We were happy to be returning to Byker Lodge adult resource centre tonight, after some of us made a start tidying up the garden last week.

Having joined in with the task last week, Angela was well aware of what was in store for us this week, so she met us there, armed with a whole set of gardening tools, which proved essential. Max, Adam and I met at Stepney Bank Stables. We stood for a few minutes watching the rain and debating the pros (few, if any) and cons (lots) of wallpaper! By the time we finished and gave Max some tips on how to remove it, the rain had almost stopped so we ventured out on the one mile mostly uphill run to Byker Lodge. Angela and her tools had beaten us to it so we got straight to work!

Angela and Max did a great job of clearing the overgrown grass from the edge of a bed - the brick edging had been completely covered and it looked amazing when they were finished. What a transformation!

Meanwhile, Adam limbered up, leaped into action and lopped a load of looping ivy to make the paths and seating area more accessible. Great job!

I spent another GoodGym session on my knees weeding, also clearing edges, this time along the wall beside the path. I sense another few days of post-GoodGym back ache coming - but well worth it!

We spent the last few minutes sweeping and tidying up (it turns out that shiny ivy leaves don't like being swept away!) I think it's fair to say we were satisfied with our efforts - we hope that the staff and residents at Byker Lodge are happy with their newly revealed edges too!

In glorious sunshine, Goodgym Newcastle teamed up with Living Woods and Earthwatch, to collect data from the Westerhope Tiny Forest, with the help from some local school Year 5 children.

There were around 18 pupils who were split into four groups; that were led by GG, LW, EW members. We had the children identify a tree, decide if was alive, measure the distance to the closest part of the enclosing fence, measure it's highest point, measure the stem's diameter, and also count the number of stems coming out of the ground. We did this for five trees. Once this was all collected, the pupils became mini beast spotters, scouring between the trees to see what was lurking around - which was mainly spiders and ground beetles!

No sooner had we said goodbye and thank you to the first team of mini scientists, another group came along to go through the same exercises.

It was lovely to see the enthusiasm and team work that all the pupils showed. They really excelled in this biology class and understood the tree of life.

Sadly the GGer had to depart back to work before the third and last group of pupils arrived, but it was an extremely satisfying few hours :-)

Had a lovely catch up with the Tiny Forest and Living Woods crew - thank you for the fruit and sandwiches! - and also got to see how well the trees are growing.

Might even have been persuaded to become a tiny forest tree keeper...

It’s been ages since we helped out at Byker Lodge so I was really happy to get the call a few weeks back to come and help with some gardening in their lovely outdoor space. It was a great warm evening for such capers, unlike when we tried to help at Connie on Saturday and plans were scuppered by heavy rain. The great British summer, eh?

A warm welcome awaited runners and walkers this evening, with Damu leading the way. Byker Lodge is a brilliant facility offering support to adults in the area and just the type of task we like was waiting for us. We were tasked with edging the paths (always a very satisfying workout!) and digging out some weeds which Scott had already got cracking with, with gusto before the walkers even arrived. It was a brilliant session with everyone really stuck in- in fact I didn’t think we were going to get the shovel out of Max’s hands when it was time to go! I hope you can see the differences in the photos from tonight.

The task owner Scott was so grateful for the effort we put in and delighted that we could fit in a part two to go back next week. It would be great to get a big turn out and finish the transformation! We felt really appreciated tonight as a tray of snacks had been left out for us finishing up.

There are two more ways to do good and feel great this week as we support two new tiny forests in our patch. Drop in on Tuesday in Fawden between 4-6 or at the same time on Wednesday in Westerhope.