Better late than never!

The painting continued at the ICCA, this time assisted by head torches.

It was a bit of a smaller group but we made some decent headway along the railings – all that scraping is really paying off as the paint goes on faster!

Let's see if we can finish before the summer!

Robert and MiniGGer Milo joined the volunteers for a rather blustery morning at Forest Rec thanks to Storm Boelo.

A hardy bunch of 25 kids finished the run despite the weather, and Milo claims he gave out at least 100 high fives with his big foam hand.

On a dark, damp night it was good to be inside the Sherwood Community Centre.

Laid out before us were a plethora of brushes, rollers, trays and paint and we rolled up our sleeves in true GoodGym fashion.

We split in to two teams with Matt, Charlie, Dayna and Peter on one side and Walter, Khiltee, Florence and first timer Martin on the other.

We were so efficient that there was even time for Charlie and Matt to vacuum, sweep and mop some floors and for Peter to make a start on cleaning the brushes, trays and rollers.

Welcome aboard Martin, we hope you enjoyed your first task with and hopefully see you again soon.

it was a bit nippy at the Forest Recreation for Junior parkrun.

Amongst the fallen leaves Peter put on his hi-viz and helped cheer on 41 young runners who ran and walked around the 2km course.

it might be 9:00 in the morning but I recommend it as a great way to start your Sunday (and the cafe does great coffee and cakes!!!)

Last night, GoodGym Nottingham headed to Sherwood Community Centre for one of our first properly dark tasks of the year.

Our mission was to clear a seriously overgrown patch of ground so a skip can be brought in, while also cutting back enough brambles to expose a gate which was totally unusable.

Meanwhile, Nigel took on a spot of mowing on the lawn next to the car park. However, this was abruptly curtailed when a yoga class began inside the community centre and it was decided that Nigel’s mower may disrupt the peace in the yoga room.

About 15-minutes into the task, the daylight started disappearing, so out came the head torches and a few portable spotlights and on we went.

As the brambles were gradually defeated, we made an important archaeological discovery – several large stone 'megaliths'. In true GoodGym fashion, we immediately began speculating whether we had stumbled across some kind of ancient Roman settlement or one of Nottingham’s greatest undiscovered historical sites.

By the end of the evening, we had cleared a substantial area, freed the pedestrian gate from its brambly captivity and made good progress towards getting the space ready for the skip, and, quite possibly, uncovered a piece of Nottingham’s Roman past.

Well done to Walter, Giovanna, Matt, Nigel, Leah, Peter and Rachel.

Five GoodGym Nottingham volunteers headed out for a special evening that combined two very different Nottingham traditions: litter picking and Goose Fair!

After meeting up in Carrington, Leah, Florence, Tim, Walter and Rachel worked their way around the local streets filling a whole bag of litter on the way. Good deed done, it was time for a well-earned reward...a trip to one of Nottingham’s most iconic nights out!

The group made their way to Forest Rec where the bright lights, terrifying-looking rides and enormous soft toys of Goose Fair were waiting. The first priority was refuelling with some tasty fairground food. Leah and Tim decided to try out the infamous Goose Fair mushy peas – as you can see from the photo, Leah seemed more sold than Tim! Afterwards, the group wandered around taking in the sights and sounds, ruling out any desire to try any ride that involved spinning wildly in the air or a stomach-churning drop.

After waving goodbye to Tim, the rest of the group decided that the Ferris wheel would be a suitable activity worthy of our time and money. As the wheel climbed higher, the group got a bird’s-eye view of the dazzling rides below, with Goose Fair glowing in all its colourful glory. And to make the evening even more spectacular, a huge, beautiful moon appeared to be hovering in the distance over the fairground (the photos don’t do it justice).

From filling a bag with litter to floating above the lights of Goose Fair, it was a brilliant evening of community, teamwork and a little bit of fun.