It was damp and dreary for our community mission/ social walk combo tonight and my first GoodGym session since September 25th! Charlotte, Lucy, Liz, Beth and I met wrapped up at the Cycle Hub for the first part of the evening- collecting toys for the Building Futures East foodbank Christmas toy appeal. This will brighten children’s christmases across the east end of Newcastle, something we are immensely proud to have a small hand in.

My car boot overflowing with goodies we set off on a quayside loop up to the swing bridge and back via the millennium bridge. The quayside looked so pretty tonight when the drizzle stopped but we had so much to catch up on I hardly took any photos- sorry! Back to the cycle hub in just over half an hour, legs stretched and lots of fresh air and chat and our Monday definitely felt enhanced.

If you’d like to donate toys and missed tonight, please drop me a message and I’ll arrange a drop off point. Alternatively get involved in hamper packing at Building Futures East next week on either Tuesday afternoon or Friday morning. They are both drop in sessions where you can stay as long as you like.

Tonight’s community mission is dedicated to the memory of my amazing mother, Meg Rippon. She loved what we do at GoodGym and avidly read every report. This one was for you.

On a cold but calm Monday evening in Newcastle, three GoodGymers enjoyed a pleasant stroll around Ouseburn and the Quayside picking up litter as they went. After a slow start, the amount of litter started to pile up, including a pair of jump leads for a car hidden behind a bus stop.

The conversation ranged from parkrun to Scottish holidays and everything inbetween, including the Kielder Half Marathon and the Chicago Marathon.

Hopefully we made a small difference in making Newcastle look a little tidier.

A small group of us headed out for a litter pick this evening in Ouseburn. We had a leisurely walk and a chat and found plenty of litter mostly in various car parks, but we did have a nice walk through the orchard behind the carparks under the bridge.

On the way back we spotted the bright blue and orange flash of a kingfisher, who briefly alighted on a low hanging tree branch and then darted through some hanging ivy up the river, a few minutes later he sped back down the river under the bridge we were standing on and disappeared out of sight. It’s always magical spotting a kingfisher as the bright colours seem so exotic and out of place in nature. A rather sad Mike fact is that due to the river Ouseburn being ecologically dead because of sewage and farming pollution upstream the river can’t support many Kingfishers. One of the joys of goodgym is getting out in nature and having the opportunity to see wildlife while exercising, volunteering, and socialising - you wouldn’t see a Kingfisher in the gym!

A very satisfying litter pick resulting in three full bin bags of rubbish and helping to keeping the Ouseburn tidy. Thanks Charlotte for bringing bin bags as I definitely would have forgot and thanks Beth for the pun! If you want to get involved, we have another litter pick next Monday, this time on the Quayside.

Firstly, it was fantastic to welcome three new members tonight. Congratulations to Ally, Amy and Will on your first GoodGym task! It was great to meet you tonight and we hope to see you again soon!

There was no run tonight as our task was at our base at Stepney Bank Stables, a fantastic charity enabling young people to develop important life skills such as confidence, self-esteem, resilience, listening, cooperation and team-work through learning to ride and care for the ponies and the stables.

We never quite know what will be in store for us when we arrive and tonight was no exception. Super Sara our host and task owner was ready for us with two regular tasks and a new one. I'm afraid I'm not a horsey person so I don't know the correct terms for what we were doing (sorry Sara!) but we went round the edge of the arena, raking and clearing the stuff on the ground (what is that stuff - a bit sandy, a bit fluffy like cotton or mashed paper?!) away from the boards where the ploughing type thingy can't quite reach! We zoomed through the task and admired Michael's show jumping skills as he easily cleared the bar (did I mention it was on the ground?!) We stopped for a quick photo opportunity before moving onto tasks two and three. (Thanks to Charlotte for tonight's photos.)

I'm more at home in describing these tasks and I feel we're quite expert now at sweeping and litter picking. The car park and the ramp where the horses come and go were gleaming by the time we finished. We ventured up the hill with our brooms, litter pickers and bin bags, working as we went, and showed our new friends the oldest working stable yard in the city, proudly reflecting on some previous tasks. Aimee in particular recalling some technical measuring! Discussions while we worked tonight included, is it better to use a pushing or pulling action with the broom while sweeping (thanks to Michael's dad for the answer to this one), do you have your dominant or non-dominant hand at the top of the broom and do animals have a preferred left or right side? Beth reckons they do! Anyone? Always good to come to GoodGym for a cerebral as well as a physical workout!

Our next task is a leaflet delivery for Food Cycle in Benwell on Wednesday at the slightly earlier time of 6pm. We have around 400 leaflets to deliver so it'd be great to have a few more pairs of hands. It's looking like another warm evening for a nice walk. Leaflet delivery for FoodCycle - Inform people of FoodCycle's new centre in Benwell See you soon!