While we're finally beginning to feel Spring in the air, on Monday the GoodGym gang braved a dark wet evening once again, on a mission to clear up yet more litter around Grove Street. This session started out emotionally as we said our goodbyes to a long-term member Jake, who will be moving on to exciting new pastures. After sharing some cake to celebrate Jake's time with us, we steeled ourselves and got stuck in at a particularly littered patch of greenery we'd scouted previously. The going was rough in places, but in an hour we left the little corner considerably cleaner, and with our Grove street litter bag total boosted up to 28. While it was just a little unnamed corner of Liverpool, the spot is home to a range of birds and even some rabbits, so hopefully they will appreciate the cleanup alongside the many passers-by commuting into the university.

There was a change of plan in Liverpool on Monday, the original plan for a meet up sadly had to be rescheduled so the team quickly regrouped and decided to pivot to a litter pick rather than cancel.

Siân had an excellent suggestion of a patch of land which actually linked back by an overgrown path to the green we litter picked last week. She did a quick reccy during the day to check there was enough litter to keep the keen goodgymmers going, and shared the location with a fabulous caption of “here be litter”. And there was indeed! During the reccy she spotted some rabbits, which added a fabulous incentive for the group to make the area nice and clean for the local bunnies.

We met at the Tung Auditorium and welcomed new member Dan, and sadly learnt it was Jake's penultimate session as he’s moving away! After introductions Bekah laid the ground rules as we were working in a quiet dark area – no wandering off alone into the darkness, and everyone to remain in pairs, minimum. We each had a bag and nominated a specific recycling bag, which Sian would kindly take to the appropriate recycling centre the next day.

It was a great spot as the litter was quite dense and we could quickly see the impact we were having as we cleared it. We found new, unopened hair rollers, pint glasses, a tent which the ground had begun to engulf and which Heetu astutely spotted was 1 item, not 2 as it appeared poking out of the ground in various places, numerous umbrellas, and lots of litter!

Due to injury Bekah was limited to the carrying she could do, so acted a human corral and kept the team safely together – catching Sallyannin the act as she was seconds away from heading straight for the dark undergrowth!

It was great to return to the same area the following week, as it really felt like we’d completed the job. The only concern was due to doing so many litter picks recently, we were running low on bags – what a nice problem to have.

Special shoutouts to new member Dan, who originally joined Goodgym in London and sought us out following a move to Liverpool, and Nina who it was lovely to see again after her 4-month break away. The team’s good work means the bunnies can safely hop another day!

On Monday Goodgym returned to the familiar greenery at Park Lane, where a regular Goodgym collaborator Elaine manages a little patch of wild plants, carefully curated to boost biodiversity and air quality. After our midwinter efforts to de-nettle the site, we were this time set to spreading fresh mulch all over the site, to prepare the soil for Spring, and keep the weeds at bay. From the outset this was likely to be a two-parter task, but we launched into it as best we could, to cut the mountain of mulch down to size, so it could later be spread more evenly over the site. As per the Goodgym way, we collected a little litter as we worked away, including even the titular marsupial mascot for this task (see pictures). We didn't quite finish the mulch moving this week, but Goodgym will return next week to finish the job, and I'm sure we'll be back working with Elaine more too as the days grow longer and her plants begin to flourish again.

This week we were back at The Greenhouse project with a slightly less festive task than last time - slotting leaves back onto the hedge outside. Not as strange as it sounds! The artificial hedge seems to shed it leaves like the real thing so we were tasked with replacing the leaves to cover some of the balder spots.

As there were a good bunch of us, we split into two teams, one team tackling the hedge outside and the other scrubbing some chairs inside. The outside team were quickly finished and came inside to lend a hand.

After a good scrub the chairs were gleaming! Sadly we forgot to get a before picture, so you don't get the full effect, but we certainly left the place a little brighter.

Well done everyone and particularly to Dike who came on his way to work. That's true goodgym dedication!

Snow and ice had stopped us in our tracks over the last few weeks. so it was with great delight we donned our summer clothes at a balmy 6 degrees and headed out for our 1st session of the year.

Grant Gardens former site of Liverpool Necropolis is a large green space in the midst of a built up area. it sits nestles into the corner of a busy road junction and only when you walk in the gates you realise that this is a big plot of land. Last time we were here we were head high in swathes of wild flowers. This time we had two tasks bulb planting and litter picking and we set to the tasks with great joy and goodgym vigour.

Some people used a special tool to carve out plug shaped holes to drop the bulbs in (a clod cutter perhaps?) others planted the many many bulbs whilst others picked up the litter to return the space to its natural beauty. as always the time passed quickly as we worked amidst the remnants of snowmen under a clear sky and the rising wolf moon.

This was our Pauline's 975 task.... we look forward to celebrating the big one with her this year.and we can't wait for spring to see all the bulbs flowering a reminder of a warm winters night.... OK so maybe the temperature wasn't that warm but a Monday night with a crowd of Goodgymers makes us all feel a little warm inside.