With no new sign ups and others who couldn't make it, Ben combined a foodbank run to Hulme with a physical gardening session at Gorse Hill Green Rooms project.

Lots of tins of meats, fish, fruit, spaghetti, and beans plus oats, jam plus much more with extra plastic bags were dropped off at the donation point in Hulme Asda.

After that, it was a run to Gorse Hill to construct an archway, dig up some big ivy roots, and clear up a bit before their event on 25th October.

Long day volunteering at the Manchester Half for Hannah, Gaynor, Uzondu, Hazel, and Ben.

It was early start and after arriving, we individually signed in, picked up our hi vis and lunch, and made our way to the start line to help out where we could.

Hazel got a box seat for the start, while Gaynor and Hannah were on duty to collect discarded jumpers and coats, some quite expensive by the sounds of it, to be donated to Cancer Research UK shops. There were so many bags! Several vans-worth. Uzondu and Ben, meanwhile, were in the "toilet run" ensuring people queued off the road, enabling the waves to congregate and pass through without issue. All of us seemed to be on hand to signpost where runners should go in addition to answering questions from spectators.

Come 11am, once the runners had gone and the sacks of clothes moved, we merged to board the Broom Wagon! With another group, we were to tail at the back, encouraging runners who were struggling near the back. With only a few runners struggling close to the cut off time until about mile 10 it was quite smooth, with some of us jumping out to walk/run alongside while encouraging the participants onwards. We were a little bit taken aback by the volume of plastic bottles and gel packets on the floor visible from the bus, and no surprise the council had their large roadsweepers out in force.

I think for the last section of the race, we were all out jogging or walking, helping where we could so participants could reach the goal of the finish line. It was really heartening to see them reach the line in what was often an emotional point for them.

Certainly earned the free packed lunch after that day.

Ben made the mad dash from Sackville Gardensto Withington Methodist Church to join Withington Civic Society with their bimonthly litter pick.

After signing in and collecting my bags and trusty litter grabber, I set to work picking up all sorts of bottles, takeaway waste, clothing, tins, coffee cups, and even a toothbrush 🪥

In all, we collected over 20 sacks of waste to be collected through Keep Manchester Tidy and plenty of camaraderie to go round.

Even better was the cake and cup of tea in the church afterwards where we chatted, swapped contact details, and there will likely be more tasks coming up in Withington soon...

Welcome to Fanette for her first GoodGym Manchester outing! Well done to Uzondu for getting out in the GoodGym red for the first time.

Friends of Sackville Gardens have regular volunteer session on the 2nd Saturday of each month, 10-12, to keep on top of litter, weeding, planting, and other green maintenance. Today we joined in with a group to add to their regular volunteers to help clear leaves 🍃 from the beds and forming a nice heap in one location for it to break down. With traffic pollution and particulates being taken up, they didn't want it getting into the beds to cycle round.

Fanette provided ample support picking up leaves to be wheel barrowed to the drop off, while it looks like Uzondu had a duty of scooping up the large piles.

Busy morning and sorry I had to run for another GoodGym session. Ideally I would have stayed.

(NB There is a wonderful bench statue in the park of Alan Turing)

Peter and Ben went along to GRIT Studios in Salford to help prepare a wall for a new masterpiece to be painted on Sunday 🎨

With buckets of soapy 🧼 water and sponges 🧽 we gave the wall a thorough clean, using steps and a longer broom to reach the higher spots. After throwing cold water to remove any suds and scrubbing the grimy floor, we checked out and ran back to Manchester.

Look forward to seeing the art work! We'll be back preparing an old toilet block for a mural before too long.

Due to storm Amy, another last minute task arranged at Parakeet Pathway with Gaskell Garden Project (GGP). Too late to list beforehand.

Breaking down pallets, planting broad beans and garlic, general litter pick and tidy, plus lots of weeding of the beds. Added fresh concrete for keeping the benches to the ground, moved some of the benches to new spots, added more boards to the large planters. Used a circular saw to prepare firewood from unusable lengths of wood.

Only a few showers of rain but a good workout.