A lovely day was spent today on the fields of Paddy Freeman's park. Wild Intrigue have partnered with Newcastle Parks to create some wildflower meadows.

There is already one blooming by City Stadium, with a lot more prepped earlier in October.

The benefits of these wild meadows is really for the local wildlife. They help out the butterflies, the bees, the moths, the bats, and even the deer. And today we dug deep to help nature; now that’s what you call groundbreaking work.

The turf had already been worked over with some heavy duty machine, but it all needed chopping into segments, and rolled, so that the exposed dirt is ready to be seeded. The rolled bits of turf are used are to make mounds that all the smaller critters love so much. There were already so many worms enjoying the pastures but soon many others will be join them, as they discover the different temperatures that these green havens provide.

Biodiversity is about to blossom, as early as next summer, so one could say those wildflowers will soon be petal to the meadow. Keep your eyes peeled for all the groundwork the next time you run the Jesmond Dene Parkrun.

On an sunny autumnal morning two goodgymers helped Newcastle council in iris brickfield park.

Our task was simple to cut down all the little self seeded ash trees around the big ash trees. This will help the big Ash trees with nutrients and also help with visibility in the the park.

We made good progress but I totally forgot to take an after picture. If you are interested look out for the next session in the parks in three weeks time.

Two goodgymers help Newcastle Parks and Allotments on a wet Saturday morning. I had done Jesmond Dene parkrun in the park and Adam had won his football match before hand.

The main job was simple - cutting back spiky plants the edge of a main path. This would make the path less over grown for the many people using it.

We had a break to do a different job of carrying tables from the bowls building back the case where they belong.

We managed to finish the section we were working on before the worst of the rain, making the path less prickly for park users!

Two GoodGymers helped out at Newcastle City Council's Allotment & Garden Festival. The task today was to man the information desk and direct people to where they needed to go, and to try to answer any questions. Most of the questions were about allotment plots. Fortunately the allotment officer was nearby, so we could direct people his way.

We also had the GoodGym flag up and some of our postcards and flyers on the desk. Several people stopped by for a lengthy chat about GoodGym. If any of you are reading this, please sign up and check out the list of upcoming sessions!

At the end of the day, we bumped into Sue from Greenhill Allotments, and helped the allotment association pack away all their things. The festival is quite a large scale event with lots to see and do. It'll be back next year and is well worth a visit.

On a pleasant Monday evening, three GoodGymers set off for Leazes Park on a litter pick. We carried out the exact same task about three months ago when Leazes Park was seeking to regain its Green Flag (successfully https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3072zelpg2o.amp). Last time there was hardly any litter in the park, which was probably just as well with an inspection due. This time it was very different, with litter strewn everywhere, particularly around seating areas. There really is no excuse for this as Leazes Park has numerous bins all over the park.

Aimee, Lucy and Richard made short work of much of the litter, filling six bin liners in just over an hour.

Come and join us next Monday as we help NUFC Fans' Foodbank.

Two GoodGymers helped Newcastle Council with weeding in Walker park. Me and Chris got stuck in and weeded around the out of the wild flower area be make the edges look neat and tidy. It was a very satisfying task!

After a quick tea and coffee break so then started pulling up bond weed from an adjacent flower bed which was smothering all the plants in the flower bed. We managed to pull up a lot of it and fill several bags.

Finally for the last ten minutes we help dismantle a form which was very cool but unfortunately was a massive fire risk of being set alight by teenagers!

Overall the season flew over with a variety of taskes!