Well, I got a little surprise when I hadn't checked where tonight's task was and I had to hot foot it along from work! But I was in for a treat as it was a lovely night and I got to explore a bit of Newcastle I haven't been to, as well as a high five from a little dude waiting for his bus with his mum!

It was an evening of firsts as we had Esha join us for her first session! The park was local to her and it was lovely to see her getting involved in her community and getting to chat with her!

We collected 3 bags full of rubbish and made a pretty good contribution to Newcastle Parks' Big Litter Pick Week!

Exercise, meeting new people and doing good in the community - ticking all the GoodGym mission statement boxes!

On a beautifully sunny but chilly Saturday morning, four GoodGymers weeded, dug and cleared a flower bed in Walker Park.

Cups of tea and biscuits were supplied by the Newcastle Parks staff, still wearing their Urban Green Newcastle jackets. Many conversations were had ranging from the effects of sage on Alzheimer’s disease to how important good running shoes are.

Come and join us on Monday night for a GoodGym leafleting task .

The sun was shining again on our second trip to Harbottle Park with Urban Green Newcastle. in December we cleared the weeds and dished out the mulch, this time we took on the task of clearing the dead grass from around the fence.

4 GoodGymmers made their way to the session. Props to Aimee and Damu for hitting a parkrun beforehand!

We got stuck in and made great progress, all the while chatting about the joys and perils of owning cats. Me and Aimee being the resident cat ladies! However, it wasn't long before our cat chat turned into a mousehunt as we realised we had ruffled the nest of some little doormice - we left the little guys to it, habitat intact!

Great company, including the visit from Pippa and Poppy - two very cute dogs, juat to round out the cat, mouse, dog triumvirate!

Thanks as always to our hosts, Urban Green Newcastle and the work they do to look after Newcastle's green spaces.

We have 3 'more UGN sessions listed, come and join us for graft, chat, tea and biscuits!

Many muddy hands made light(er) work at this tree-licious task with Chloe, Michael and Rhian from Urban Green Newcastle at Harbottle Park in Byker.

Six GoodGymmers made their way to find a forest on a frosty morning, including a new face (to some!) with Adrian joining us for his first good deed!

There was mulch to do as we cleared the overgrown grass from around the flourishing forest and gave them a little donut of mulch to be getting on with. Barrows-a-plenty amongst muddy knees and hidden trees.

Harbottle Park is a fantastic area and it’s great to see space used in this way, creating some biodiversity for nature to nurture.

There was tea, coffee, mince pies and good vibes as the gang had a well-earned break, before one last go at helping this forest to grow.

Honoured that this was my first task as TaskForce leader! I couldn’t help but recognise the gang’s efforts with a little cash in hand - strictly edible, of course.

Can’t wait for the next one and hope you’ll all join me!

We were back at Hodgkin Park today to clear out the laurels. We've been doing this for three sessions and we've finally managed to clear off the whole area. When you look at the massive difference we made it was so satisfying.

Mike was feeling christmassy and he had his santa hat on and he also brought some christmas crackers for us. Our Christmas crackers had little riddles in them that we read out to each other. One of them needed a lot of discussion and explanation! I'm fresh out of puns today so I went with a bad dad joke for the title.

P.S. I've finally purchased a fitness band and I set it to workout mode at the start of the session. I've burnt 1455 kcal today! That's better than any gym session I've been to!!

A very different sort of task for us today as we learned the skills needed to operate some powerful pieces of equipment for future tasks. Excellent Urban Green Newcastle ranger Isaac put us through our paces today to help us to understand using hedge cutters, large leaf blowers and strimmers, so that in future UGN park tasks we can help to do more. This was a really informative session with lots to learn that will really help us to make the most of our time in Newcastle green spaces in the coming months. Thank you UGN!

A big welcome to Patrick who joined us for the first time today, we really hope to see you back to help us make a difference again soon.