It was a very windy morning at whitley bay junior parkrun when two goodgymers helped out allowing the young runners to run safely. I was run director and Micheal marshalled on the prom. It is always nice to see the young runners enjoying themselves and it is a great start to your Sunday!

This morning we met with Virginia and Toby from Wild Roots. It was so lovely to meet people who are so passionate about community work. Wild roots have a lot of amazing ideas of how they can further make connections within the community.

Today we weeded an area of land that is going to become a beautiful flower bed. The flowers grown in the flower beds are going to be gifted to people.

After the weeding, there was some rubble removable. The rubble contained so many different types of rock, stone, brick and glass. No hidden treasures were found today.

Virgina and Toby had kindly supplied some biscuits and some tea and coffee. It was a welcomed blessing.

Welcome back Michelle to Goodgym. It doesn't matter how long it has been everyone is always welcome.

We will definitely be connecting with wild roots again. It was a lovely session, in a lovely space with lovely people.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Today's task was helping an older lady fix her curtains which has come off the rail in a couple of places and she couldn't get them back on herself because she was unable to safety balance on a ladder to attach them back on. It was pretty straight forward for me to find the little metal peace that has come off and reattach them. She was incredibly grateful for the help and twenty minutes out of my day means she can close the curtains full again!

Our first visit to the Lighthouse Project was very interesting, as five GoodGymers completed a good deed there tonight.

We split into walking and running groups, inadvertently joining up metres from St Michael's Church, where the Lighthouse Project is based. Both groups stumbled across a film crew at the Byker Wall. Several of us walked and ran on paths and steps, part of the surrounding estate, than many of us had not been on before.

After a warm welcome from Jo, the Youth and Community Operations Assistant, we found out that the youth groups operate every weekday, while the church functions as churches are designed to on Sundays. Jo kindly offered is drinks, and more afterwards, along with bananas.

With brushes, shovels, shears, trowels and other garden tools, most of the work tonight was clearing overgrown areas on the edge of the paths and sweeping up lots of detritus. Aimee spent most of her time weeding a path behind the building.

We were so focused on the task at hand that we ended up having what was a very late finish for a Monday session. No one seemed to mind and the amount of bags filled with waste as a sign of a job well done.

The views from the church towards Gateshead made for a good photographic backdrop before we departed.

After we all went our separate ways, the first aid kit came to good use in the city centre, not for the first time. There were a large number of intoxicated people for some reason, and one lady in particular had fallen over and cut herself with a glass bottle. Fortunately I had plasters, bandages, antiseptic wipes and other things in the first aid kit to help!

On a Monday night that threatened to rain on us, but didn't really, we wandered around the Ouseburn Valley and the surrounding area to tidy up after the Ouseburn Festival. The amount of litter was much less than expected, but we still managed to fill several bags.

We inadvertently stumbled across the Ballast Hills Burial Ground, which was the first time some of us had seen it. Gravestones from the 18th century as paving slabs is not something you see every day.

Something we didn't stumble across despite trying to was the Wild Roots community garden. We were carrying out a scouting mission ahead of a visit there in a couple of weeks, but failed to find the entrance despite being very close. We'll have to ask questions about that one.