There was a great turnout of volunteers today in spite of the arctic rain and wind. Waiting for the rain to stop, we had a warm cuppa in the hub at the start of the session, then ventured out to the beds by the hub to start clearing out the weeds and giving the grasses a hair cut. Lorna (now known as Lorna scissorhands) was a dab hand at crafting some great haircuts including one that looked remarkably like Tina Turner's style in her Nutbush City Limits era. We made great progress and managed to do, what would be 2 day's work for one person, in just 90 minutes. We warmed up weeding, raking, sweeping and shifting and enjoyed another hot drink supporting the local Cafe in the Park before going on home.

The weather gods were kind to us and paused the rain just long enough for us to fill a big, black bag of rubbish and have a good catch up.

Well done to mini GGer, Jack, for seeking out the interesting and unusual finds at Tipner shoreline! These included large pieces of rope, a flip-flop and 2 different-sized wheels.

With Laura, Katie and I to help pick up the smaller bits (including, of course, a sock!) we made a visible difference to the beach in just 45 minutes. Four heavy sacks of litter collected, and less litter to return to the sea on the next high tide.

Hopes dashed that the rain would hold off, I set about giving the rec a clear up.

Plenty of cans found. A used firework remnant! A hat, as there is always clothing! And spookiest of all (albeit slightly late for halloween), a bubblegum wrapper. Not scary on its own, however the 'are you afraid of the dark' podcast I was listening to had a discussion on bubblegum flavours at exactly the moment I spotted it.

Today we welcomed Elvis to his first session, give him a cheer! He got stuck into the big cut back and had razor sharp eyesight for spotting rubbish!

Dave was double good deeding, starting with us and the heading off to junior parkrun. Judy is also double deeding today with a run sandwiched in between. Top GoodGyming!

Favourite finds today were a rocking swan 🦢, corkscrew and mini football ⚽

Good work by all!

But not quite yet.... we were very lucky with the weather - warm and only a few drops of rain. Judy brought plants from home to put in our Friends of Victoria Park planter - they are hardy winter plants, taking the place of the summer flowers as they gradually die off. Today we were two groups, one digging up plants for re-planting over by the Civic Office and the other group doing the weeding and re-planting. Once finished, we went back to the Hub to enjoy a hot drink with some very tasty biscuits.