Congrats to Stefanie for reaching 10 good deeds with GG MCR!!

This evening, we met in Salford to give GRIT Studios a helping hand with their new site. Peter and Ben met by Salford Central train station, currently under refurbishment, to make the ~2.5 km jog to the site, with Stefanie meeting us there by bike.

The GRIT Studios site in Salford has come on leaps and bounds since we were last there scraping paint from the windows. The space is now 85% occupied with artists with the windows decorated with the common room looking much more homely with less rubble and exposed brickwork on show. They are hoping to fill the remaining space this week with more public workshops and events in the next month or so, so keep an eye out! Here's hoping to some planters and maybe even a bench to make it a bit more welcoming too.

We were tasked with cleaning the external tiled walls that stuck out like a sore thumb after the rest of the building had received its makeover. With an array of implements including sponges, scourers, metal scourers, brushes, brooms, plus different types of cleaning pads, we donned marigolds and grabbed some buckets of mildly soapy water to give the walls a good clean.

Some marks and stains were easier to clean than others but bit by bit, we managed to remove quite a lot of muck, dirt, and grit from the tiles and windows. Doing this in full view of people using the treadmills in PureGym was something of an experience, with some passers by showing an interest into what was going on. After several changes of water and stepladders to help reach the high up places, we completed the task and cleared up any last marks before heading home by bike or on foot.

What a wonderful weekend of weather to get out in the fresh air!

Peter, Jordan, and Ben came out to help The Bee Sanctuary on the southern tip of Highfield Country Park in Levenshulme for their regular Sunday volunteering session.

With our now apparently renowned expertise in painting, we were tasked with preparing and priming a few areas to tidy up the volunteer shed and the entrance gate. Jordan and Ben took turns climbing the ladder to paint a border on the volunteer shed, a new installation for the group. The volunteer shed was installed with a compostable toilet and used to store their tools and, important for this session, their paint. The roof was also a "living roof" with vegetation on top too. Between us, we managed to apply primer to the full circumference.

Peter on the other hand was tasked with chopping back some brambles near the entrance and scraping away the paint from the metal bars. There always seemed to be more paint to scrape off! Once ready, all three of us applied zinc-based primer to the metal railings once clean and dry and managed to cover a decent section, with the paint pot nearly empty once we had finished for the day.

In between painting and scraping, we took a full part in the tea/coffee break with biscuits and Sheila, the lead volunteer for the group, gave us a grand tour of the Bee Sanctuary site. Covering several wildflower meadows, three ponds, plus plenty of dead hedges and hedge boundaries, there really has been a huge amount of work over the years to clear the mono-culture of brambles with a more biodiverse area of grasses, flowers, and wildlife. There was also a quiet "Forget-me-not" area for remembering those who had passed for local people.

We will certainly be back soon to help out and hopefully finish the painting we had started. It was also great to meet the other volunteers and Loki who did his best to help out in between chasing sticks.

Ardwick Climate Action have a couple of allotment sites. One with the university and another with a local Scouts group. Today, we had a "Patch Party" to clear up the allotment in time for the coming growing season.

Doing the work and supervising the scouts was a full time job. Most of us got started with removing weeds from the raised beds before splitting up to more specific task. One person built a very colourful bench, Abigail and Dan we weeding around the trees, many plants were planted including leek and lettuce.

I was charged with building an additional compost bin, with a couple of trusty helpers for the task. Using pallets and stakes to put it in place, there was lots of drilling to hold it together and sawing to remove any extra bits sticking out. The final finish looked great, and a good job as it was needed straight away for the fresh weeds and green waste to add to it. We also divvied out the overflowing branches and leaves from the compost bin next door to give it a chance. After all that, the compost/soil in the bottom of one of the compost bins was perfect to use, so I dug that out for it to be spread on many of the raised beds.

Productive morning and really good workout. Hopefully the scouts and make good use of the space and raised beds, and some of them managed to take a potted raspberry or strawberry plant home to grow.

Thank you to the 514(ish) runners and walkers who completed Fletcher Moss parkrun event # 242. Even bigger thank you to the 20 volunteers who helped ensure the event ran smoothly.

I was RD so coordinated the volunteers (we were looking a bit short Thursday morning), set up the start/finish area, and tried my best to manage the funnel but with so many numbers, there are always a few funnel duckers!

Wonderful morning for it and the new speaker was super helpful! Even I was heard for the briefing!

A bumper crowd from GoodGym Stockport came out to clear a sandy area close to the Waterside Hotel - henceforth known as a "beach" - of litter and discarded waste that has accumulated from the river and from passers by or fly-tippers.

Ian and Liam from Venture Out were very happy to have a group to collect as much as possible, providing bags and litter pickers, with the bags supplemented from our own steady supply during the Great British Spring Clean.

Meera, Laura, and Ben made the ~3 km run from Life Leisure Cheadle, to be joined by Hannah by bike and Julie in the Waterside Hotel car park. Once we had located the Venture Out vans, we made our way out to the Mersey shore to get cracking.

Amongst the sand was a whole array of items, including:

• shoes (lots and lots of discarded shoes)
• crisp packets
• cans and bottles
• clothing (coats, fleeces, jackets)
• cones and tyres (too big for the bags but we put them in a single pile anyway)
• trolleys
• beer kegs
• 4 or 5 car registration plates plus other parts of cars such as bumpers

We collected easily 15-20 full refuse sacks that we then had to lug back to the van to drop in their final location next to a public bin to be reported to Keep MCR Tidy for collection by the roaming council collections vans during the working week.

Great way to spend the first Tuesday in the setting sun with the clock change allowing extra light until nearly 8pm! Great to see you all and we'll be back with Venture Out in 3 weeks to get into the water to help clear the area near Burnage Rugby Club.

Stefanie and Ben both joined with Ardwick Climate Action 🌳 for their site clearance and litter pick of the green space (not a park) near Dryden Street.

Along with other volunteers Dan, Gordon, Abigail, Gosia, plus a council member and other members of the community (plus Juno of course), we set about to collect as much discarded waste as possible 🚯

Little did we know how big a task that would be... In amongst the hedges and bushes, a whole host of objects were found, including:

• kettle
• bedding
• condom wrappers
• clothing
• pillows
• vapes
• bottles and cans
• mop
• woven basket
• takeaway containers
• laughing gas canisters

Once the site was looking more sightly, we moved onto St Saviours graveyard. Here we collected yet more bottles and clothing, including coats, socks, and a high visibility jacket, plus lots of empty "packets" and a suitcase 💼

At the end, we must have collected 35-40 full refuse sacks of waste and neatly collected it near a council bin to arrange collection, before moving it en mass to a site mote protected from the wind and possible animal life to raid it.

Was great to get involved and a good 2.5 hr workout on a Saturday.