12 lovely Goodgymmers gave up their Sunday afternoon to wend their way (some routes a little sketchier than others...) to Danesmead Wood. We were there to help the Friends take down the decorations that had been so beautifully put upon the trees (and ourselves - photos too good not to share from last time) back in December.

The Goodgym tree was still looking resplendent, and Monkey Mitch shinned back up to take down the shiny adornments that Ed's son Arthur had dictated had to go really high up. The rest of us de-decced the lower or upper branches according to reach; Debs-medium tall, Max-tall, Huw-very tall, and if a Huw can't reach then you construct a Huwman pyraMitch. We've no idea how the bauble got up there in the first place, but we suspect a ladder was involved.

With only one casualty (decoration not human!) everything was safely packed away and we turned our hands to litter picking. The wood is well looked after by the Friends and is remarkably clean because of their efforts. To do our part we spread out deep into the undergrowth and removed every scrap of unwelcome contamination we could find. Mitch unearthed a rusty wheel minus it's barrow, whilst many of us carefully removed bits of sheeting, clothing or bizarrely thick glass of unknown origin on top of the standard cans and bottles.

Time up we assembled for a team pic, and headed off our separate ways, depositing our bags by appropriate bins on the way out. Ben had to be coaxed back out of the wood having gone in for more litter, and the hedge got a bonus pick from him and Ellie as they left. Good work team!