Five goodgymers met on the slopes this morning. Gareth set to work with great gusto (that’s not me) chopping away at the undergrowth, wouldn’t be the same without a sythe on the Northern Slopes, whilst I forked up some of the leftovers from previous visits. Emma, Tim and Janka meticulously cut back overgrown areas near the steps as well as continuing the battle with the litter.

After an hour we picked a chocolate bar and we were done.

Until next time…

It's 2024, and our first regular session of the slopes was extremely productive. It was Gareth's fist time here, who was eager to try out the scything with me, and proved to get in the swing of it very quickly! between us we managed to clear back the entirely of the meadow area which the NSI want to focus on this year. top stuff.

Meanwhile Dave and Emma had found a massive haul of flytipping and did a tremendous effort of getting it all out and down to the collection point. Emma managed to snap my new favourite Dave G photo on top.

The whole area is noticeably clearer, thanks for coming everyone, more sessions to come soon!

Bit of a different trek to the Northern slopes this time, no scything what-so-ever(sadface)! This time we were venturing into unknown territory, as Emma, myself, Len, and a few other locals delved deep into the woodland that had a severe fly tipping infection. Problem was it was hard to get to with all the overgrowth, so we had to lopper and chop our way through some thick brambles. Meanwhile, Jen joined the crew at the bottom who did a proper job clearing out some flytipping around the houses. After piling up two large piles of rubbish for the council, we were rewarded with some terry's chocolate orange from the team at the NSI, in gratitude of our work over the year, along with a nice xmas card too. Wont say no to that!

Thanks for coming along, see you next month I hope!

It was a gorgeous morning up at Nover's Slopes as 6 goodgymers set about on our first task of the day. I got to do my once a month scything exercise, whilst the rest of the group spread themselves out with the various tasks around such as litter picking, lopering and general tidy up of the areas. The council has recently taken a huge chunk of the brambles back, making it much easier and safer for people(or gardening mad volunteers) to traverse the steps. As if climbing them wasn't hard enough! Thanks for coming everyone, see you all again for next months session I hope!

...truth be told this was a bitter sweet session for me, my last task at the slopes! We had a great time bashing those brambles and hunting for litter knowing there would be a sweet reward towards the end. Len has started to give out chocolates at the end of the task, which makes is so much worth it climbing those steps. While Phill and David H teamed up for a scything, Dave G Caroline and I equipped ourself with litter pick gear to clean up the bottom of the slopes. After an hour, the place looked so much better and even got some compliments about our hard work from some passersby. What a great last bash it was!

Thanks everyone for their hard work!

Len at the Northern slopes has been doing a great job of rallying locals to the sessions, great to have a few extra hands on board for the various tasks that keep the green space looking great.

We set about the usual lopping and chopping, only this time there was a special task! As Frances was deemed the most responsible person (being the least hungover of the group), she had the job of identifying plants in the region. This helps the NSI keep on top of whats growing in the area, and can keep invasive species from taking over. Bit different from the usual GG task, but that's Northern slopes on a Saturday for you, always a bit different.

Deep within the cavernous brambes, 'the nest of cans' was found. A horde of trash just waiting to be picked up by eager volunteers. Might take a few sessions to get it all though. There was also the discovery of other unusual litter drops in the area, an ironing board is a new one on me, let alone 2 of them!

Thanks for coming along everyone, fantastic work and extra thanks to Alexis for being a top photographer!