Welcome to GoodGym's Jacob for your first session in Manchester!

This evening we met up outside Whitworth Art Gallery too drop off food donations and do a litterpick for 422 Community Hub. After a short loop of Whitworth Park, Jacob got to experience the Whitworth Lidl, full to the brim with students living nearby.

With donations bagged, we took a brisk walk towards Longsight and we managed to drop the donations in various bags to the reception, with only a few oats lost in transition.

While the rain stayed away, we used the Clean Up UK litterpickers with Keep MCR Tidy pink bags to scour the nearby streets for any litter we could find to give it a bit of an autumnal clean. We filled 3 sacks and found a few toothbrushes, a box, and a broken mop bucket along with the regular cans and bottles.

We ran home in our respective directions, with a few fireworks from local parks as a backdrop. All bags have been reported to Keep MCR Tidy and best of luck to Gloria in the Frankfurt marathon this weekend!

With both Man United women's and men's teams playing (and so far winning) I was called on to help out Mrs M with keeping on top of the overgrown garden.

Lots of weeds, moss, bindweed, nettles, and brambles were ripped out, by the root if possible, with only a few minor scratches and stings.

Meanwhile, the grass got a thorough mowing to help it looking ship shape. Tough but productive mission, particularly following the pond session in Stockport.

Tough session for Hazel and Ben helping out at Dial Park allotments on a sunny Sunday morning.

The allotment community is hoping to spruce up the pond area that has been left to go wild, but Alison suggested it can be made more shallow and shaped to be smaller to help the wildlife and for easier long-term maintenance.

With a tonne of rubble delivered, our task was to use as much of this as possible to fill in the gaps and line the perimeter of the pond with bags of rocks.

Along with Laura from the allotment group, we dug and dug to pile the rubble high where it was needed, along with some smashed concrete that was going spare. Hazel meanwhile shifted hefty bags of rocks into place to provide a retaining wall for keeping the pond in place.

Well aided by a cuppa and a chocolate biscuit, we made really good progress and certainly flattened out the pile of rubble. We'll be aching tomorrow morning I think.