It was time to get the Rose Road vehicles clean after a busy summer holidays of outings. We quickly divided ourselves into innies and outties and off we went! It wasn’t long before we had four vehicles hoovered, dusted, litter picked and washed. We managed to squeeze in a quick wash for the big bus too before home time!

This was stage 2 of the national bat survey, covering the same stretch of the river Test as before. Not quite so many bats this time but still plenty to find, including a very active gang of pipistrelles flying around our heads. We also saw swans, many huge spiders and a got an amazing closet up view of an otter!

Last night's GoodGym mission was simple: head out into your local area and pick up some litter. As ever, there were plenty of interesting finds along the way!

Hannah turned a trip to take her little one to nursery into a mini litter-picking mission, collecting 15 cans, a plastic bottle and even a bit of a car.

Laura achieved a true litter-picker milestone by finding a discarded pair of pants. You're not really a seasoned litter picker until you've found some abandoned underwear!

Amanda got stuck in and filled a bag with litter from her local area.

Lucy combined her litter-picking efforts with a run, proving that it's perfectly possible to clean up and get your miles in at the same time.

Ellie wasn't able to join the litter pick itself, but she still got involved by sharing photos of some brilliantly creative bins in Sweden that had been painted to look like people.

Sarah picked near a petrol station and found plenty of disposable gloves to keep her busy and a 104 cigarette butts. Yes, she counted every single one! Her most amusing discovery was a rather rude note intended for a badly parked car, suggesting the driver might want to rethink their parking technique.

Wilson filled an entire bin bag and uncovered a Stella Artois glass, along with a pile of used scratchcards. Ever hopeful, she checked every one of them just in case there was a hidden jackpot... but sadly, it wasn't to be.

A huge well done to everyone who took part and helped make their corner of the world that little bit cleaner.

Good gym southampton carried out a waterside bat survey, as part of a national survey during august for the Bat conservation trust. This was a later task than normal, starting just after sunset. We followed the river for a kilometre, stopping every 100m to count bats We spotted close to 100 bats, so it was very successful! Just as excitingly, we also spotted a badger and an otter! We'll be back in a couple of weeks for the follow up survey, fingers crossed for more wildlife next time too!

A new task at Aldermoor - the GoodGym crew set about reclaiming the paths around Polytunnel 3 from the weeds that had taken over. Bindweed, thistles, stinging nettles and long grass were all cleared away, getting the paths back and making the area much easier to get around. We also gave the potato patch a tidy-up and spent some time inside the polytunnel weeding around the cucumbers.

It was great to welcome Amy to her first Southampton GoodGym task. Its lovely to have you on board and look forward to seeing you at another task soon.

A big well done to Beth for successfully making it to the right farm this week 🤣 And hats off to Laura for climbing onto the compost heap to stomp it down a bit..... brave considering the stinky stuff we had uncovered (though not sure she had seen that bit).

Awesome job team!

Lucy helped out at the Rose road stall at Wickham festival. It was a very hot but fun day selling flower headbands and 'helping' people make Dreamcatchers. There were lots of lovely friendly people and plenty of chances to enjoy the festival too, the highlight was bouncing around to the Proclaimers!