A warm welcome to Aditya (Adi) today his first Goodgym task at Victoria Park. We were weeding the rectangular beds along the long path today, removing bind weed, fallen leaves and the odd small branch. In the shade and with a lovely breeze, we were a large group of volunteers and enjoyed plenty of chats. We replaced some of the plants that had been blown away by the recent high winds, and others that had been nibbled by squirrels. The colours are really vibrant at the moment, and with it being the first day of the school summer holiday, it was lovely to see families in the Park enjoying all the amenities. After refreshments, we went on our way. I enjoyed a 99 icecream from the van in the Park on my way home.

Today we were pruning, weeding and dead-heading the rose bushes. The combination of heat and breeze meant that it smelt delicious. The butterflies and bees clearly thought the same and were happily buzzing about. We really noticed the difference in tidiness once finished, and it was off to the Hub for a cool down, a cool drink and biscuits.

Five Good gymmers helped make up 17 crates today at the food bank. The time whizzed by with Lucy, Rob and myself out back, Fiona was on the front desk and Pat serving teas, coffees and cake.☕🍰 Lucy reminded me that this was my 50th GG task, where does the time go! 👕

On my way home from the mission I stopped off at North End Street Garden.

I gave it a much needed drink of water. Which seems much healthier than the drinks it appears to have been having. Beer cans removed successfully!

I then got myself a cold drink to enjoy after a lot of green finger activity post work!

Another busy session at the foodbank. The new systems seem to be settling in and there were no dramas today!

Today it was less about gardening and more about maintenance. We started checking all of the Gazebos to make sure they were fit for purpose. Ready for the many events planned this summer, we'd need 2-3 tgat functioned. 3 were found to be fine and even had their roof covering, the others not 100% but repairable. With everything duly labelled, we moved on to checking if we had additional roof coverings and side panels. No roof coverings but side panels with windows duly checked and tidily packed away, with other areas in PCC to be checked separately. The Park had been mowed earlier in the week, but areas around the beds, box planting and signage needed to be tidied up with shears or edge cutters. Finally, after a bit of weeding, we gave our 'Friends of Victoria Park' plant box a good watering. It's looking lovely and the wild flower seeds are poking through. One of the volunteers is bringing in some lavender to attract the bees. We enjoyed refreshments, biscuits and a chat about swimming with Sharks!