The fourth and final Guide Dogs NE leaflet task was on the cards tonight and what a lovely night it was!

Paul took care of the first pup related task of the evening- cuddling Stepney Bank Stables resident doggo Scout, while we waited for the others to arrive. A quick catch up about the weekend's community missions with Greening Wingrove and Urban Green Newcastle, a few mobility exercises and we were off. Paul led the runners while Angela and I met at the meeting point Monkchester Community Centre.

This was the last leaflet drop for our four legged friends and their humans at Guide Dogs NE, as we shared opportunities to foster a guide dog with families in the area. Despite my highly dubious maths in "sharing" the leaflets out, we were all done in record time, 100 leaflets dropped in just 20 minutes!

Woof woof!

An easier downhill run made it a pleasant journey back and we enjoyed a stretch, loving the fact that it was still light. A really reBARKable start to the week.

There are two chances to do good things this weekend: a big gardening session with Ouseburn Trust on Saturday and volunteering at Saltwell junior parkrun on Sunday. We hope you can make it along for a cracking Easter weekend happening.

Hooray! A completely light (and bright!) group run tonight, the first one of BST 23.

We were low on numbers but high on energy as we set off to the Quayside for a group litter pick. While it was a sunny evening, there was still a chill in the air as we split into two small groups at The Cycle Hub: Elly, Lucy and I taking care of Spillers car park while Aimee and Oliver headed off towards the Millenium Bridge to clear the paths of rubbish on their way.

I set a mini challenge tonight to attempt to find items, sights or thoughts during the task that represented the alphabet. Time flew over and it was soon time to meet up- not before rescuing Aimee's bag which had split thanks to a few hefty bottles she had found along the way.

There was a bit of artistic license as we checked in with the A-Z as follows...

A - appletiser

B - Bottle top

C - cable tie

D - dirty bottles

E - empty bottles

F - feathers

G - glass bottles

H - heavy bags I -

J - junk

K - Kit Kat

L - large lambrinin

M - maybe Kit Kat

N - Never buy the bags from farmfoods

O - oregano

P - paper

Q - quality street wrappers

S - Straws

T - thread

U - umbrella

V - vodka

W- wine bottles

X -

Y- yob evidence

Z- zucchini

I will let you decide if we made any of those up.

Three community missions await this week on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Make the most of your week and come along!

A lot of things were against us tonight: the rain, my lack of common sense, a locked door... but we got the first of our sessions to spread the word about the brilliant Guide Dogs UK done and had a great start to the week.

Guide Dogs UK NE have asked us to do a series of leaflet tasks across the city to share the opportunities they have for fundraising and for fostering dogs. (All very good boys and very good girls).

Six GoodGymers assembled and marvelled at how Lucy and I could be collectively quite stupid - what happens at GoodGym stays at GoodGym- before having a good old catch up about three community missions that took place over the weekend. We warmed up with a good game of Copy Cats before heading off to Heaton. Richard led the runners while I took the walk squad up the hill to Byker. We did two good deeds in one tonight: leafleting and litter picking around the shops at Heaton Road. How very wholesome.

Activation drills then a mini sprint workout followed before heading off back down the hill and of course by then the rain had stopped!

There's no Monday session next week but we do have a big Beginners session on this Saturday with our friends at Ouseburn Trust. I'd love to get lots of you along to that, so come and bring a friend if you can.

Urban Green community missions are definitely one of favourite ways to spend a Saturday morning.

It was great to see so many familiar faces as well as first timers. Cllr Bell also joined us this morning and shared that our good deeds are making the park a safer place for the local community.

There was one final overgrown hedge to tackle and Ranger Mike was quick to get us sawing it down to head height. With teams on both sides of the hedge we soon had those trees and branches cut down to size.

The sun may have stopped shining by coffee break but it did not dampen our spirits. There was still plenty to do.

We split into smaller teams to replace the safety flooring under a swing, litter pick and clear the under growth.

Time definitely flies when you are having fun and before we knew it, our session was over. Well almost, we couldn’t leave without one final good deed…. Check out the photographs to see what that was!