It's Your World Liverpool are a group of very dedicated neighbours, who clean up the streets and public spaces of L8. We received a request from good friend of Goodgym, Kirsty, to help It's Your World Liverpool to clear all the weeds from a pathway used by a local school. 3 Goodgymers answered the call and each made their own way to the task. We were well-equipped with a range of gardening tools, green bins, litter pickers and a very large bin bag for any rubbish. We had been told to expect rain but it was actually a dry, slightly humid evening so the coats we'd all brought were not actually needed (thankfully!). Weeds lined the whole wall of the pathway. Some were easier to pull up, but others required some significant effort and a mix of chopping and pruning. However, as Kirsty noted, there was a brilliant system in place to remove these swiftly. There were also several overhanging branches starting to affect the walk down the pathway - Naser made light work of these. All in all, lots of trips to the green bins were made. As the weeds started to clear, it became evident that the leaves were literally littered with litter so a thorough litter pick was also needed. With a litter pick and the biggest bin bag I think I've ever seen in hand, a thorough litter pick began down the pathway and along the wall. At first, I caught glimpses of blue but I just thought they were probably part of a plastic bag that had ripped so carried on and got distracted by the other items along the way including an umbrella. However, small blue pieces kept appearing and seemed to multiply and then we suddenly realised they were actually confetti. Now there were lots of hypotheses for why this was there but the most likely seemed to be a baby shower from one of the neighbouring houses. Needless to say, clearing up confetti with a litter pick proved an interesting challenge. Well done to everyone involved. The pathway was de-weeded throughly and the confetti cleared - Kirsty was made up with the results!

On Tuesday, 3 goodgymers headed out to Miss J’s home for a mission that had us working hard from the very first moment. Miss J had been expecting us and the excitement was clear — the tools were handed over and we got started immediately, with not a second wasted.Craig acted as the master trimmer, working the lawn mower and clippers with amazing precision. On the other hand, me and Clara kept things organised , gathering diligently every little bit of waste into bin bags. We also put to use, the spade , clippers and small secatuers, as we worked through the weeds and snipping the overgrown Ivy.Between the three of us, we worked like a well-oiled machine. By the end, we had a grand total of ten bags of garden waste to show for it!We gave Miss J's garden everything we had right through to the final minute.Miss J’s warmth and gratitude made every snip of the trimmer, every pulled weed, and every filled bag completely worth it.Her contagious smile told of all the joy she could not hide.

It was a breezy day, with a brilliant team,and a job well done to put a smile on someone's face. Thanks to GoodGym ! Until the next mission-👋

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect evening for our latest session in Princes Park, with the temperature thankfully dropping from the highs earlier in the afternoon. The park was buzzing with people enjoying the warm evening sun as our group gathered. Liam and Chris ran from the Suitcases, and we had a great turnout, especially from those in the group doing their second task of the day!

Our mission was to make sure the park's youngest resident trees stayed hydrated in the warm weather. This meant filling up a giant water tank from the lake to water the newly planted baby trees. Because the tank was so large, the team set up a brilliant, fast-paced relay operation using watering cans and buckets to bridge the gap between the lake and the tank, which would have worked brilliantly if one of the buckets hadn't been full of holes!

Once the giant tank was full, the team walked it over to the lakeside, making sure all the young trees got the deep drink they needed to thrive in the summer heat.

While the watering crew was busy by the lake, another hard-working group tackled the lakeside path. They focused on clearing away weeds and litter from the sides of the paths, which has made the whole area look much tidier and far more accessible for everyone visiting the park.

It was a beautiful, productive evening that showed just what can be achieved with a bit of coordination and a lot of team spirit. A massive thank you to everyone who came along, especially those who doubled up on tasks today—your energy and effort are hugely appreciated! See you all at the next run!

We were so excited for our first task with Park Palace Ponies as our Group Run this week. Although the plan was to clear out the office, and not actually play with the ponies, we were hoping to sneak a peek as we galloped in for our task. Alas, the best laid plans... An hour before we were due to meet for our run, disaster struck, and Park Palace Ponies contacted us to regretfully cancel due to a safety issue - the roof had leaked and impacted the electrics. Everyone (and the ponies!) were fine, but they had to close the centre and the task wouldn't be able to go ahead at all.

