We made our way to our monthly Foodbank clean up in the evening sun to be met by a very young family of birds in the air-vent. The team got stuck in, giving the reception area a thorough clean and vacuum whilst the rest of us swept and mopped. Cleaning the foodbank is an ongoing and much needed task, with a physical element and lots of opportunity to chat and socialise too.

After a great effort a little bit of cake helped us on the way courtesy of Ella's baking skills!

It was an evening of first good deeds, hill runs and battling litter warriors on the footpaths of Balkerne Hill and St Mary's Fields. Not to mention the happy return of Denise and credit for the report title!!

So a big welcome to Daisy for her first good deed with Goodgym, making Colchester a bit tidier and doing some powerful fitness! (Enjoy Scotland)

The evening started at The Mercury Theatre where we set to grab a few discarded cigarette butt's next to the Hole in the Wall pub and head down the hill. The mowers had been out which means that litter gets shredded and harder to pick, but the pathway from Sheepen Road to St Mary's field had (unfortunately) the usual amount of litter, much of which was frustratingly out of reach. Find of the evening was a pannier, chucked on top of the brambles which between us we managed to grab and bin!

To finish up, we got warm with some dynamic stretches and a did some progressive hill running/sprinting!

Good job all and enjoy your week!

After a day of torrential downpours or April power showers, the sun shone for our task with Colchester in Bloom at the Bergholt Road allotment.

It was slightly chilly but we warmed up as we 'Jeffed' for 3km to the task where we were met by Pam. Our task was a very good arm work out emptying roughly 30 hanging baskets and boxes ready to be replanted and hung across the city centre. We completed it, even saving some of the plants in boxes and saving Colchester in Bloom loads of time!!!

Off we trotted into the sunset, another task complete and looking forward to seeing the flowers in the coming weeks.

Good luck to Frazer for his 5k on Wednesday and we'll done to Sophie for performing in a BSL choir in Chelmsford to a large crowd!

Our first Monday task at the Foodbank in Stanway was shared with Girl Guides who were being shown around and were sorting packages. The three of us went about cleaning with the usual vigour. Speedy sweeping and a masterful display of mopping was a good workout to end a Monday on a high.

We hope the clocks springing forward and lighter evenings means Mondays become popular Goodgym evenings.

On our first ever Monday evening task we hauled in two large bags of litter, including an old discarded food processor!!!

It was awesome to see Sophie back and immediately getting stuck into picking litter out of bushes and off of pathways...but the snails grabbed the headlines of the evening. The one we spotted on a crisp packet was easily saved and put back into the vegetation, but on a dark evening one snail found itself in our bin bag! Our route took us down Balkerne Hill, around Sheepen Road and back up through St Mary's Fields and as we reach the top and Frazer began to tie up his bag, a little snail was making its bid for freedom from within it!! We helped the little snail out into the foliage and admired it's efforts - one of nature's cleaners saved on an evening where we made a small section of the city a bit cleaner. Well done!

So now the question is what do we name our new Goodgym day? Marvelous Monday, magic Monday or mega Monday? Or something else?