I had a good workout on this one! After discovering that there is a bus that goes directly from my house to Anfield stadium I met Miss J who was playing some great tunes in her house. She asked me to tackle the weeds in the front garden, especially the ivy that had taken over the front fence. I sang along to Michael Jackson’s Thriller and most of the Off The Wall and Bad albums, it was a great accompaniment to the weeding. I managed to weed and mow one half of the front before my time ran out but now I know about that useful bus route I hope I will be back soon to tackle the other side of the front garden.

Mrs E welcomed me into her home and made me a cup of tea, her home smelt of lovely scented candles and she had lots of beautiful ornaments. We sat in the living room for a while chatting, she said she hardly sees anyone. She lost her husband two years ago. They’d been together for around 70 years, having met when she was very young. They were married in 1959, there were beautiful pictures on the wall of them together. She was really sad; not only did she lose her husband but she lost her granddaughter too, a real tragedy.

We went to the garage to get the lawn mower and hedge trimmer, it was tough for Mrs E to step into the space that her late husband had cherished. I got to work mowing the front and back lawns. It was a flymo hover mower, hence the pun! Really easy to use, really like flying across the grass! I used the hedge trimmer to tidy up the conifers and I did some weeding on the patio. Mrs E has such beautiful outside space, she said that her husband kept it immaculate, you could tell it was a loved space. It was a privilege to help her. I hope I will go back again.

Well a lovely big group of us turned up to Urban green-up, some cycling, some running and others walking in sunny weather.

Elaine from Urban green-up explained our previous favourite nettle pulling tasks had now made enough space to plant some robusty plants to hopefully take over the space instead of the stingy aggressive growers!

So we proceeded to layout 140 plants in a natural pattern explained to us 3 same plants together evenly spaced out and one off on its own as the black-sheep making its own new territory. Elaine then expertly checked our layouts and we started to plant away. Some of us still loved the satisfaction of getting hopefully the last of those nettles from their roots! Others also expertly litter picked the garden space to ensure the plants were the centre of attention.

With one of the first tasks where no lights were needed and several thank youse from passers-by, we pow-wowed through the session to: -pick a big pile of nettles to their roots -exterior designer layout 140 plants -proceed to plant said 140 plants -collect 2 bags of litter tightly packed

A perfectly powered up team!

Hey team,

We had a lovely spring evening for our return to Everton Park! It was great to enjoy the longer daylight hours and kick off our year's events with John. The sunshine was a real bonus, and those views across Liverpool and out to North Wales? Absolutely stunning. Big thanks to Bekah for leading our team, and to Liam, Dan and Amina for jumping right in!

Our main focus was clearing a patch of ground that had collected a fair bit of litter – think plastic bottles, general bits and bobs, and even a few rogue firework cases! We got stuck in and managed to fill four whole bags, which is a fantastic result. Plus, we gave some overgrown bushes a quick trim to tidy things up a bit.

It was brilliant to be back at Everton Park, and it was super satisfying to see the difference we made. Looking forward to heading back there soon for more volunteering fun!

Mrs P is a lovely lady struggling with health issues, who has clearly put a lot of love and work into her beautiful large garden over the years. The garden is stunning with a variety of beautiful plants and trees, and it was a lovely place to be on a bright warm Friday morning.

First job was mowing the lawn at the front, and after a couple of false starts, trying to identify if the issue switching the lawnmower on was: a) with the lawnmower; b) with the extension cable; c) with the plug socket; or d) user error (i.e. me not doing it right), we gave each other the thumbs up through the window when it finally burst into life (the issue was c, the plug socket, and I was just relieved it wasn't d!).

That turned out to be a much smaller job than the main event, which was the beautiful big garden out the back. I quickly cleared some things off the lawn, and got to work. Turns out, mowing a large lawn is more strenuous than it looks! This task definitely utilised the 'gym' part of 'Goodgym', especially manoeuvring the lawnmower around the lovely trees, plants and furniture, and it was a relief to turn the lawnmower off for a final time. I packed away the lawnmower - and both extension leads which had been needed! - and locked up the garage and back door.

Mrs P made every effort to give me something for my time but fortunately I'm quicker on my feet than she and was able to gracefully decline and stay out of reach. She was absolutely adamant I wouldn't leave completely empty handed though, so I gratefully accepted a can of coke to take with me after that thirsty work in the sun.

Best wishes to Mrs P, I hope she's now better able to continue to enjoy her lovely garden.

With the warmer weather comes an influx of requests for gardening missions. Not a competent gardener, I carefully chose one I was confident I could do – cutting back brambles. Give me some secateurs and I can happily hack away for an hour or so, so I packed my gloves and confidently set off to Mr M’s. It turns out I’ve been to Mr M’s before, he had a couple of visits from Goodgym for his garden last year - his wife sadly has cancer and he himself suffers with health issues, and strenuous tasks put him at risk of being unable to take care of his wife.

I arrived ready and raring to tackle a mass of brambles, when Mr M corrected me that it wasn’t brambles he needed help with, but general gardening. Uh oh. We had a quick discussion about my capabilities – and limitations! – and agreed on some basic tasks. I mowed 3 grassy areas, 2 in the front garden, and the lovely large lawn in the back, then hacked down some trees which were getting unmanageably tall. I was glad to get to hack something (I even used a saw!) and Mr M was delighted with the difference, telling me this meant his wife could now use the garden and his grandchildren would be able to play on the lawn. We were both pleased to put his green bin to good use, it had sat empty for several months and I left it over 2/3rds full. Mr M clearly enjoys taking care of his home and was frustrated not to be able to do these tasks himself, but we agreed it wasn’t worth the risk of worsening his health issues and not being able to care for his wife.

Despite the miscommunication I was able to help Mr M & his wife. Next time we’ll assign this one to a more competent gardener!