Six GG Yorkies met at West Bank Park to help set up for the summer fair.

Our list of tasks included:

• Moving 4 gazebos across the park and setting them up
• Carrying 5 tables and setting up under the gazebos
• Moving and setting up 40 folding chairs for the brass band - plus another 10 for the scouts
• Putting 'no parking' traffic cones outside the park's main entrances to ensure no traffic obstruction.

We made short work of the task, and even had time to spend a few minutes chatting to Barbara who dropped in to say hello on her way past during her morning run.

Four eager GG Yorkies met Louisa at Acomb Methodist Church where our task was to clear an overgrown patch in an otherwise pristine garden.

We got straight to work with forks and spades, thankful that the ground wasn't quite as hard as advertised. It wasn't long before we started to see a real difference.

Part way through, Nick and Leanne took a break from digging to clear the rubble at the back of the plot, loading it into wheelbarrows and moving it to a hidden patch at the back of the garden. In amongst the rubble they found a veritable potion of wildlife (spiders and slugs and frogs - oh my!). Lots of the spiders hitched a lift in Leanne's wheelbarrow. They scattered into their new, more sheltered home at the bottom of the garden where regular volunteer Mike was sorting the rubble from the green waste.

Once the entire patch was dug over, the Goodgym crew laid weed guard over the top of the freshly dug soil to prevent everything growing back before the church group have time to get the foundations laid for a brand new potter's shed.

We finished the task with a well earned sit down and tea and biscuits which were kindly provided by our task owners.

We all arrived by bike. A small group of 5 but we managed to complete a lot through splitting up by bike. It was a walm welcome for Emma on her first mission and a congratulations to Michal for reaching 100 good deads this week.

It waa finally time for our very delayed bonfire night task at Chapmans Pond, hurrah!

There were several jobs which needed doing, but first up, Pete and Nick J baggsied going in the boat to collect debris from the other side of the pond.

The rest of us started by hauling out heavy, stinky bags of water lillies and reeds and relocating them to different pondy areas.

Laura was chief banksman and has the important job of keeping eyes on the boat and ensuring nobody fell in the pond whilst extracting heavy bags.

Other jobs included moving some big logs, piling up dead wood ready for chipping, raking up debris from the near shore and helping Pete and Nick every time they came back will a boat full of branches and rubbish.

We found gin, and cucumber! No tinic though..

Finding ourselves ahead of schedule, we started (and finished) a bonus task to top up the forest trail with fresh woodchip, using the boat cover as a tarp to add capacity to our two wheelbarrows.

Lastly we cheered Leanne and Katie as they kicked off the 24 hour Santa Relay (after removing their wellies) whilst the rest of us hung around for baked potatoes and mince pies!

Pun Credit - Katie Fairless