Ben joined the Withington Civic Society for a community litterpick in Withington village. Upwards of 10-15 refuse sacks of rubbish were collected with lots of takeaway trash discarded by passing drivers.

Several councillors in attendance locally. Others were involved in bits of weeding and gardening in the nearby beds.

Likely another litter pick in July.

Ben was Run Director this morning for event number 296.

Well done to all 542 finishers this morning!! Thank you for your patience with the extended finish funnel. Welcome to the 101 first timers at Fletcher Moss including 30 completing their first ever parkrun 👏

🦺 Special THANK YOU to the 19 hi-vis heroes helping out today, especially to Ian and Jackie who helped out post-run with barcode scanning and funnel managing, respectively, as the queues were growing. Kudos to those trying out new roles and stepping up for their first volunteer credit this morning too 👏

Five GoodGymers—Hazel, Laura, Mandy, Molly, and Ben—joined forces with the ever-friendly locals of Edgeley to support What If’s Tuesday Night Club, kicking off the mission to transform a humble parking area into a thriving green food park in just six months!

This session was full-on graft mode. The team tackled all sorts of maintenance jobs: sweeping, filling the compost pit, watering, picking up twigs and logs, assembling the raised bed, weeding, and even adding chalk spray markings to the tarmac (because every great garden needs a good road map).

But it wasn’t just about getting our hands dirty—brains were engaged too. Jade, the gardening expert brought in by What If to lead the six-month transformation, treated everyone to a mini masterclass on Hugelkultur. The word may sound like a spell from Harry Potter, but it’s actually German for “mound culture”—a permaculture technique that involves building raised beds filled with rotting wood, logs, and organic matter. Translation: a low-cost, low-watering, high-impact way to grow good food. Clever stuff.

Everyone put in a huge effort, with special shout-out to Ben, who showed up and grafted on despite not feeling great. Proof that sometimes the biggest wins aren’t about being perfect—they’re about turning up, doing what you can, and collecting strength through small, meaningful actions. Compost piles were filled, knowledge was shared, and commitment was well and truly planted. 🌱💪

With potential rain clouds circling, Fanette, Hazel, and Ben met up in Cringle Park to tackle a slightly extended version of Route #1 of the Manchester Green Trail. A quick coffee from Grounded MCR and introductions for Juno provided some preparation time as we waited for other walkers to possibly join, with the walk advertised as part of the GM Walking Festival.

From Cringle Park, we took in the sights and smells of Levenshulme to reach Chapel St Park, next to the Blue Bell Inn, before entering Greenbank playing fields, with no cricket being played today. In Greenbank Park, we bumped into Maria from MCR Library of Things before circling through a side street to Nutsford Vale (note, not Knutsford...). We made a note for a potential litter pick here due to the volume of fly tipping before going through Annie Lees Park, and then towards Sunny Brow Park after crossing over the railway, again passing a few potential litter picking hotspots.

Juno was unable to resist the cooling stream in Sunny Brow Park and entered on several occasions, and as we approached the Waggon & Horses we encountered a surprise cemetery in the woodland, presumably associated with Brookfield Church. After crossing a busy Hyde Road, we skirted past another pub before finding a route through the Fallowfield Loop and found Gorton Lower Reservoir and Debdale Outdoor Centre, leading us past McDonald's (for a quick toilet stop) and Debdale Park. Debdale Park was surprisingly big, clean, tidy, and full of activities including community gardens, Men's Shed location, a cycling practice circuit for youngsters, tennis courts, bowling greens, a workout station, kids playground, and a Heroes Wood Memorial with trees and landscaping to remember locals from World War I and onwards.

We walked a path separating the lower and upper reservoirs before stumbling upon Gorton Reservoir Allotments, a large area of allotment plots with lots of plant sales and events advertised for the coming months, plus plenty of signs for selling horse manure. Following this, we joined the yellow brick road (previously the Stockport Canal) north past King George V playing fields before entering the 2 final parks in Lees Street Park and Delamere Park, the latter having a newly constructed bike park, Max Trax that has some story behind it!

In all, we encountered 11 parks and covered over 10 km while thankfully the rain generally stayed away. Juno had a blast and fell asleep as soon as we got home!