Now as gutted as I was, even I recognised water + electricity = not safe, so regretfully we had to concede defeat and agree to reschedule when the office is back up and running.

That left the big question - what DO we do? Options varied from cancelling (not really the Goodgym way), an impromptu social, or a litter pick. The litter pick won out.

And so after swift organisation and collection of the litter picking kits, we headed to Smithdown Road where we'd heard there was some litter which needed clearing up. Thank you to Sally Ann for whipping up the litter pickers, and to Laura for savvily intercepting Sally Ann en route to carry the litter pickers whilst Sally Ann headed to the group run meeting point to capture anyone who hadn't got our messages.

Clara was fresh from organising her first GG Parkrun tourist trip to Worsley Woods over the weekend, and met Naser, who was proud to wear his red Goodgym shirt for the first time.

I was sulking about missing out on the promised ponies and reluctantly dragged myself along, finding litter little solace in this no-horse race. But the spirit of the team soon cheered me up. The group was such good company as we walked along, clearing as we went. We found no less than 3 x complete pairs of shoes, a little flashing blue light, and a Santa which was well overdue a clear up. Our wandering took us past a little green area on Smithdown Road, which happened to be the site of Naser's first ever task with us. We reminisced about that lovely task - Laura has been so good with the children who were 'helping' with painting the benches, and the fire brigade had arrived to check there was no anti-social activity going on - in fact it was quite the opposite!

Before we knew it, an hour had passed and we had 4 bags of litter to dispose of in the council bins. Despite the grey skies, the rain, and the distinct lack of ponies, we were all glad we'd turned out to do our little bit to contribute to the community.

Well done guys for the speedy change of plans and dedication to doing a little something to help out, even if it wasn't our 'mane' task. You can sleep easy when you 'hit the hay' tonight, knowing you've kept our contributions 'stable' and 'trotted' around the local area 'champing at the bit' to help (I really should save some of these for when we reschedule...)

After a week of glorious sunshine, Goodgym decided to take Parkrun on holiday and venture over to Manchester to try a new course, Worsley Woods, as highly recommended by Goodgymer Amina. After travelling by train and car share, we met up in a cafe then headed over to the car park. After a carefully manœuvred parallel park by myself (I was told to add this), we trotted up to the start line where a friendly local explained the 'lollipop' shaped course to us.

The run began, and we set off on an old railway line, thankfully shaded by the trees, before turning off on to a trail through the woods where we ran past brooks and over bridges. Out of the three parkrun I've done, this was the most beautiful by far! As we reassembled at the finish, it turned out Vikky had taken a bit of a tumble in the woods but we were able to get antiseptic wipes and make sure she was ok. Overall, everyone remarked how nice the run had been, despite some tales of woe!

After the run we found a local cafe and we ate brunch while planning the next parkrun trip before heading off to enjoy the rest of the day.

Super interesting task for this Monday! Our presence was requested with urgency for the Bombed Out Church re-turfing of their grass area as they had a wedding in just a couple of days!

And when someone asks for help, how can we say no? So off we go to the task on a day that was threatening to rain and make the job much harder. Luckily the rain stopped right as we all gathered around the entrance for introductions and debriefing.

It was definitely a task and a half, but we were up to measure even after some of us run a half marathon the day before! We weren't going to let some dirt keep us from completing our mission.

Like a SWAT team, we deployed our divide and conquer tactic. A few of us were in charge of clearing up big clumps and get the plot even and clear for the turf.

The rest of us had the tough job of carrying dozens of turf to key locations to ease the job of rolling them out later. Initially a trolley was used, but the tactics soon changed to a human chain , which was wonderful to see pros do what they do best. Strength is doubled when helping your neighbours and specially needed this time, but the time flew by and although it was impossible to get it all ready, we definitely a big portion of it and we're glad evening was back on track.

A special thing about this task was that it made me think that, you're not just volunteering and doing some work. You're having an impact on other people lives even if not directly. You're creating space for little miracles to happen so why not create as many chances as you can.

So anyway, here's today malapropism: many hands makes the world go round

PS. Should goodgym have a bat signal?