We had a lovely time this morning helping Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery on their monthly conservation task.

Four of us were tasked with completely restoring one of the old tombs, stripping back ivy and overgrowth and brambles.

It was hard work. Chris went to war on the ivy and won - and Hannah had a run in with a spider (now determined as a garden spider thanks to Graces ID skills!)

We managed to restore the tomb to such a degree that we revealed the old stone work. It was very satisfying and we had a fab time.

We were very pleased to rejoin Moorlands Community Centre again this evening to give the outdoor space a good tidy up. It had been a year since we last tackled the space and the weeds had taken over again. We started with a short litter pick while Tracy, our task owner, got the building unlocked for us and found us some tools. It was then onto the patio to remove the weeds while being careful not to disturb the ants! We hope the users of the centre can enjoy the space more now we’ve removed a lot of thistles which were extra spiky and nettles that were extra stingy! We worked hard and got all the garden bags filled up again, but there was still more to do so we’ll be back for round 2 soon.

We arrived from all directions cycling, running, walking, and in cars for those who had to get to more good deeding before the evening was done! Our task was to help tidy up the Scout hut garden which is a neighbour to Rose Road and used by their day service. There was long grass and weeds a plenty so we set to work on different areas to get the job done. Wilson and Hannah volunteered for grass cutting and strimming. They unbelievably managed to keep going for the whole hour as the grass really needed a short back and sides. Strong effort team! They were careful to leave some longer sections with some clover for the bees. The rest of the team worked around the car park area and building to clear weeds, clumps of grass, dead leaves, and brambles. Stephanie and Leszek worked on trimming the hedge and clearing bindweed off the fence. Sarah gave us a top tip to use a screwdriver (or similar) to loosen the weeds. We learn something every task! We were rewarded for our efforts with some jelly babies and we’re excited to hear Rose Road should have lots for us to help with throughout the summer :)

Dried off from flyering we were joined by six other goodgymers for an indoor session as the weather was too treacherous for goat mountain escapades.

It was lovely to also welcome Bethan for the first time this evening!

We were tasked with doing something very unique this evening, making seed bombs out of clay, mud and soil for the farm to distribute at a community event.

A small group ventured into the woods to retrieve some soil before heading in. We then had to remove twigs and worms from the soil before mixing the soil with clay and water and eventually the seeds.

We then rolled these into small ping pong sized balls before removing them for safe keeping.

We were tasked with making 60 but Abby counted 217!!

Definitely a unique task and we were even rewarded with cake 🍰