What a fantastic turnout at Ray Mill Island (RMI) today. 6 Goodgymers joined 11 Friends of RMI volunteers and tackled a range of jobs.

One group, including Carys, set off to identify trees and paint signs to identify them, whilst Mick continued his work on the mid path, moving the stones into place. Whilst Sheila and Christine started out weeding the rockery, Ed fixed a new sign to the mural and then joined Jen and the rest of the group with weeding the proposed nursery area.

By the end everyone was helping in the nursery area, apart from Mick who continued flexing his muscles moving the rocks around.

The two hours flew by with lots of progress made.

Ten happy goodgymers arrived at All Saints church ready to pull ivy, dig ditches and pile up leaves. After much chatter and some effort a large patch of fence was cleared, a ditch was prepared for future hedge planting and a habit for wildlife was created. Maybe next time we may spot the odd hedgehog or some wild life in the new hedge! A bemused passerby seemed worried by the torchlight action in the churchyard but admitted that he had recently watched Frankenstein so was easily spooked! After a group photo we all returned home.

5 GoodGymers gathered to help clear litter from some streets which Claire had noticed as a bit of a hotspot. We armed ourselves with bin bags, hoops and litter-pickers and set off in 2 groups to see what we could find. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the litter problem wasn't as bad as we had feared, but still managed to find quite a bit. Ed and Claire definitely came back with the fullest bags, but Carol, Tessa and Sheila weren't far behind. Down one alleyway it was obvious that someone had a thing about beef jerky, when we found half a dozen empty packets. We managed to stuff our bags into some handy litter bins, leaving the area cleaner than we found it. Thanks to Claire for suggesting the task and encouraging us out into the sunshine on a lovely autumn day

9 goodgym pupils made their way to St Lukes school to help tidy up the flower beds and areas around the school grounds

In no time at all we had weeded, cleared and swept up the needy areas and rescued numerous sized balls from the undergrowth

Task completed and gold stars all round we made our way back home until next time!