This evening we were back at the Rose Hill Community Centre to tackle the garden space for the Rose Hill Junior Youth Group.

Armed with tools, fortified with Meg's lovely flapjacks and lit by a combination of football pitch floodlights, head torches and rechargeable potable lights, we managed to get a lot done.

More roots were cleared and scrubby plants removed. I really hope that we managed to protect the bulbs planted by the nursery earlier in the week!

Chat ranged from holiday planning, winter recipies, food and book recommendations.

Good work team!!

3 Goodgymers litter picked the night away at Oxfords 57th Fireworks display at South Park.

At first we arrived, persuaded the gate keepers that we were indeed volunteers and to let us in, and then picked up our pickers, hoops, bags and high Vis. We began our mission by Round Table-ing the parameters, focusing around the food vans and the fair ground before it got too busy. We also answered lots of questions from the public, including "Where are the toilets?" and "Where will the fireworks be?" 🤷🏻‍♀️ We enjoyed the new addition quiet fireworks display from the VIP area, after collecting a few cans and cups from the fancy tent and straw bales section and bumping into 'Off Duty' Mark.

Time for the main event, the big fireworks display beside a luminous waning supermoon.

When the masses left the park, our real work started. A litter picker's treasure trove of plastic cups, chip boxes and empty wine bottles left on the ground. We scooped up over 15 bags of rubbish between us on the night. We think we made a good dent in rubbish removal but lots of other volunteers will be working late into the night and the next day helping restore the park back to sparkling. Thanks to them all!

The litter around West Oxford Community Centre has been quite heavy in the past, so we try to get out there a couple of times a year for a clean up. With the whizz-bang of fireworks all around we set off for our autumn session. Despite some Halloween detritus, and some unusual finds (a French dictionary, burglar alarms, mini-bedspread, pants), we were pleasantly surprised by the state of the litter. We collected far less than usual - good job West Oxford!

Today we returned to Littlemore for tea and cake, oh sorry, I mean helping in the village hall garden.

The village hall in Littlemore has a lovely garden which requires a bit of TLC every now and then. A nettle patch created to attract bees and butterflies had encroached on a flower bed, weeds had popped up in a lawn area, various plants needed pruning and leaf piles created.

Armed with tools, and luxury of all luxury at a gardening task, kneeler pads we set to work and after a couple of hours the space was looking ship shape and shiny.

We then were treated to tea, cake and chat in the village hall - glorious!

Today we donned our headtorches and high-viz and beat the curfew by delivering flyers for our friends at Flos.

The flyers were mostly for their wonderful refill shop - encouraging people in the local area to shop local, support a local business and reduce their single use plastics.

Meg brought an excellent flyering tool in the form of a trusty spatula and showed us a "fold and shove" process that protects fingertips and knuckles from letterboxes! Something to remember for our next flyering task!

On Saturday we built a dead hedge at Kate's Place in Florence Park. It was a very satisfying task - easy to grasp the system, pleasing to see progress, and a really good way to use up waste material. It creates a wonderful additional habitat as well as a barrier.

Chatting chickens and kittens while we worked made for a wholesome Saturday morning.

Welcome to GoodGym Ocean!