Sol, Sheila and Angela met the community allotment on a sunny Friday afternoon.

The task was to prepare empty vegetable beds for the winter break. Angela and Sheila started weeding, Sol made several wheelbarrow rides to bring manure to the beds. The last part was to cover them with plastic sheets to suppress weeds over the winter months.

The hour passed quickly while catching up summer trips and upcoming events. We escaped the rain and that was a positive start to the weekend!

Just Karen today at the Baby Bank but she got stuck in bringing multiple bags of donated clothing up the stairs to clear space in the entrance. The rest of the morning was spent checking and sorting school uniform into the appropriate boxes so it can be given out to needy families. There is currently a massive backlog of clothing which needs to be sorted so if anyone fancies giving a hand then please sign up on a Friday!

Sophie, Jess, Amy and Sol met at All Saints church and set off on the 1km journey to Desborough Park. Sophie and Amy walked whilst Jess and Sol ran back and forth between lamposts and us, with high fives and Dad jokes to motivate them! Well done both on extending your distance by nearly double!

When we arrived at the park we met Viv and Helen (our task owner from Wild Maidenhead) who set us to work on digging up grass and weeds from a large wildflower bed ready for them to plant new items and create a bee habitat. Many hands made light work and there was a noticeable difference as shown in our before and after photos courtesy of Jess.

We were careful not to step in any dog muck and avoid tics, though the weather turned about 15 minutes before we finished so we set off back to the meeting location on the 1km (very wet and rainy) walk. Great effort everyone and hope you've all dried off now!

Tonight’s GoodGym mission in Maidenhead was a sandy one! While beach cleans aren’t exactly common around here, this one came with a twist—we weren’t cleaning the beach, we were removing it.

A couple of months ago, we helped create the pop-up beach for Norden Farm’s summer festivities. But with autumn creeping in and flip-flops firmly back in storage, it was time to bid farewell to the sandpit!

Shifting 13 tonnes of sand is no small feat—and definitely tougher than laying it out in the first place! But the GoodGym crew rose to the challenge. With teamwork, grit, and sandy socks, we helped the Norden Farm staff make a serious dent in the dunes. There’s still a bit left to tackle, but the bulk of the beach has officially been packed away.

I arrived for the last hour of Bray fete to have a wander round before tackling my first job which was a general litter pick. I was then asked to focus on removing lots of 'confetti' from the field, which was made easier when more people joined in.

I then did two further circuits of the field to collect more general litter that appeared as the stallholders packed away.

Welfare visit for Ms D