Don't hold your breath, receive a sudden shock, put cold cutlery up your top, or drink ice water... just clear up your local area! Yes, it's a hiccups pun!

Becky visited her local park to clear up after a party some youths had had. They had left all of their rubbish behind and obviously the catering staff thought it beyond their remit to bag up the party favours. This was not beyond Becky though, she bagged up the plastic cups, plastic bottles, plastic straws, drinks cans and food wrappers. Thoughtfully the party-goers had left behind some plastic bags for Becky to use to contain the rubbish too.

James blitzed the boundary of Barnsley's town centre college campus, removing food and drinks containers from behind the fences surrounding some of the buildings where it tends to collect in the dips. Unfortunately my phone was out of battery so didn't get any evidence.

Linda had a wintery womble along the Monsal Trail between Hassop and Bakewell on a beautiful sunny day. Thankfully she didn't find too much trash on the trail, which left her free to take in the stunning scenery of the area unencumbered. The rubbish she did manage to find included part of a shoe insole, a fragment of a plastic container and a baby pacifier- she's no dummy!

I'm happy to be able to say that nobody had a rubbish time!

Goodgymmers from across the country joined forces to contribute to the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2023.

The idea is that you sit and watch your garden or local green space for 1 hour and tally up how many birds you see. They only count if they land, not fly overhead and you only count the largest group you see at one time (to make sure you aren't counting the same individuals several times!)

This information will give the RSPB an idea of bird populations and which ones may be struggling and need support. So far, over 5 MILLION results have been logged, but watchers have until Feb 19th to submit results.

4 members of GG Sheffield were hosted by Celine and we took turns surveying her garden for the hour whilst the others crafted. Highlight was a teeny wren, which she'd never seen before in her garden.

Jenni from Ealing was pleased to see a flock of starlings.

Gwyn and Tracey from GG Derby joined forces to do 2 watches in each other's gardens. Gwyn managed to get some excellent shots of the birds on his feeders, although their usual goldfinch customers eluded them this time.

Georgeta had a visit from what she calls "our" woodpecker... "Well we believe there are most likely 3 of them , in summer we saw the mother with 2 chicks together, but they only come one at the time now. 😃"

Amy from Maidenhead reported "Just three fat pigeons for me! I could hear lots of other birds and see some nests but couldn’t see the birds. I don’t think it helped that my children were out too and making lots of noise. I will appreciate it much more now when I see birds whilst out and about"

Sheila said "my highlight was a male blackcap and 10 goldfinches - I knew we had a few visiting every morning, but had never actually counted them before! Thanks for encouraging everyone to join in"

The GoodGym Central Team were together in the same place and so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to sneak in a good deed. Joined by Emma, we converged on the St Andrews Youth Club in Westminster who lay claim to being the oldest youth club in the world.

The task required some serious muscle. The store room (well, garage) of the youth club had become extremely messy with bikes, christmas trees, shopping trolleys, and endless boxes strewn around the room. Our job was to take everything out, sort through it, and put it all back neat and tidy.

Kim, Dave, Ed, Ivo and Jack started the removal process with Nada, Emma, Anna, Theresa, Becky, Lil and Michelle all on sorting duty. There was a treasure trove of weird and wonderful things to pick through. Playmobil, old footballs, go kart batteries, paint, CDs (remember them?!?), tools, yoga mats, spray paints....and on and on and on.

After all the sorting it was time to bring it all back in, this time with one of my mum's favourite sayings in mind "a place for everything and everything in it's place". It was weirdly satisfying finding the right shelve or nook and cranny for each item and leaving the floor of the place completely free from clutter.

As we were getting ready to leave the club started filling up with kids from school and it was great to see them using the space. It's clearly a much loved club by the local community. After a few pics we were off again, with some of us walking and some of us running through the busy streets of London.