Welcome to Eloise for her first GoodGym MCR outing this evening! Great to meet you and hope to see you at another task in the future.

This evening, we met at the task at Gorse Hill Studios, to help make the first steps in the development of their Green Rooms initiative. With lots of weeds, overgrown raised beds, and a grand plan in mind, there was plenty of work to do 🌳🍃

Hannah, Peter, Stefanie, and Ben took on the raised beds and bushes nearby, while Eloise tackled the ivy and bushes on the other side of the green space along with Katie from Gorse Hill Studios. In amongst the ivy and bushes, several Christmas trees were found 🎄 still with the stand attached, alongside a few footballs ⚽️. With loppers, clippers, and plenty of elbow grease, they managed to prise out the overgrown vegetation.

Meanwhile, the wood being rotten on the raised beds made it easy to disassemble but the weeds made it a much tougher task. After removing the plastic undersheet through which many weeds had taken root, we kept digging away, making sure to allow the local moths and snails 🐌 to safety. In amongst the weeds, we found strawberry 🍓 and gooseberry plants, still thriving despite the weeds, many of which we managed to save and plant into pots to perhaps use in the Green Rooms fruit & vegetable garden.

We managed to remove as many of the weed roots as possible and thoroughly dig over the area, removing the wooden border around the area too. Peter was a dab-hand using the loppers and made light work of the hedges growing through from next door, unearthing a bug hotel 🐛🪲🐞, while some nifty saw work from Ben removed the majority of another bush growing through. The disused compost bins were emptied of weeds and rubbish and the soil dispersed.

A final sprint finish saw us weed the path to the shed that made the area looked more welcoming, especially after the removal of a wall several days before. The break for tea & biscuits was very much needed to keep us going ☕️🍪, with the weather closing in a bit too 🌧

Really active and fun task that made a big difference to a local community group. We will be back in stages to help out when we can so keep an eye out for those in future! Great work team 💪👏

The Green Rooms Idea

The 'Green Rooms' project at Gorse Hill Studios aims to transform under-used outdoor spaces into vibrant, accessible green areas that engage the community and enhance biodiversity.

The 'Garden Rooms' will feature a sensory garden, vegetable patch, and wildlife habitats (including a pond), while the 'Green Theatre' will provide a multifunctional outdoor learning and performance space.

The Rhubarb Community Cafe, run by volunteers and young people, will serve produce grown on-site, providing work experience and nurturing community connections.

These spaces will support horticultural therapy, environmental education, and local events, promoting well-being, sustainability, and a deeper connection with nature.

Peter and Ben met up for a light jog and litter pick in Manchester.

After meeting outside the Central Library in St Peter's Square, we made the run to Hulme park. The park itself was thankfully spotless, but the surrounding area and places near the road and footbridge had seen a build up of litter and discarded waste. We collected 7 full bags in total plus other large items consisting of:

• Pillows
• Shoes
• Lots of drinks bottles and cans
• Car bumper
• Piping
• Cones
• Road signs
• Lamp post covers

After clearing the area, we made the run down to Barrack park (aka St George's park) that again, was generally tidy near the play area and football pitches (where a man decided to have a swing at golf...) Around the outskirts, however, we found more debris mostly consisting of food & drink packaging. We did also find some large mushrooms although likely not edible.

After placing the rubbish bags in easy to collect places, we took pictures and noted the What3Words location to pass on to Keep MCR Tidy to ensure collection this week.

After a short jog back, we enjoyed a swift pint at Wetherspoons to chat about holidays, GoodGym Shindig, moving house, and the state of modern football. Cracking way to spend a Monday evening.

Congrats to Stefanie for reaching 10 good deeds with GG MCR!!

This evening, we met in Salford to give GRIT Studios a helping hand with their new site. Peter and Ben met by Salford Central train station, currently under refurbishment, to make the ~2.5 km jog to the site, with Stefanie meeting us there by bike.

The GRIT Studios site in Salford has come on leaps and bounds since we were last there scraping paint from the windows. The space is now 85% occupied with artists with the windows decorated with the common room looking much more homely with less rubble and exposed brickwork on show. They are hoping to fill the remaining space this week with more public workshops and events in the next month or so, so keep an eye out! Here's hoping to some planters and maybe even a bench to make it a bit more welcoming too.

We were tasked with cleaning the external tiled walls that stuck out like a sore thumb after the rest of the building had received its makeover. With an array of implements including sponges, scourers, metal scourers, brushes, brooms, plus different types of cleaning pads, we donned marigolds and grabbed some buckets of mildly soapy water to give the walls a good clean.

Some marks and stains were easier to clean than others but bit by bit, we managed to remove quite a lot of muck, dirt, and grit from the tiles and windows. Doing this in full view of people using the treadmills in PureGym was something of an experience, with some passers by showing an interest into what was going on. After several changes of water and stepladders to help reach the high up places, we completed the task and cleared up any last marks before heading home by bike or on foot.

What a wonderful weekend of weather to get out in the fresh air!

Peter, Jordan, and Ben came out to help The Bee Sanctuary on the southern tip of Highfield Country Park in Levenshulme for their regular Sunday volunteering session.

With our now apparently renowned expertise in painting, we were tasked with preparing and priming a few areas to tidy up the volunteer shed and the entrance gate. Jordan and Ben took turns climbing the ladder to paint a border on the volunteer shed, a new installation for the group. The volunteer shed was installed with a compostable toilet and used to store their tools and, important for this session, their paint. The roof was also a "living roof" with vegetation on top too. Between us, we managed to apply primer to the full circumference.

Peter on the other hand was tasked with chopping back some brambles near the entrance and scraping away the paint from the metal bars. There always seemed to be more paint to scrape off! Once ready, all three of us applied zinc-based primer to the metal railings once clean and dry and managed to cover a decent section, with the paint pot nearly empty once we had finished for the day.

In between painting and scraping, we took a full part in the tea/coffee break with biscuits and Sheila, the lead volunteer for the group, gave us a grand tour of the Bee Sanctuary site. Covering several wildflower meadows, three ponds, plus plenty of dead hedges and hedge boundaries, there really has been a huge amount of work over the years to clear the mono-culture of brambles with a more biodiverse area of grasses, flowers, and wildlife. There was also a quiet "Forget-me-not" area for remembering those who had passed for local people.

We will certainly be back soon to help out and hopefully finish the painting we had started. It was also great to meet the other volunteers and Loki who did his best to help out in between chasing sticks.