It was great to welcome Beth to her first Goodgym task. Beth, Laura and David weeded the long bed in the garden. Ed cut down the cardoon plants. We wanted to keep the seed heads for the birds so he and Leanne arranged the heads into a recreation of the Thixendale Swirl. Ed then cut back the brambles, Beth cut back the raspberries and Leanne trimmed back some of the bushes. One of the members of the garden group brought quince jelly and paste made from the quince tree for everyone to take home.

Having boasted last month about how much cleaner the area was becoming due to the monthly litter picking, this month two GoodGymers showed up to help local neighbours with the Germany Beck litter pick, only to be surprised by the amount of fly-tipping that had taken place. Soph and Elle were not deterred and in true Goodgym style realised the opportunity to do a bit of heavy lifting!

Sometimes there are 6 GoodGymers vying to clear up after the brilliant Planet Food community lunch, and sometimes there are only a couple. This week it was down to Mike and Bec, tidying aways the chairs, tables and sweeping up to get Southlands back into ship shape.

3 Goodgymers came to the rescue when all the regular Planet Food cafe set up volunteers were away. We got to see how this big operation gets started every Thursday. First we put out the tables and chairs for the shop and the cafe, taking heed of how 13 tables are arranged to be even quicker next time. Then we lifted and shifted the box after box of food donations that were coming in fast - everything from coffee mate to coriander,sourdough to swanky birthday cakes, most to be sold in the shop. Finally we collapsed the used cardboard boxes that are then returned to Tesco. There was a real buzz by the chef, kitchen staff, shop organisers, and cafe team to be ready for the customers lining up outside. It is scary to see how much food surplus piles up in just 1 corner of York. But It is encouraging to see how many volunteers work hard to make sure it does not go to waste. Thank you Goodgymers! We've been asked back for 1 more week.

Tonight Middlethorpe Hall kindly hosted a showing of the People's Emergency Briefing

The film took a closer look at the climate challenges facing our planet with talks from experts and scientists — and, importantly, what we can actually do about them.

There were plenty of big questions, some sobering facts and lots to think about.

An elite crew of Goodgym Yorkies plus one Goodgym CEO made light work of the pre-climate video task in our first ever visit to Bustardthorpe allotments.

The first job was to shift a couple of piles of wood ranging from stick-size to bloomin' great railway sleepers. This would help clear the area around the bonfire and also create a bit of a wildlife habitat as the wood rotted down.

As soon as that job was done we were on to the next one which involved moving a load of weeds from the community garden area down to where we had just been working. Another task that we made light work of and left a few spare hands available for the most interesting job of the night.

So whilst the community garden got clear Hannah and Jenna threw a few bricks around in a space that is going to become some additional car parking at some point but for the time being is the remains of an old building. I'm reasonably confident the aim was to move the bricks from one end to the other in order to make the space a bit more level, but I'm not entirely how successful they were!

It was then time for a quick photo and off to Middlethorpe Hall for a fascinating evening watching the People's Emergency Briefing film