Tonight saw our first monthly visit of the winter to Oxford Mutual Aid, which is now in its seventh year of countering food poverty in Oxford. Over the winter, Goodgym helps by doing the deep cleaning for which the regular volunteers usually don't have enough time.

With the kitchen out of action after a rat infestation (now dealt with!), we concentrated on the main hall. After a quick introduction from OMA volunteer Martin, we got started shifting shelving, moving boxes, cleaning fridges, and sweeping and mopping the floor. We (or rather Fred) even remembered to take the vital "before" photos we need to make sure everything is put back in exactly the right place afterwards!

A sizeable chunk of the hall is now spick and span, and we'll be back in November to tackle the rest.

Boundary Brook Nature Park on a warm and sunny October Saturday. Helen hosted and we were joined by Lucy and Andrew who volunteer at the nature park. Andrew trapezes (is that a verb?) in Flo Park. Always interesting people and high fliers at GG Oxford. Two tasks were on offer. Lucy and Andrew raked and tidied some recently mown meadow while Helen and I dug up overgrown sedge around a pond to let the light back in. We also felled a willow tree. It was one of those really satisfying "before and after" tasks.

This evening was our final visit to the Meadow Lane playground for 2026. With planting due to take place on Sunday we were in a tight deadline to get compost and ballast moved to prepare the beds.

This was one of those tasks that really put the Gym into Goodgym. We dug out one bed and topped it up with rich (and rather smelly) mushroom compost. The rest of the time was spent filling a fleet of wheelbartows with ballast and ferrying them to other planting areas. Core muscles were engaged, raking was done and we even had to deploy the mini flood lights. The result did make us look a little like were creating or investigating crime scenes.....!!

Our rewards was some gorgeous feedback from Usha and delicious brownies from Celestia which contained black beans, making them a health food.

Congratulations to Angus for your 100th Good Deed!!

We spent a very jolly morning cheering the Oxford half runners and handing out energy gels.

Take aways from the event:

• Red packet energy gels SHOULD be strawberry and NOT apple.
• Glitter makes any running outfit 110% more excellent.
• All runners are epic and inspiring.
• Adding crisps to a sandwich is mandatory behaviour.

Favorite sights: Father Christmas and his reindeer, Mario&Luigi, a 2 person slinky dog and Alice and Ian!

Huge thanks to the whole team but mostly to Muireann for keeping us caffeinated!

6 of us headed over to Kate's Place in Florence Park for an autumnal tidy-up. There was leaf raking, grass pulling, hedge trimming and willow herb removing. It didn't rain after all and we left a job well done.

Wildlife spotting - one tiny frog.

We ticked another letter off our parkrun alphabet!

Henry completed his first parkrun this year and Bethan NEARLY went sub 30.

An excellent way to start a Saturday!