With potential rain clouds circling, Fanette, Hazel, and Ben met up in Cringle Park to tackle a slightly extended version of Route #1 of the Manchester Green Trail. A quick coffee from Grounded MCR and introductions for Juno provided some preparation time as we waited for other walkers to possibly join, with the walk advertised as part of the GM Walking Festival.

From Cringle Park, we took in the sights and smells of Levenshulme to reach Chapel St Park, next to the Blue Bell Inn, before entering Greenbank playing fields, with no cricket being played today. In Greenbank Park, we bumped into Maria from MCR Library of Things before circling through a side street to Nutsford Vale (note, not Knutsford...). We made a note for a potential litter pick here due to the volume of fly tipping before going through Annie Lees Park, and then towards Sunny Brow Park after crossing over the railway, again passing a few potential litter picking hotspots.

Juno was unable to resist the cooling stream in Sunny Brow Park and entered on several occasions, and as we approached the Waggon & Horses we encountered a surprise cemetery in the woodland, presumably associated with Brookfield Church. After crossing a busy Hyde Road, we skirted past another pub before finding a route through the Fallowfield Loop and found Gorton Lower Reservoir and Debdale Outdoor Centre, leading us past McDonald's (for a quick toilet stop) and Debdale Park. Debdale Park was surprisingly big, clean, tidy, and full of activities including community gardens, Men's Shed location, a cycling practice circuit for youngsters, tennis courts, bowling greens, a workout station, kids playground, and a Heroes Wood Memorial with trees and landscaping to remember locals from World War I and onwards.

We walked a path separating the lower and upper reservoirs before stumbling upon Gorton Reservoir Allotments, a large area of allotment plots with lots of plant sales and events advertised for the coming months, plus plenty of signs for selling horse manure. Following this, we joined the yellow brick road (previously the Stockport Canal) north past King George V playing fields before entering the 2 final parks in Lees Street Park and Delamere Park, the latter having a newly constructed bike park, Max Trax that has some story behind it!

In all, we encountered 11 parks and covered over 10 km while thankfully the rain generally stayed away. Juno had a blast and fell asleep as soon as we got home!

After a spell of hot weather, Peter and Ben went along to Gorse Hill Studios allotments to help with some of the maintenance on the community plot there.

We weeded a lot of the polytunnel, footpaths, beds, and trimmed back the grass growing around the edges in some parts. With the ground very dry, we watered as much as we could to save the currently growing sweetcorn, carrots, chives, salad, and vast collection of beans that had taken root in some of the raised beds. It was hot work running in the late April sunshine!

On the way, there wasn't much litter near Deansgate, and the canal towpath was generally pretty tidy. On the way home, there was some litter picking close to Rusholme and Longsight that was reported to Keep MCR Tidy.

Welcome to Ruth for your first GoodGym session! Great to meet you.

This evening, we were asked by Peter from Acacias Community Primary School to help clear an area for a growing/gardening site, accessible for the pupils and parents to use for growing herbs, fruit, and veg. Before that, a lot of weeds and rubble needed taking out, which is where we came in.

With a variety of tools, including a pickaxe and smaller hand tools, Ruth, Fanette, and Ben made their way around the the site removing anything that shouldn't be there, including lots of Galium aparine (otherwise known as sticky weed or sticky willy). In the process, we unearthed a few self-seeded trees and old compost bins, the latter we used for some of the green waste, while an extendable saw was used to chop overhanging branches from the neighbours.

Peter, fresh from the Manchester marathon (congrats) as a long-distance memory now, joined to chop the branches into smaller chunks and tried to remove as much of the underlying membrane as possible.

Given the speed of the weeding, we even managed to clear the raised beds, leaving the healthy-looking strawberry plants to keep growing. We also potted up some smaller horse-chestnuts that had sprouted, possibly to use for a science class to show the seed and parts of the plant. We also found a cat scarer/deterrant, mistaken for a garden meter (?), that thankfully isn't now in use.

All in all, a productive evening and we even managed to stay relatively dry despite the circling rain clouds. We will be back in 2 weeks to help dismantle the rotting beds and re-build new ones so the pupils and parents can make full use for the plot.

Gaynor and Ben risked the incoming rain clouds to deliver a whopping 250 copies of the Manchester Post 📰

Starting from Brunswick Parish Church, we covered some of the residential streets in Ardwick, just off Brunswick Street. Several dogs, cats, and student flats cropped up along the way, plus some very decorative benches 🐲🐉

Thankfully, the rain clouds skirted by, allowing us to complete the round to spread some positive community cheer to local residents.

Fresh morning at Fletcher Moss parkrun event number 292 after the overnight rain. Big thank you to the 19 volunteers who helped make it happen, with quite a few missing due to the Easter hols.

360 runners and walkers completed the 5 km course with 49 new PBs and 81 first timers including 18 doing their first ever parkrun!

Scott and Ben filled their backpacks to go rucking along the Bridgewater Canal to deliver lots of tins and food to Manchester South-Central foodbank, with the drop-off point being the Chester Road Tesco.

Some of the items donated include:

• Easter eggs 🐣
• Peanut butter 🥜
• Tinned meat and tuna
• Pasta sauce
• Spaghetti 🍝
• UHT milk 🥛
• Pesto

During the run along the canal, we passed Embassy Village, a few barges, plus Old Trafford and lots of runners.