On a quiet and dry evening a team of goodgymmers ran up the hill - up and up all the way to the very top, but the views are as breathtaking as the climb up.

Garden angel Angela welcomed us to the school garden and laid out the tasks in store for us fir this autumn themed session:

• Sawing down dead conifers at the bottom of the garden
• bringing up the trunks and branches to the top
• hammering down stakes between which a dead hedge would be built at a later stage as a cosy home for wildlife

In no time, we had split into 2 teams, sawing away, wheeling offcuts and branches, hammering and bashing away all under a bright half moon.

Shout out to our hardworking crew tonight:

Lumberjack Rachel, scourge of the dead trees, joined by parent volunteer Rachel - yes 2 Rachels! Dead conifers beware! Wheelie good wheelbarrow driver Cat; Stake rhythm bashers Celine & Yvette; Masters of the hammers James and Yoseph; and recording the action and encouraging the team Annie still recovering from hip and elbow injuries - top marks for making it out tonight!

In under half an hour, we had cleared the dead trees and staked in the soon to be hedge.

We concluded all this sawing, wheeling and hammering actions with a gorgeous green tomato cake baked by Angela! Delishious!!!!

We then said our goodbyes to Angela and Rachel, promised to come back soon and rolled down the hill, a lot quicker than on the way up. Until next time for a winter inspired session!

Tonight we were off once again to meet Karen and her Pitsmoor Pickers crew. A new member had decided to come along for the ride too, make sure to giveYoseph a cheer!

We headed out from the Showroom on a relatively short run up to the meeting spot from where the evening's litter picking was to commence. Waiting for us and raring to go were Karen's team of 5 litterpickers. There were some new faces and some familiar to us. Bags, litter-pickers and hoops were distributed amongst us and then a plan of action was quickly devised. We would walk to the top of the Rock Street where there was a rubbish hot-spot, then make our way back down the road, picking on the wing. Annie kindly offered to keep an extra bag on her so that we could all put any cans that we found in it to later be recycled by Karen for cash to go into the litterpicking kitty. The area, thankfully, was not as bad as we were expecting; maybe lots of the rubbish that was on the hill has been washed down the road into the river? Hopefully people have just been keeping the place clean!

After a solid 45 minutes of refuse relocation we gathered up all of the filled bags and posed with them for the obligatory group picture with full bags. Following this we said our goodbyes to the Pitsmoor people and trundled off back down the hill to the Showroom. There we stretched off the key muscles used in the evening's efforts and popped inside for a refreshing (if expensive) drink.

On a rainy stormy night, I was grateful for an indoor task! The Team at Common Thread opened their doors and we busied ourselves sorting through the latest clothes donations in readiness for the next clothes swap.

There were some true gems and of course we couldn't help but sporting the latest autumn/winter 25-26 trends! You saw them here first!

Come and pick yourself a bargain at the clothes swap on Saturday 4 October (1-4pm, Union street)!

Tonight we ran up and down the River Don to inspect the fish passes on the weirs for the DCRT. We managed to visit 3 fish passes at three sites: Lady's Bridge Weir, Walk Mill Weir, and Burton Weir. Happily, all of the passes were clear and freely flowing. At Burton Weir we saw a great many birds wading and fishing in the overflowing water. There were guls with their chicks (which are now hard to tell apart from the adults), ducks, and even a heron! Following this avian observation session we headed back to the Showroom to stretch off.

Tonight we were tasked with inspecting the various types of fish passes on the weirs of the River Don for the Don Catchment Rivers Trust (DCRT). This is to make sure that fish are free to complete their migrations upstream unencumbered. The main species to make use of these are salmon, trout, and grayling, along with dace, chub, and barbel. The passes also help eels and other fish species navigate weirs that were previously impassable. The data and photographs we record are used by the DCRT to assess which passes need maintenance. Thankfully, on this occasion all of the passes we inspected were fully functioning with no obvious damage.

A fin-tastic time was had by all

We managed to survey three weirs- Lady's Bridge, Walk Mill, and Burton Weir- before running into a blocked section of path, which I thought, wrongly, that we would be able to negotiate. We did discover that this section was blooming with blackberries and rosehips, if any foragers are looking for a tip-off. The fenced-off section is absolutely thriving with no foot traffic passing through.

The following is the gathered inspection data for each of the passes. Lady's Bridge: Clear at top. Clear at bottom. Flowing freely. No damage visible or debris present. Walk Mill: Clear at top. Clear at bottom. Flowing freely. No damage visible or debris present. Burton Weir: Clear at top. Clear at bottom. Flowing freely. No damage visible or debris present.