There was a good turn out from GoodGym to join the People's Park Litter Pick this morning, and despite the recent good weather the park wasn't too bad for litter. With the sun shining through the clouds, it was a lovely way to spend an hour so at the start of the weekend. With such a big group it was easy to get the park cleaned up, and by pairing up we were able to sort the litter from recyclables. We are always on the look out for unusual items, and GoodGymer Petros was pleased to find a petrol strimmer that had been discarded under one of the trees.
Well done team, we left the park looking prim (or strim) and proper, and clear of "party balloons" and sharps, tidy and safe for families to relax in over the weekend.

We had a sunny Sunday morning up at the top of the hill this month as we assisted the Friends of Dallow Downs and Winsdon Hill with the monthly litterpick. Pawel joined us too for his first Goodgym session, welcome Pawel!

The spot we were giving our time to this month was beside a footpath that had attracted a lot of casual litter and a bit of fly tipping.

The team of eight collected loads of bags and several large items including a full reclining sofa but there's plenty more to do so we'll be back at this spot again next month!

We had a couple of tree related tasks this week for our group run. Part one was a run out to the hillside meadow on Stockingstone Road where there are some Hop Hornbeam trees, a more unusual variety of tree. We collected a bagful of seed from four trees and then deposited them in a secure location at Wardown Park for the council's tree officer Bob to use to increase the number and diversity of trees around town.

Moving on, we went a little further out to the Riddy Lane park where there are about 25 young trees recently planted. Our task here was to remove the weeds, check on the tree's health and report back to the council if any had not survived the exceptionally long hot summer. Fortunately most of the ones we inspected had survived but we only got half way through them before time was up and we had to head back into town. We'll be back to finish off next time!

All together we clocked up 8.5km!

Another successful litter pick in People's Park, teaming up with the Friends group to make a total of 11 people helping to pick 10 general bags of rubbish, 8 bags of recycling, discarded scooters 🛴🛴, fencing and pillows out of the park.

It was also the first session for Patrick so well done and welcome to the team!