Three GoodGymers and one enthusiastic new recruit (not officially GoodGym yet but we’re working on it!) rolled up their sleeves to get stuck into some garden maintenance at the Weller Centre.

The lawnmower may have been out of action, but that didn't slow us down. Armed with determination (and a strimmer), we cut back overgrown grass, chopped stubborn twigs prepping them for the shredder, and cleared a good amount of litter from the area. A surprise highlight was the stunning sunflowers standing tall, a cheerful reminder of what a bit of care and attention can do. lovely gardens and we can't wait to go back.

Three GoodGymers turned out early on Saturday morning to support the Reading Thames Valley Parkrun. Despite the light rain, spirits were high and the runners were out in force. We saw a seriously speedy turnout from the runners — including two kids who absolutely flew through the 5k with impressively fast finish times.

We helped with marshalling, time keeping, and time checking at the finish line. It was great to be out supporting the local community and getting our GoodGym dose of fresh air and teamwork. Thanks to Reading Parkrun for having us – we’ll be back (hopefully with sunshine next time!).

Litter picking in the Forest on the University of Reading Campus

Four goodgymers went to Ardler Road allotments to meet Jeremy to help with looking after the plot growing fruit and veg for food4families to give to local organisations.

Jenni and Noor, joining us for her first task, walked to the allotment, Sam went for a run along the Thames on the way and Chris met us at the task.

There was planting, watering, weeding and some maintenance to be done on the site and the team got stuck in!

Chris showed Noor and Sam how to plant the cornichons, although the soil was very dry and tough! The rain we'd had earlier in the evening hadn't managed to get into to ground, so Jenni got to work with watering and pumping from the well.

With Noor and Sam now experts at planting, they got to work with planting some calabrese and giving them some protection from slugs with cardboard collars.

Chris helped Jeremy with some maintenance of the supports for the taller crops, but with a shortage of tools to cut string, the pair had to get inventive and make use of any spare twine they could find on other poles to be able to get the plants to stay on their bamboo canes.

As always, the mares tail weeds were creeping in, so after watering, Jenni got to work pulling these out. Hopefully they will stop popping up soon!

After 45 minutes of work, everything we had on the task list for the evening was completed! We love coming to the allotment, we always learn so much and its great to help such an important cause... we'll be back again soon!

We met at our regular meeting place, joined by Nick for his first task in Reading, and headed towards the Thames.

Armed with litter pickers and bags, we headed along the path and collected as we went. There seemed to be an abundance of empty cans along our route!

Time past fast, and after an hour we had 7 bags full.

Thoroughly deserving, we sat down for a picnic alongside the river.

With temperatures soaring to 32 degrees in Reading today, our five goodgymers were very glad that we had a low energy, walking based task to complete!

Superstar Sam had done a 5km run before, and ran to join us along the way, extra kudos for her! Great to see Jacqui again after she came to GoodGym Reading's first ever Monday task!

With 200 leaflets to deliver for Thames Hospice Superstore, this week we were distributing them around some of the houses just outside Reading town centre.

We got our steps in going up and down paths to do our posting and we soon managed to get through our stacks of leaflets!