Three GoodGymers litter picked in the Ouseburn valley on a spring evening. The plan had been to go litter pick down towards the quayside but when we picked up the litter pickers from Stepney Bank Stables Sara informed us that there had been a market in the Ouseburn at the weekend which had been great for the area but resulted in a lot of litter. So we set off up the valley found plenty of cans, drink cups and a lot of newspapers some of which had been frustratingly ripped into little pieces! It was very satisfying clearing up the area post market and we really felt like we made a difference.

Five GoodGymers leafleted for FoodCycle in the westend of Newcastle. Scott, Lucy and I walked from our one strawberry lane base and met Louise and Damu outside Westgate Baptist Church, one of FoodCycles locations.

FoodCycle is a charity that works to reduce food poverty and social isolation by serving free, community meals made from surplus food, they have a number of locations locally.

We all agreed the streets near by were the perfect place to leaflet with long streets of terraces allowing us to post over 200 leaflets in half an hour! The weather was also on our side with some glorious evening sunshine.

A number of the houses had bricked up doors where I am assuming two Tyneside flats have been converted into one house, thus no longer needing the second front door. It was giving Edgar Allen Poe vibes and I couldn't help but imagine a person being bricked in behind the bricked up door. We didn't see any ravens just some magpies and a couple of Cats!

If you want to get involved we have two community missions this week some ivy cutting on Wednesday lunchtime and helping in an allotment on Saturday morning!

On a serene Monday evening two GoodGymers completed two tasks; cleaning the boards around the edge of the arena and picking some of the horses' favourite weeds and nettles.

The boards needed to be clean ahead of an event at the stables on Saturday and hopefully a big difference was made. Two large baskets were filled with horse snacks, which will likely be well-received.

On a balmy Monday evening, five GoodGymers headed off from Stepney Bank Stables towards Heaton armed with litter pickers and bin liners. The litter came thick and fast, covering the streets near the stables and especially the undergrowth near the terraced streets of Heaton. Eight bin liners were soon overflowing with litter. A very satisfying and useful task.

We welcomed Thomas, fresh from his exploits at the Tokyo Marathon and Humber Bridge Half Marathon. As gregarious as ever, Thomas managed to lure Richard and Aimee into the pub afterwards for a chat about all things GoodGym, particularly some long lost friends not seen for quite some time.

Jack and Scott also worked hard with the amount of litter on the streets of Newcastle, making a real difference. All five GoodGymers can be proud of their efforts tonight.

Tonight we decided to use our session to blow our own trumpet and deliver some postcards promoting GoodGym itself. We met at our Stepney Bank stables base and had a quick debate about which area would have the most people most likely to be interested in GoodGym. We agreed on Jesmond, not realising how many students would be out celebrating St Patrick's day! After a brief discussion about the commercialisation of so many events, we got to work. The combination of fewer postcards than we thought and the terraced Tyneside flats of Jesmond meant that we were done in no time! Anyone for a pint of Guinness?