It's the end of an era! Today a superb task owner led his final community mission with GoodGym and what a task it was!

A big group of us gathered in St Lawrence Park in Byker, the group including many regular faces and a few we were welcoming back- hey Emma and Charlotte ! There was also a triple celebration going on today as both Tanya and Damu celebrated 100 good deeds and gained their wings, while Sam gained the cloak of goodness for her 50 milestone. Give them all a cheer for so many days of dedication to GoodGym!

Mike has orchestrated and led over 100 sessions for us and they are always a real treat in hidden gems of parks. There was a lot of reminiscing today about tasks gone by (if you don't know about the rocks in Kenton Park, ask anyone there that day as it's forever etched in memories!) and there were so many great days to reflect on as we've worked with Urban Green Newcastle to make our city parks safer places to be. Today's mammoth hedge cutting task was another example of how we can work together to do a big job in a short space of time. The before and after is quite astounding!

Mike's tasks always end with tea and biscuits but today it was with a twist as we had Louise and Sam's amazing baking, as well as no-alcohol prosecco to toast with. We also gave Mike his very own GoodGym tshirt to remember us by... he has certainly earned it.

Good luck and thank you Mike, we will really miss you.

There's nothing like "taking the edge off" a stressful week than spending a Saturday morning on an Urban Green/Good Gym task :)

Mike took Max, Chris and myself to the "edge of reason" by giving us 2 tasks - edging a path (taking it to nearly double its width) and then also edging the Junior skate park. Fortunately there was the usual UG provided coffee & biscuit break in between. Much appreciated.

It was a great workout, good craic, and to top it all, a lovely chat & expression of thanks from a local lady. Fab morning.

On a Sunny Saturday morning five GoodGymers helped at an allotment belonging someone who grows vegetables which benefit the local community. We have helped at at these allotments overall perviously and it was lovely to see the raised beds in which we helped level the ground for. Dispite this I still managed to start going to wrong location and so I was a bit late and everyone else had already gotten stuck in.

We weeded and turned the soil in three seperate beds, moved logs and put down weed fabric (which we keep confusing with weed membrane) over the parts we had dug over, fully preparing the beds for the allotment owner to be able to plant vegetables now.

While doing this we found an ant colony, butterfly larvae and a really unusual white moth.

The report title comes from Chris's possibly made up words about the amount of tangled and intertwined weeds and vines, and the 'islands' of unturned soil we were each stood of as we lossen the soil around us. The name of a goodgym album perhaps?

Lucy declared this task the biggest difference she had seen in a while and I would have to agree, as you can see in the before, after and with weed frabic pictures and the picture of the bags of weeds we removed from the plot!