Blessed with another sunny evening, despite Ella's 4 layers of clothing, we assembled as a strong team of six tonight and did a litterpick loop of town. Rowan's early find of random cables at the bottom of Balkerne hill was probably the choice find, and her diligent efforts got her the gold star for most litter collected.

On warm evenings its nice to make our neighborhoods nicer, drawing compliments from a few passers by, and we can all catch up and chat about Eurovision, left handedness and our memories of the Queen's death.

Following some litter collected we stopped off at Turtle Bay for some refreshments and snacks, our first social in two years! nice to see new members coming on board and getting a chance to chat without litterpickers in hand.

Back to the high St next week for Colchester in Bloom!

Another pleasant evening in our early summer saw five Goodgymmers greeted by a blast of crooner classics outside the Mercury theatre. After a casual stroll to the high st we met Pam and got to work clearing the flower beds, with a few different challenges to meet.

There was preserving some flowers, removing others and then removing the weedy soil altogether, limited by bags and their weight. Some chat about archeology as we discovered how deep those flower beds go, sadly nothing but glass shards uncovered by our team.

Following the task we loaded up Pam's car (after she demonstrated her impressed strength!) then unloaded them at her home too, a thorough job that will need a follow up soon.

Join us next week for some post-task drinks in town!

On a pleasant sunny Sunday morning, 8 GoodGymers, plus families, helped to cheer on, encourage and keep safe 98 young runners as they completed two laps of Old Heath Rec. It was lovely to meet Damon (with my sincere apologies for doubting your existence) and Alice for the first time.

It was great to then have time to catch up while sitting in the sun / running after young children.

Look at for another opportunity to marshal the Junior Park Run again soon as they are always very grateful for our support.

What better weather to spend a morning citizen science-ing to support our much needed wildlife. This time Helen’s keen eyes may have spotted a Brown Belted Carder. A rare sight indeed. Go you tiny heroes!

Completed a BeeWalk for May. We think we saw a Brown Banded Carder bumblebee this time, which was pretty exciting! We'll upload all the results on the Bumblebee Conservation Trust's website to add to their national database.

... to make a clean come true! A small but mighty team carried out our litterpick task. Good work Frazerand Ella! As always the highlight was the topics of conversation we managed to cover which included (in no particular order): the pros and cons of AI (standard), New Years eve pre- and post-children and who the latest legend of Balkerne hill is...

Until next time!