We always love a Monday night at Stepney Bank Stables.

Lloyd was meeting the resident horses for the first time and Aimee for about the fiftieth time but the novelty never wears off! Lloyd almost got mugged in the dark by one of the horses trying to steal the hay he was carrying!

Due to the amount of rain that had fallen, the hay at the bottom yard had gotten wet, so we had to move some from the top yard. After we had done that, we did a little digging around the edges of the arena. Quite a physical task tonight but as enjoyable as ever! Thank you to Sara for inviting us along to help.

Two GoodGymers delivered 500 leaflets on behalf of Riverside Window Walk 2026 on a cool but dry Saturday afternoon.

We zigzagged around the slightly unusual street layout of the Staiths area of Gateshead. Coming across blocks of flats with as many as twelve letterboxes side by side speeded up our task considerably!

Thank you very much to Ella from Newcastle University Students' Union for welcoming us to our latest crafting session at the university tonight. The task was to make snuffle mats to be donated to dog charities.

It was a little out of the ordinary for most of us, but strangely satisfying. Many conversations were had during the session on subjects ranging from running, musical instruments and travelling to the Far East and much more besides.

A warm welcome to Lloyd, attending his first (hopefully of many) GoodGym Newcastle session after his recent move from Leeds.

On an otherwise wet and miserable Friday, Kendal Mountain Tour 2026 invited GoodGym Newcastle to appear on stage as part of their show for a question and answer session.

We answered some questions about GoodGym, displayed our flags and had some flyers for people to take. As well as that, we had front row seats for the rest of the show, which involved some remarkable adventure films and interviews with some remarkable climbers, in particular Rob Matheson.

For more information about the tour and the Kendal Mountain Festival in November, please visit their website:

https://www.kendalmountainevents.com/uk-tour/

The first GoodGym Newcastle session in February was colder than all of the ones in January. Hopefully there is some warmer weather ahead!

We set out on a litter pick towards the Quayside, but didn't ever get there due to the enormous amount of litter on and near Crawhall Road. It's not quite clear why someone would dispose of dozens of small glass bottles in a bush, but someone had. The usual assortment of cans and wine bottles meant the litter we collected and binned tonight was largely drinks containers of various types.

More than ten bags were filled, leaving the area a lot tidier than it was beforehand.

Over 100 young runners completed Whitley bay junior parkrun on a grey Sunday morning. I was run director ensuring the event ran smoothly. Everything went well and all the young runners seemed to have fun.