Thanks to everyone who made the festive meetup where good food and great conversation were consumed over a couple of hours at one of the city centre's popular party venues. A fairly quiet atmosphere apart from the salsa class which provided some great background entertainment but it was a tuesday night and at least meant everyone could hear each other.

Crackers were pulled, jokes were told, crowns were worn and plans for Christmas were told as well as reliving the Christmas from our childhoods and any traditions we have maintained.

Thanks to everyone for all their help in the community and hopefully GoodGym Derby will see you back in 2024.

Ashley, Pete, Ellen and Rachel welcomed Mandy's new recruit Sue along for a group effort litter picking in the city centre.

After the group had gathered up all equipment needed for the session including Mandy and Ashley's professional grade litter pickers and Pete's which was a thoughtful Christmas gift, it was on to collect litter from the streets in some eco-friendly bags that were given to the group by the hotel that's the start point.

It was great to see Mandy again and welcome along her friend (and soon to be relation!) Sue and to see Ellen again who educated the group with some fascinating facts about the history of some of Derby's buildings.

Some interesting finds from the night included part of a toy crane and food packaging in the shape of a sombrero. Sue also found a few bones and part of a pigeon....possibly all connected, or once connected to be more accurate. A favourite find for doglovers of the group was meeting Zeus, a male staffordshire bull terrier, where a pit stop had to be scheduled in for some furry appreciation.

The group chatted to a passer by who asked about volunteering with GoodGym once they found out a bit more about the organisation and what our local group gets up to, hopefully a face we'll see again and thanks to members who had their GoodGym t shirts proudly on display tonight.

Thank you everyone for coming on a chatty catch-up whilst clearing the streets of everything from food packaging to hazardous glass.

Ellen and Pete joined the volunteers from Friends of Markeaton Park this morning in preparing the walled garden for the Festival of Music and Flowers. The festival is on Sunday 13th August 11.00 - 3.30pm. Ellen’s cakes may be on sale on the day! All welcome. Tasks today included watering, weeding, sowing and general maintenance. Pete also proved you can volunteer at Markeaton Junior parkrun and still get to the walled garden on time - as long as the tail walkers not to slow! Perfect day.

The first garden task of the year at St. Matthews Church found Ashley, Mandy, Ellen, Jenny and first time Goodgymer Sarah tackle some overgrown trees and the fallout of the recent windy weather. Copious amounts of hand tools were employed to hack, cut, saw, bludgeon our way through the branches cutting them into smaller pieces that we could hide away in any bin we found. One very long branch had almost snapped off but try as they might, Ellen and Sarah were unable to bring it down no matter how many times they twisted or swung on it.