The sun was shining again on our second trip to Harbottle Park with Urban Green Newcastle. in December we cleared the weeds and dished out the mulch, this time we took on the task of clearing the dead grass from around the fence.

4 GoodGymmers made their way to the session. Props to Aimee and Damu for hitting a parkrun beforehand!

We got stuck in and made great progress, all the while chatting about the joys and perils of owning cats. Me and Aimee being the resident cat ladies! However, it wasn't long before our cat chat turned into a mousehunt as we realised we had ruffled the nest of some little doormice - we left the little guys to it, habitat intact!

Great company, including the visit from Pippa and Poppy - two very cute dogs, juat to round out the cat, mouse, dog triumvirate!

Thanks as always to our hosts, Urban Green Newcastle and the work they do to look after Newcastle's green spaces.

We have 3 'more UGN sessions listed, come and join us for graft, chat, tea and biscuits!

Welcome Anjali to your first goodgym mission.

Anjali and I got to work on sorting the riding boots, Anna sorted the riding hats and Scott, Aimee and Max sorted the riding lanes.

We all came together at the end to sweep the stable paths.

During tonights photography shoot, a hat was temporarily stolen. The hat was soon retrieved directly from the culprit.

Photo credits go to Aimee and Anna.

Have a good week everyone!

Tonight's task was a special one! Back to Stepney Bank Stables and our fabulous host had some great tasks for us including cleaning the bridles, grooming and massaging the horses, preparing snacks for their supper and giving their home an early spring clean. Pampered ponies - you wouldn't get a better, more relaxing, spa experience at a Champneys!

We had 3 new people tonight - Weronika, Iline and Elena joined us for their first ever mission and Tom made the switch from Greenwich to Newcastle, joining us for his first Toon-based task! It was great to welcome so many new people.

Special shout out to Tom, Jack and David who got themselves ready for their close up with ITV news who were filming us tonight - fingers crossed our fellas get their 15 minutes!

Five GoodGymers helped with the phase two of the carpark project at Sandown Allotment on a sunny Saturday morning.

Last year we helped Sandown Allotment to level one side of their carpark to put in woodchips and planters. This year we were back to work on the other side of the carpark which they are also trying to level to hopefully put up a structure on it for them to have a dry space to host community events and share the vegetables grown there.

As task owner Corretta showed us the area which would need clearing we were all struck with a feeling of 'how will we even make a dent in this mammoth task?' Not being defended by a good challenge we chose an area to focus on and all got stuck in to do as much as possible in the 2 hours we had. We started by moving a small pile of rocks out of the way to allow easier access and Chris made the neatest rock pile I have ever seen. Then Lucy and Anna starting clearing sticks and branches from the top and me, Max and Chris started digging.

There was alot of discoveries in our digging. Anna found two seperate parts of what looked like a small fancy table and was very satisfied to put them back together but we never found the top. Lucy found a rush latch and Chris managed to dig out some sort of oil can. Conversation turned to The Traitors, with Lucy declaring she could never be a traitor, and then suspiciously vanishing!

We had a nice tea break around midday. We sat on a picnic bench near the other side of the carpark which we worked on previously. There was tea or coffee and a selection of biscuits, chocolates and sweet treats.

Anna casually dropped in that she is running a half marathon tomorrow! Good luck Anna! What a way to warm up with a whole lot of digging!

Just like last year, when we did the other side of the carpark, the before and after pictures just don't do it justice, see other pictures for the amount of soil we dug out, the hug pile of rocks excavate and the weird buried finds. We felt like my made a huge difference in two hours!

Blue Monday? Not for these GoodGymmers!

Today's task involved another trip to our Ouseburn homebase to help out at Stepney Bank Stables. This time we were in for a bit of early Spring cleaning and divided into two teams to tackle the tasks!

Scott and I were on Team Cobweb and we needed some real elbow grease to get the safety gates looking fresh! Scott taking some before and afters and really giving those webs what for!

And as for Team Quadbike, they got to work on levelling out the mosh pit that had appeared to keep the lovely Stepney steeds safe. To finish off the job, Aimee and Max took turns on the quadbike - total pros! And thanks to Aimee for the pics of a few of our lovely hosts!

Always a great session at Stepney and a really satisfying task!