St Gabriel's Mission Church in Adswood have been having a tidy up around their grounds. With the hedges encroaching onto the pavement, they had a cut chopping session during the day time but nobody to clear up afterwards.

So who might they ask?

Goodgym Stockport of course! Hannah, Meera and Ben ran the 3 km from Life Leisure Avondale, fully lit up with bike lights and flashy armbands following a convoluted route to Adswood. We met Heather upon arrival who had already started clearing some of the branches and leaves so we donned gloves and got stuck in.

Using the old adage of "many hands make light work" we quickly removed all of the prickly branches, leaves, and other shrubbery into 2-3 large rubble bags, to leave the path accessible to passers by. We loaded up the van with settled bags of branches and tree stumps that would be unloaded at the tip the following day.

We got a quick pic at the end before making our way back, using Heather's local knowledge to take a slightly less convoluted route.

Good task and good group to get the job done. We even got the chance to snap a lit up Halloween decorated house on the way.

Fruitful Saturday morning with a parkrun-Goodgym double bill!

Hannah and Laura ran Wilmslow parkrun event #430 along with 218 other participants. Juno and Ben marshaled at the "middle bridge".

For the task itself, we took a stroll towards Wilmslow High School before trekking across their fields to find the L-shaped tiny forest. The aim was to survey the tagged trees to indicate which of the 100 planted in February 2023 were still growing and to measure them up.

Many of the trees were still alive with weed growth minimal. We managed to survey 46 trees in total with 20 of those still tagged, with many tags missing or disintegrated. Tape measures, plant ID apps/sheets, and Juno having zoomies made for a good hour or so of tree surveying before we collated the data and made our way back to the town centre.

Hopefully the tiny forest is still used and maintained long term through the school or local groups and perhaps we can be back again, either for maintenance or a survey in the near future.

Edgeley Community Church asked for help with clearing the weeds in their back garden.

Six GoodGymers set to and within an hour, we'd managed to fill three green bins (!!) and made the area look much more tidy.

We're getting our last few gardening tasks done before the clocks go back and the darkness sets in!

It was lovely to welcome Katie from GoodGym Trafford back to another of our tasks!

Juno and I helped with the set up and marshaled at point 2 (Mersey turn) for Fletcher Moss parkrun event #224. With Manchester half marathon tomorrow, we had a bumper volunteer turnout and lots doing their shake out run before the event.

Well done to the 403 runners and walkers and thank you to the 19 volunteers who helped make the event happen.

It was the big 500 good deeds for Ben this evening so we set off to help to spread the word of a community Halloween event for our local charity, Together Trust.

The wonders of Instagram enabled me to find a little know gardening club in the backstreets of Northern Quarter in Manchester City centre. With so NIF and GM Environmental funding, they have transformed so of the local spaces from fly tipping hotspots into green and pleasant lands.

Today was their semi-regular volunteering session to plant some more shrubs, clear away weeds, and pick up litter that often forms a blight in the Northern Quarter.

Along with other newbies Mel and Sam, Juno and I met the regular crew to their surprise (I think they rarely get many volunteers for these things...) so we got lots done in a short amount of time.

After swapping details and saying goodgyes, we ran back the way we came (5-6 km each way) to get a cup of tea and to wash away the mud and dirt.

Keep an eye out for future sessions with Smithfield Garden Club (NQ).