Good Gym York kicked of the York Great British Spring Clean in style - nearly! The litter picking fairies had been out in Holgate recently so the haul of litter was a little lighter than expected but still we managed to get a good bag full each. Treasures included a tyre, hanging baskets, wheel hub.... Thanks to Paul & his magical wizardry for the pun which he manifested in the Fox post task.

Four people signed up for the last community mission of the January Challenge: a 1pm litter pick along Kingsway North.

• One signed out after a Saturday morning double good deed session. She needed a nap!
• Nicky decided to start an hour early so that she could get home quicker.
• Paul Kelly and Leanne started an hour late so that they could have lunch and visit a five-sailed windmill between tasks.

On average, they probably all arrived on time...

Nicky found lots of her litter on the way to the meeting point and had already filled her bag to the brim before she reached Kingsway North... mostly with a giant Peppa pig calendar.

Paul and Leanne found Nick and Barbara on the way to their pick - who seemed to be racing around York collecting last minute squares on their bingo cards. They did make it to Kingsway North and got most of the way down the road before their bags became heavy enough to leave by the bins for the council to collect.

They all went home for a well earned rest having claimed the title of the last GG Yorkies standing in the January Challenge!

Oopsies, someone forgot to confirm the task with CYC Rachael, so there was no chicken wire and no Rachael (my bad). So after a quick phone call we had permission to weed the wildlife area instead. The gallant 5 weeded by hand in the drizzle and cold for half an hour, before calling it a day. Well every little helps! (I'll be sure not to have egg on my face next time!) Thanks team!

Stuart at Rowntree Park had a list of jobs for us in the garden area behind the café. Myself and Michal emptied a metal shed, moved it to the top of the garden then refilled it, whilst John reorganised a larger shed to accommodate a trolley and various other items to keep them dry. Jane and Elle created a small raised bed to accommodate some bare-root trees which involved some moving of heavy bags of soil and digging. Several tables and shelving units were moved around to create a more workable space, bags of sand and compost were decanted into silver bins and Lucy pushed some rocks uphill! We certainly got a lot done in less than an hour.

Four of us braved the cold wind and rain to help Rachael from the City of York Council Environmental Team at West Bank Park. Our job was to neaten the edges of the rose garden and armed with half-moon spades we set to work, closely watched by Joey and Kali 🐶 who didn't seem to mind the rain at all. Jenna got started on a neighbouring section and flagstone path and the rest of us joined her to help finish off. We filled several very heavy bags of wet turf and mud and left these for later collection. After a good sweep, in the words of Norbert the garden robot, we left the whole area looking a lot more "neat and tidy" unlike ourselves who were muddy and soggy!

Despite tonight's original task for tonight having been completed last night, we managed to sort a replacement task litter pick around Water End and Poppleton Road as Ed had noticed lots of litter there. We split off in different directions in pairs with several groups heading for the area around the RSPCA, others to Millenium Green and a couple heading further down Poppleton Rd. By the end of the hour we had lots of litter in our bags. Jane and Paul had a hopeful look for the aurora on the way back but it proved trickier to see than the litter of which there was plenty, some of which larger than others!