Fantastic to welcome a new runner tonight, please give it up for...

Phoebe

Give Phoebe a whoop, hola and cheer!

We headed over to Pistmoor Road this evening to meet with MARVELOUS MALCOLM who had already been on site for a while getting the worst of the litter onto the pavement for us to swoop in and take the 'glory picks'.

There were some true treats in store with some very old rubbish which was fast becoming part of the geology of the area, had we not have got in there!

A decent pile was presented at the end for the council to later come and pick up.

Until next time, happy running! :)

Five fitness fanatics frolicked frenetically to meet Karen and her other volunteer at Stanley Field near Neepsend. We were aiding the Pitsmoor Pickers to pluck lots of trash from the wooded embankment down by the side of the road.

On the way to meet Karen we were having a bet about what colour her hair would be on this occasion... nobody guessed red, and that's what it turned out to be! Appropriate for a visit from red thunder.

Karen distributed pickers, hoops and bags and sent everyone on their merry ways.

We worked our way through the dark, dank woods, blitzing the leaf litter of litter!

Some interesting finds of the evening were several large gas canisters (which Karen takes to a specialist recycling company), 75 drinks cans (which are exchanged for money that is used to buy equipment), cannabis growing equipment, a couple of substantial flat-screen televisions, and a shelving unit.

After 45 minutes of plucking we gathered up all of the bags and bigger bits. We left them in a pile by the side of the road where Karen had arranged for them to be picked up by the council. Before we left we took the opportunity to get a group photo of ourselves looking happy with our haul.

When we arrived back at the showroom there was one final special surprise for the volunteers... the 'Sally up' challenge, this time utilizing it for squats. The premise of the challenge is to perform the downward action of the exercise every time the song says 'bring Sally down' and the upward action only when 'bring Sally up' is sang. This results in lots of reps and varying lengths of time holding stress positions. Everyone loves it!

After this we stretched off all the key muscle groups used throughout the evening's exertions and parted ways.

A brand new task for us this week.

We had the pleasure of meeting Bridget, Simon and the gang who help to keep Love square looking lovely.

Despite the heavy winds we still got tuck in, chopping back dead matter to make sure the place was looking it's best and that the lovely apple trees had space to grow and prosper.

There was also a bit of litter picking that we did as we went.

We had a decent amount of time on the job as Love Sq was so close to our home of The Showroom, which was great. So hard to see in dark photos, but we cleared a large area and Bridget and the gang were all very thankful. We hope to be back again soon!