Plenty of digging and lifting this evening for Esteban, Sanjeev, and Ben!

Katie from Gorse Hill Studios was looking for some help sprucing up the Gorse Hill Studios garden, with plenty of plants getting delivered soon and events coming up over the summer.

After the 4.5 km jog from the city centre along the canal, our first task was to unload one of the bags of compost that we prepared last year and to construct a mound of soil. Lots of the plastic matting was removed but the heavy lifting didn't end there.

Next up was to replant some of the trees that had been planted last year after getting dug out during the fence construction around the outside. With more digging over of a patch ready for planting of the incoming plants, we weeded what we could. The plastic matting, broken bench, deadwood, and other bits of rubbish were carried around to the skip, with the bags of fresh compost carried around to the front for people to use this week.

Lots of jobs and Katie seemed very happy with the day's work, not just from us but also from other volunteers at the Studios. Looking forward to seeing the end product in a week or two!

Great effort on the jog to the task and back this evening! Super effort!

Another gardening session for Mr S, this time tackling the remaining nettles and to aggressively chop back the hedges spilling out onto the road 🌱

With the electric chopper and some rusted, but still working, shears, I made good headway on the nettles and overgrown brambles in the garden. The hedge took a bit more elbow grease, with some thick branches and hard-to-reach sections making it tricky. However, the pavement is now much more accessible and some excess was taken off the top and sides.

Mr S was a bit under the weather but he seemed much happier and pleased with the work. Fingers crossed he's feeling better soon.

Welcome to Esteban for your first GoodGym session! 👏

This evening was a Manchester Post delivery around a residential area in Longsight. After the morning rain, we were both very thankful for blue skies and sunshine in the evening for a stroll, criss-crossing the streets in between deliveries.

300 newspapers containing local news and community events, with some residents very happy to receive some good news media! In just 75-80 minutes, we managed to deliver them all, discussing jobs, volunteering, GoodGym, running clubs, and other topics in between.

Next week we have a litter pick planned meeting in the city centre for a gentle run out to Ardwick or Hulme where known litter grot-spots exist.