Kanika, Juli, Tessa, Roberta, Sheila, Mark, Yesim, Gillian, Rachel, Jack and I were greeted by beautiful Winter sunshine as we assembled for our litter pick at Kidwells Park.

Meanwhile the same sun shone on Sol, Georgeta, Diya, Amanda and Matthew as they ventured out to tackle litter in their own areas.

At Kidwells we found the usual mix of plastic, cans, bottle and cigarette butts, plus odd items of clothing, part of a shopping trolley and bags of frozen dog poo. Lots of the drinks containers were heavy with ice.

Sol found the same on her hour long walk. She picked up 6 buckets full of litter!

In Cox Green Georgeta reported finding lots of plastic, paper and leftovers from a car accident. She also found an 'L' plate, but as the the proud owner of a new litter picker, she's not a learner anymore! Maybe 'L' for Legend?

Matthew sent a n-ice pic of his shadow from his sweep of Ockwells Road, where he found 'so much rubbish'!

Diya combined her litter pick with a walk to visit an elderly friend.

While lots of us litter picked in Maidenhead, Amanda represented down the road in Windsor. Great stuff!

GoodGym were delighted to be invited to take part in Maidenhead United's Macmillan Coffee Morning, held at the Maidenhead Athletic Club clubhouse. The event included our litter pick, cake, a big walking football tournament, cake, running around the track, and did I mention the cake!? Moreover, it was a wonderful opportunity to connect with other community groups, friends old and new, and VIPs like our MP and our mayor.

Well done to GoodGymers Diya, Tessa, Anna, Gillian, Nicola and Mark, who signed up to come along. It was also great to welcome MAC members Pauline and Jay. Also a special mention to Sheila, who couldn't join the litter pick but came along and flew the GoodGym flag during the earlier part of the morning.

We played a game of litter pick Bingo, and it was both sad and impressive that the majority of participants completed their cards. Not surprising though I suppose, since we had January Challenge Bingo stars Diya and Tessa in our midst! Perhaps I need to add some more obscure items to the card for next time. Who new we would find half a Lego person, a shoe and two buckets? While we worked, we also got a good workout lugging our bags of litter around, and had a good chinwag too - it's the stuff that GoodGym dreams are made of.

Thanks to Helen, Raisie and the team from Maidenhead United Community Trust for welcoming us along and well done GoodGym team!

Armed with rubber gloves, cloths, buckets of water and a feather duster, we set to work helping the Eco Action Hub with some final cleaning ahead of its official opening this weekend.

Between us, we scrubbed skirting boards and steps, washed plastic chairs, cleaned a fridge and dusted shelves. It was great to see Mark at GoodGym and to be joined by honorary new member Emily - hope to see you again at another mission soon!

Not only did we get lots done in an hour but it was a true “spring” clean - as the clocks went forward at the weekend it was still light when we finished the task - hurrah!

This mission gave us a chance to have a sneak preview of the Hub, which includes a Library of Things to borrow for your home, a Repair Cafe, a seedling swap, a children’s corner, and even some tiny tadpoles!

If you’d like to visit, you can find them in the former Dorothy Perkins unit of the Nicholsons Centre - they’ll be open from 10am on Saturday 1 April with the opening ceremony at 11am. Find out more: https://ecoactionhub.co.uk/

Water-way to kick off the weekend! Lovely bright weather, great company, a beautiful rural setting, mud, coffee and biscuits, and a leader who likes puns; we really couldn't have asked for more at our community mission with Friends of Maidenhead Waterways (FoMW) this morning.

The GoodGymers attending today were Kanika, Sheila, Sol, and myself, but this report includes everyone at the work party in the shameless hope that they'll see the light and join us in our GoodGyming. Special mention to Gill, who even gave me her email address so that we can officially call this her first good deed - welcome Gill!

Three cheers for Sol, who litter picked on her walk to the task and very quickly filled a bag. It's only bin a month since she last did this, so it's really rubbish to see how quickly more litter has accumulated.

We started with the fun of donning PPE including waders, high vis, protective glasses and gloves and then set off across the road and over boggy ground to our destination - a stretch of the Widbrook that was more 'Weed' than 'brook'.

Our mission was to clear a 1.5m path through the reeds, allowing the water to flow freely into the town centre streams, whilst also taking care to have minimal impact on wildlife. After all, as our leader Dominic pointed out, we were 'watching a live stream'.

Dominic gave us an excellent safety briefing, including a warning that the water here can be ex-streamly deep. He demonstrated how to achieve 'pole position' using a rake handle to avoid 'that sinking feeling'. He warned that the alternative was to 'flounder and get pulled under' - yikes!

We approached the water tentatively, but were soon going with the flow and found that we could rake in the weeds fairly effectively whilst standing on plastic pallets and/or crawling around in the mud (my preferred method - only to be attempted in waders!)

We worked for a good couple of hours and made excellent progress - clearing a much longer stretch than I had imagined weed manage. We got pretty wet and mud-splattered in the process, but it was great fun, super satisfying and a fantastic workout too. No weedy arms here! In fact, we even saw some fresh water mussels...

A special mention to Paul from FoMW, who wore a wet suit and was like a human dredging machine. I would like to know the secret to his impressive stamina, but apparently 'what happens in his wet suit stays in his wet suit'. I would also like to know Gill's secret to keeping her trousers dry despite basically sitting in the stream. Kudos also to Phil from FoMW, who waded tirelessly to clear up in Paul's wake.

Everyone worked really hard and was very deserving of a hot shower afterwards. FoMW plan to have plenty more work parties on Saturday mornings between now and the Spring so keep an eye on the GoodGym listings for opportunities to get involved. You can also find out more about Friends of Maidenhead Waterways and keep in touch with them directly via their website.