It was a return visit to Sherwood Methodist Church for three Nottingham GoodGymers (plus Jane!) to cut back a well grown garden. Janice and Tony made sure we were organised so whilst Peter and Jane got stuck at one side of the church, Rachel and Leah took their loppers and secateurs down to the other. In all, four wheelie bins were filled (including literally briefly by Leah!) and much more could have been done. It should also be noted that no bees, owls or puffins were harmed during this task! We've been invited back in September so keep an eye out on the sessions page

The Shindig 2026 Sunday walk had something for everyone, combining history and nature along 5km of trails around YHA National Forest. With nods to the area's industrial past in a beautiful countryside setting, 25 GoodGymers joined for a very mindful morning.

We walked through Conkers, along the Ashby Canal, past Moira Furnace and around Donisthorpe Woodland Park, before heading along part of the Ashby Woulds Heritage Trail (a disused railway) back to base.

The highlight was stumbling across a Living History Camp as part of an event at Moira Furnace Museum. As well as a history lesson, we got a snapshot of the more simple parts of wartime life. Not something you see every day!

Good movement, good time in nature, and good connection, what better way to round up another beautiful GoodGym Shindig weekend 💛

Somehow, we've become the go-to team for "scrape and re-paint" tasks this year.

This time, we were back outside at The Lenton Centre (where we've previously been down in the basement sorting lost property and building shelving) to give some outside doors and railings a good going over.

As there were only four of us, we split into pairs to tackle the two sets of wooden doors first. The elements had done a fairly good job of getting rid of the bulk of the old black paint, but our scrapers definitely made a big difference.

Then we went round to the railings at the front of the building that had the added challenges of rust and more surface area. We all agreed it was extremely satisfying getting those little bits of paint to chip off, and discovered that they'd been painted blue and green once upon a time.