Due to storm Amy, another last minute task arranged at Parakeet Pathway with Gaskell Garden Project (GGP). Too late to list beforehand.

Breaking down pallets, planting broad beans and garlic, general litter pick and tidy, plus lots of weeding of the beds. Added fresh concrete for keeping the benches to the ground, moved some of the benches to new spots, added more boards to the large planters. Used a circular saw to prepare firewood from unusable lengths of wood.

Only a few showers of rain but a good workout.

With allotment tasks and other parkruns cancelled due to the high winds and rain from Storm Amy 🌧🌩🌪☔️, I went to my closest parkrun in Platt Fields Park (South Manchester) to help hand out finish tokens 🌳🦺

Over 500 runners and walkers completed the 5 km course with plenty of wind-assisted times.

Hands got cold but nothing a cup of tea at home couldn't solve.

Welcome to Jackson for his first GoodGym Manchester outing! Great to meet you and hope to see you again soon.

This evening, we met up in St Peter's Square and made a brisk walk towards Hulme to pick up any discarded waste and litter. We found plenty of bottles, cans, vapes, cartons, tissue, plus some discarded plug ends, wheel trims, food cartons, and coffee cups.

We collected 3 full bags on the city centre side of the fridge and an additional 7 on the side near Hulme Park, with a surprising number of budweiser cans making up a large chunk, making 10 refuse bags in total!

The bag locations were recorded and Keep Manchester Tidy were informed for them to be collected ASAP. Fingers crossed removing some of the litter will discourage others from dropping more rubbish 🗑 🚮

Gaynor and Ben went along to help at Parakeet Pathway in Hulme, a site overseen by the Gaskell Garden Project.

As part of their regular Sunday volunteering session, Ben helped construct 2 picnic benches, making sure it was level, with parallel uprights, and secured the wooden planks for the seating and top. We also secured it to the ground (so it didn't go walkies...) using concrete screws and fastened with double bolts. Just needs treating but certainly ready to use for locals and passers by.

We both then took to weeding and clearing some of the beds, with lots of grass and weeds taking over. We used this as mulch for the fruit trees nearby.

There was some brief physical respite when planting lots of garlic, using straw to cover any loose soil.

Busy but productive session. Will post when they have another session soon.

409 runners ran or walked the 5 km course at event number 266 at Fletcher Moss. I was Run Director so just about managed to get enough volunteers, and did the 1st timers briefing, set up, main briefing, and results processing. I'm now slightly hoarse from the briefing and funnel managing.

Thank you to the 16 volunteers who enabled the event to go ahead. Juno was marshal on the course and found a massive stick 🌳

After a dry 2025, the rain has finally started in Manchester with plenty of puddles and sideways showers 🌧🌧🌧

Ben ran from Longsight to St Peter's Square for the meeting point then along to Asda Hulme for the foodbank drop off. Laden with a heavy bag 🎒 containing:

• tinned fruit (peaches and mandarins)
• tinned peas 🫛
• tinned mushrooms 🍄
• rice pudding
• instant coffee ☕️
• Apple juice 🍎
• UHT milk 🥛
• Strawberry 🍓 jam
• marmalade

Bit of a diversion on the way home, with a police corden - turns out this was the area of the stabbing in Manchester yesterday (BBC News - Teenager arrested after boy, 15, dies in Moss Side stabbing - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3y9v8e7eqo) which is a bit sad.

Hope to be at Gorse Hill next week, pending a working website.