of the high bits, and make the hedge neater.

With the light fading, we piled our trimmings, put the tools back in the well organised shed, and admired Shirley's work reducing a whole bag of cuttings to a small pile of fine shreds.

Next week, we're back over in Reading town centre for some litter picking, sign up to join us here

On Monday, four GoodGymers went to help out at the Food4Families allotment. Armed with enthusiasm, gloves and a few garden tools, we got straight to the root of the problem.

We weeded the beds so the tomatoes and beans can grow without competition, gave the plants a good drink to keep them from feeling wilted, and even pumped up the water supply.

The local insects also decided to join in, leaving us with more than a few itchy “souvenirs” to remember the session by. You could say they really bit into the task with us.

By the end, the plot was looking fresher, without all the marestail and other weeds the plants were happier. So despite the bug buffet, we left feeling like we’d really sown some seeds of goodness.

On Sunday, we went to Reading Bike Hub's soon-to-be location on King's Road, in the very long vacant Mothercare shop! They will be having their grand opening on 7th September and their aim is to make cycling more accessible in Reading! They will have bikes to buy and borrow, trailer bikes to try and our friends from Repair Cafe will be there to show poeple how to fix bikes, and Library of Things will have items to borrow too. What a great community hub!

With lots of work already been put in to get the space ready by the core volunteering team, Kat, Simon and Stuart, the space is already shaping up well!

Our tasks for the session included moving over 50 bikes from the shop floor, round the side of the shop and through the loading bay to be stored and checked over for repairs. It was great fun taking them for a test ride and definitely a good circuits workout to get them all in place! The basement will eventually be used as a learn to cycle route too - amazing!

Back at the shop front, after years of sticky vinyl on the windows, there was plenty of elbow grease needed to get the last of the sticky off and make it shine!

We couldn't leave without trialling the mini kids bikes, to test them, of course! They are planning to have a rental scheme for children's bikes to size up when your child outgrows their bike, what a great idea!