7 Goodgymmers met at the Mencap Society hub in Highview House.

Colin, our task owner, and hardworking volunteer at Mencap showed us the front garden which needed tidying up. There were trees to trim, shrubs to shear, weeds to wrangle and leaves to sweep, plenty to keep us busy!

Tony set to work tackling the bigger trees and brambles, while Ben took charge of sweeping the leaves from the paths. Viv took aim at the front of the garden cutting back the overhanging plants. Didem, Anna and Anne-Laure and Jess set to work on the weeds, all not entirely sure what should be pulled out!

In just 30 minutes the team had made a huge difference to the area and the change was clear to see. The rest of the time was then spent tidying up the clippings and getting more of the pesky weeds out! Two full green bins later the team had done a superb job.

Colin invited us in for tea and cake and to see the members who were their for their Wednesday night club. It is such a lifeline to many people in the community and it was great to be able to help them.

Laura and Sheila welcomed Didem to her first mission at Braywick Plant Nursery on a chilly morning. Our warm-up task was to repot some Festuca grasses into larger pots, to allow them to continue to grow over the winter. We then moved on to removing any dead stems and leaves from the Pelargonium and Impatiens plants which are over-wintering in the glasshouse. One large pot of trimmings and a few cold toes later, we made our way home

Sheila went to help man the Braywick Nurseries Plant stall at the Maidenhead Lights Switch-on event. The stalls had been moved indoors due to the foul weather, and we were entertained by the singing and dance acts all afternoon

Jen and Sheila visited Ms P to finish off a job that Georgeta and Sheila had started last week. Now that the new set of drawers had been assembled, we needed to take apart the old one. We were now a bit more savvy about the construction techniques, and needless to say taking a chest of drawers apart was a much quicker job than putting them together! All sorts of treasures were found which had fallen down the back. We loaded the dismantled pieces into a trolley and disposed of them in the bin chute that serves the flats. We moved some furniture around to accommodate the new chest of drawers, and Ms P was delighted and can now start getting her flat in order again.

Vikie, Mark and Sheila helped out at the Baby Bank this morning. Since they featured on 'Lorraine' earlier this week, the donations have just flooded in. They had also had a couple of corporate teams in, so we were faced with piles of clothes on the tables which had been through a first sort-through. Along with a couple of new volunteers, our task was to do a secondary sort on these piles and store them in the appropriate boxes. As we worked, more donations were coming in, so there will be plenty to do next week!

Sophie, Jess, Jen and Adam met outside Alexander First School to deliver leaflets for the school's nursery provision around the local military estate for families living nearby. It was super cold so we set off as quickly as we could, splitting into 2 teams, and were done within around 40 minutes! The school were very grateful for our help! We did just about remember to get a photo but Adam was the only one who had any GGs on...amongst our many layers! Well done everyone on braving the cold and doing another good deed!