We were supposed to be painting a room at Sheffield Futures tonight, but a final check with the team there revealed that the person meant to be meeting us was off. Therefore Plan B was put into action at the last minute. This, of course, was plogging. A contact from the Pitsmoor Pickers was contacted on the off-chance she was free, alas it wasn't meant to be!

Luckily some equipment was at hand from past picking trips, so we didn't have to resort to bare-handed tactics. We decided to visit an area of cycle path which GoodGym takes care of for SusTrans, the route behind the Durham Ox. We cleared this section of cycle path as a team, and even witnessed some people using it for once!!! After this, we headed up the road and across to the opposite side to clear the grass verges and scrubland.

We 'refuse' to quit

After an action figure (see photo) packed time filling a bag full each, we set off in search of a street bin where we could leave our refuse. This involved running in the general direction of the canal, where our route back to the Showroom was planned to go along. We eventually found one, thanks to some superb scouting from Rachel, and left our bags by it to be reported to the Fix My Street app later on. We then continued on to the canal towpath where we were treated to a viewing of some new 'street' art before jogging back to the Showroom to stretch off and refresh.

3 intrepid explorers set off from The Showroom in search of fish passes in and on weirs along the course of the River Don in central Sheffield. These features in the river need to be inspected and evaluated every so often to make sure they are serving the purpose for which they were installed, flagging up any issues to be fixed. There is a form with set criteria on to be evaluated at each site. As we were a small group tonight we elected to stay together to do the inspections, rather then split up and cover a greater number. We still managed to inspect 4 sites and cover 6km in our alloted time. Great job team GG!

After inspecting as many passes as we could, including Sanderson's Weir, Burton Weir, Walk Mill and Lady's Bridge, we headed back to The Showroom to stretch off before bidding each other adieu.

A new task today with a referral from lovely local charity, the Joybank. They collect second hand toys and books, and find them new homes in schools, playgroups and with underprivileged children. Professionals will refer families and organisations and packages made up, whilst some donations go to the charity shop to be sold to raise funds.

Today at the donation and redistribution centre, we met Beth, who has recently come into a part time role with another colleague to help run this centre and it needs a lot of sorting!

To me, To you!

After a brief, we got down to the hard work and the most useful task we could do was shift some shelving around. Not an easy task when there are boxes and bags full toys and games as far as the eye can see! The hope is that there will be an area where recipients come to collect and can peruse a selection whilst they wait, whilst being kept safely away from the organised chaos behind the scenes!

We discussed future tasks, including sorting through games to make sure they're complete and helping make up gift bags for Christmas/Eid, hopefully being able to facilitate some of these as Monday night group runs

Himalayan balsam is an invasive non native plant which thrives near rivers and can take over, displacing other species. Charlotte at Local charity Don Catchment River Trust has organised a few sessions to remove this plant from the Moss Valley before it sets seeds. GoodGymer celine joined Charlotte and fellow volunteers Ollie and Matts for a good old bash, ripping the balsam from the roots a d snappinv the plant before its first nodule to ensure it doesn’t survive. we got a break in the drizzly weather, the river was babbling and the pastures were gorgeous; i even spotted a buzzard over the fields!

We were back to help our good friends at Pitsmoor Pickers last night at a hot spot for litter bugs and fly tippers!

We met Rachel at the task who was putting in some extra mileage before the group run! TOP work Rachel!

On arrival we gave a wave to Malcolm who was busy with his customized rake and bucket, doing a very efficient litter collection.

We grabbed bags, hoops and pickers and got straight to work, separating cans from other rubbish so these can be collected, recycled and funds put back into the picking group for future equipment.

After a good session the patch of road was looking soooooo much better than before, with larger items also being left for the council to collect.

TOP work team!

After an initial 'design concept' visit we returned to the Sustrans Sheffield lock up to finish what we had started and make the lock up more organised and in doing so make it better for other volunteers to quickly grab what they needed tool wise before heading out to improve and maintain our fantastic National Cycle Network!

We welcomed a new runner this week. Give a whoop, hola, cheer and follow to:

Nathanael

Thanks for joining us Nathanael and hope to see you back next week!

We split the group as the space was small and litter was at large! Some got to picking the litterbug hotspots whilst some of us got on with finishing tidying and organising the lock up.

Rachel did a fantastic job finishing the tool racking, ready for tools to be safely organised and maximise space in the lock up.

Tom and Annie set about re-organising other areas of the lock up to maximise the efficency of the space!

Annie was even planning colour schemes for the walls!

After we had spent our time there, the place was looking more organised than ever and ready for future efficient and organised volunteering!

Nice work everyone!