A few years ago Worcester Environmental Group built a natural play area in a corner of Perdwiswell Park using a collection of interesting logs. With North Worcester Primary Academy nearby it was popular with the children to climb on before or after school. Unfortunately it has been left neglected with the nettles, thistles and undergrowth making it less than appealing to play on. Parent and councillor, Katie Collier asked if GoodGym could give it a good tidy up so of course we said yes!

It was a short run from Perdiswell Leisure Centre which suited most of the group who had tired legs from racing at the weekend. Armed with secateurs, loppers and gloves we cut and pulled our way through the weeds and soon the logs were emerging from the undergrowth and the whole area looked more presentable. The offcuts were gathered to form a dead hedge which will be popular with rodents, birds and invertebrates.

Once we'd finished, there was just one more important task: testing it! Ruth and I demonstrated our balancing skills by walking and jumping along the log run with the obligatory 'tree pose' to finish.

It should be a nice surprise for the children to find after school today.

Despite the recent rain, the plucky saplings at Fort Royal park are still struggling so the GoodGym crew were asked to come and lend a hand.

The run from the Hive served as a chance for Ruth to test out her legs before the Worcester 10k on Sunday while Kirsty arrived by bike. We all met at the top of the hill to see what Karen from Fort Royal Ranger had lined up for us to do.

A blackthorn hedge had been planted near the edges of the park so we carted barrows of water containers down to give them all a drink. Meanwhile Karen #2 brought mulch to be put around the base of each one. These actions combined help to keep the weeds at bay, give the saplings more nutrients and help hold moisture near to the base of the trees. Hopefully they will regain some strength over the next few weeks as the seasons change.

While we were working we got to admire the new mural that is being painted by a very talented artist showing a beautiful blue tit surrounded by flowers. It will be great to see this when it's finished.

There was then one more task left so we refiled the barrows with mulch and pushed them back up to the top of the hill to be met by last minute Liam who had arrived to help out too. He was soon issued a shovel and the mulch was spread beneath a large apple tree.

A fort-ifying experience for us all!

The bank repairs at the Swan Food Project are now a race against the weather, Now autumn is around the corner there's a chance that the floods are too. So we were back for a second week to gather more silt for the project to use. All of last week's material had been used up with great effect (I forgot to get a photo of it unfortunately) with woven willow dead hedges used to hold in the compacted silt. This time we had three of us doing the shovelling and shifting with (Bertie) claiming this was exactly his kind of task. Between us we filled a record 21 bags which pushed the limits of the suspension on Marilyn's trusty Peugeot! It was all then stored safely at the Swan Food Project HQ to be used by their volunteers over the next few weeks. The swans soon came swimming over when we produced the food bag at the end of the task and we left with lots of happy customers, not least of which was Marilyn. We'll be back again in the spring when we can be sure that river will be staying within it's banks.

For some reason most people had to wash their hair tonight so couldn't make it to the task so it was just Kirsty and I. We were back at the strange set of steps down to the Severn that's stuffed full of silt. Marilyn from the Swan Food Project had invited us back to fill sacks with the unwanted silt so that it can be used to repair the bank further downstream.

We'd soon filled 11 sacks with silt but then had to shift them to the car which was heavy going! The final part of the task was to unload down at the Swan Food Project HQ. Tomorrow it will all get used by Worcester Environmental Group for the bank repairs. A great collaboration between three organisations.

Marilyn told us a bit more about the swans before handing over a bag of pellets for us to feed them. I was soon surrounded by the huge white birds, all keen to get as much of the food as possible!

Hopefully we can get in another visit before the winter floods return and on an evening that isn't hair washing night!