🗞 Solo Manchester Post paper round for Ben in the residential areas of Longsight and Rusholme. 300 community newspapers delivered spreading good news and local events, including a GRIT Studios art trail and lots of news from Withington and Fallowfield.

Likely a change up next time, either in a different area, hopefully when it's a bit cooler.

How many GoodGymers does it take to construct the frame to a greenhouse? 5 apparently as Julia, Peter, Fanette, Ben, and Sanjeev went along to Eden Gardens Orchard in Philips Park to help out. A new task and location for us!

Really nice community orchard, with lots of espaliar apple trees growing, plus beds of corn 🌽 poppies, strawberries 🍓 raspberries, flower beds plus a few sheds and a polytunnel. They have regular sessions during the week and Saturday morning, not just for volunteers but also as a place to relax, read, or just spend some time there.

Recently, they needed to take down a makeshift greenhouse and wanted to replace it with a new model. This is where we came in, with limited IKEA flat pack skills and basic instructions.

It was trial and error for much of it, trying to piece bits together, match up the numbers, and work out which way bits went. While the front and back skeleton was made, after some minor adjustments and tightening of screws, the side pieces were constructed. The frame along with the roof and other bits can wait for when building in-place once the area is cleared. We'll be back later in the month to do some of this.

Good building session with some false starts and spilled bolts 🔩 giving us the runaround!

Fanette and Ben went along to help out the community orchard team at Heaton Park. The area has only recently been tended to after being left fallow since covid. As a result, brambles, nettles, and balsam had taken over while the apple 🍎 and other fruit trees continued to grow.

With sturdy gloves and a collection of tools, we put in a good 1.5 hours of hard graft, removing sizeable areas of balsam, nettles, and other weeds from around the fruit trees and pathways, every now and again jumping up and down on the balsam to give it a good bashing.

While difficult to find (both of us stumbled upon the apiary or bee 🐝 houses nearby on the way in), the spot is looking to get back to full use, with Rebecca (the task leader) aiming to have Heaton Park cider available in the coming years.

Tough but satisfying task. We'll be back balsam bashing in other parts of Heaton Park later this month.