A big GG welcome to Solomon who joined us for his first run tonight. Thanks to Annie for introducing Solomon to the group. We hope to see you on another run sometime soon!

This week we were meeting Karen and her crew in Burngreave for some more litter picking action.

The streets were busy with people celebrating Eid so there was a lovely atmosphere in the area, however there was also a lot of litter to be had!

We got tooled up thanks to Karen and headed up hill in search of litter, which we didn't need to go far to find.

After not much time at all our bags were full and it was time to head back.

It was so nice to have more light and finish in the daylight, more of this to come!

Until next time, happy running! :)

A new task for us this week. We headed up, up and away to Arbourthorne to meet with Angela at the fantastic Arbourthorne Community Primary School.

We had some lovely sunset views over Sheffield as we meandered our way up high over the Steel City to our destination for the eve.

We had a new runner this week also, a big GG welcome to Jenny.

Once on site we heard from Angela about the tasks that we to be done which included:

• Trimming down some cut tree branches and moving them
• Moving woodchip in preparation for planting

We got straight to it, filling bags and wheelbarrows full of woodchip and lopping back the branches of the felled tree.

The tasks seemed just about right with us getting through all the woodchip pile and the felled tree branches.

We were thanked by Angela and even offered biscuits for our troubles.

What goes up, must come down so we headed downhill to finish our run and I am sure we will be back in the future to help out again soon!

I took a slow 8km run/walk to Mrs W on this cold, grey Monday morning. Her garden was mostly well kept, but she explained she can't bend over to maintain it herself any more. She likes it prettily overgrown cos all the "weeds" can have lovely flowers. She said the cowslips are her favourites but I loved her Primula Denticulata that I'd never seen before.

Jobs included pulling up/cutting back all the dead plant matter and cutting down a (willow?) tree growing up through her buddleia. I also levelled a wonky birdbath and even got to plant out some sunflower seedlings! 🌻

Mrs W regaled me along the way with tales of all her travelling exploits along the years. She was ever so grateful and said my bright running clothes and energy brightened her day. She is looking forward to spending some time in the garden again in the upcoming sunny days.

Tonight’s task was with the lovely people from Common Thread who collect clothes donations ahead of a monthly clothes swap, a very sustainable way of changing yiur wardrobe! After a cheeky short firness session in Pound park, the GoodGym crew - made up of Rachel, Yvette, Celine and Matthew - joined Sarah, Nick, Emily and Ollie from Common Thread to sort through baby, children and teens clothes by age; as a challenge, Sarah asked us to identify clothes we wish were in adult size!

We then moved on to adult clothes and well, we had to try some on! We then boxed the sorted clothes ahead of next month’s clothes swap; do attend, it will be on Saturday 12th April (1 - 3pm); full details on Common Thread Facebook page.

There will be more volunteering opportunities to set up and sort on Friday 11/4 evening & Saturday morning as well as to help pack down on Saturday 2-6pm. I’m reliably told volunteers get first choice on clothes! I even took a lovely pink top - the tiger top sadly only came in size 5 years old!

Tonight GoodGym headed to an underpass in need of a thorough spring clean. We met our old friend Simon, and new friend John, to collect equipment from Sustrans' secret lock-up. We gathered shovels, bags, pickers, signs, hoops, and a trolley, then set off to the Netherthorpe tram underpass to start the clean-up. Rachel did marvelous work clearing the gutters of leaves, and the rubbish hidden within them, with her large shovel. James held open bin bags to receive the litter which Rachel swept in. Simon and John, meanwhile, were working with pickers at opposing ends of the tunnel. Notable finds of the night were a complete birthday cake and a large saucepan. The underpass is a busy thoroughfare and we had may people passing through thank us for our efforts which is always very welcome.

By the end of the pick we had gathered 5 full bags of detritus. We took all of the equipment back to the lock-up, said our goodbyes, and headed back to the Showroom to stretch off.

Off again to join Pitsmoor pickers. The original proposed location too clean so we headed to the old faithful Spital Hill. Much litter picked and looking much better. Great to see a return visit from Filmon.

Having seen the report from another group recently having the police out and not to be outdone, we called the fire brigade! We spotted an unattended bonfire at the back of a restaurant perilously close to a lot of rubbish bins. Bonus good deed!

report by Rachel