Last night’s GoodGym Nottingham task was meant to see us helping at the Meadows Foodbank. However, for the second week running, a last-minute change of plan was needed, this time due to illness (get well soon Mark!).

Luckily, Leah had a stash of purple bags and gloves in her car, so not to be defeated again, we quickly switched gears and turned our attention to litter picking around the local area. As there were so many of us, we split into two groups and collectively managed to fill 4 bags of litter which had been lurking amongst the fallen leaves – impressive given how clean and tidy the area actually looked and that some of us were wheeling bikes around whilst picking!

It may not have been the task we originally planned, but we still got out, got moving and made a difference. Thanks to everyone who came for being so adaptable, and we will hopefully reschedule our visit to the Foodbank for a future week.

A big welcome to Georgie who joined us for the first time!

Next week we will be at the Brandon Lawerence Sports Centre – sign up here.

On a dark, damp night it was good to be inside the Sherwood Community Centre.

Laid out before us were a plethora of brushes, rollers, trays and paint and we rolled up our sleeves in true GoodGym fashion.

We split in to two teams with Matt, Charlie, Dayna and Peter on one side and Walter, Khiltee, Florence and first timer Martin on the other.

We were so efficient that there was even time for Charlie and Matt to vacuum, sweep and mop some floors and for Peter to make a start on cleaning the brushes, trays and rollers.

Welcome aboard Martin, we hope you enjoyed your first task with and hopefully see you again soon.

Last night, GoodGym Nottingham headed to Sherwood Community Centre for one of our first properly dark tasks of the year.

Our mission was to clear a seriously overgrown patch of ground so a skip can be brought in, while also cutting back enough brambles to expose a gate which was totally unusable.

Meanwhile, Nigel took on a spot of mowing on the lawn next to the car park. However, this was abruptly curtailed when a yoga class began inside the community centre and it was decided that Nigel’s mower may disrupt the peace in the yoga room.

About 15-minutes into the task, the daylight started disappearing, so out came the head torches and a few portable spotlights and on we went.

As the brambles were gradually defeated, we made an important archaeological discovery – several large stone 'megaliths'. In true GoodGym fashion, we immediately began speculating whether we had stumbled across some kind of ancient Roman settlement or one of Nottingham’s greatest undiscovered historical sites.

By the end of the evening, we had cleared a substantial area, freed the pedestrian gate from its brambly captivity and made good progress towards getting the space ready for the skip, and, quite possibly, uncovered a piece of Nottingham’s Roman past.

Well done to Walter, Giovanna, Matt, Nigel, Leah, Peter and Rachel.

That's one way to describe blood donation, I guess!

Conversation always seems to take an odd turn when we're at the ICCA. Perhaps it's all those railings frazzling our brains like the static snow on an old TV (showing my age there).

It was a night of newbies last night, with Victoria and Walter joining us for the first time and Steph Ducat joining us from Ealing for a spot of tourism – thanks for the photos!

Our Team Scrape and Team Paint strategy is still working, although we might need to bring along some new scrapers next time due to some very exuberant work! I think this will be the last time we do it in the light for this year though, so I'll get charging the headtorches! Nothing will stop us getting to the end of these railings. Except rain. Rain is bad for paint.

THINK DRY THOUGHTS THIS WINTER!

...and did we need them!

We were back at Sherwood Methodist Church for some follow up gardening maintenance as, despite the summer heatwave, things have just kept on growing!

Splitting in to two groups, Matt and Charlie channeled their inner lumberjack/tree surgeon and got stuck into some serious heavy duty pruning (not enough wheelie bins to contain their efforts!

Meanwhile, Rachel, Rachel, Leah, Florence and Peter (ably assisted by Peter's wife Jane) were clambering among the shrubs (and trying avoid the spiky plant things) to cut down the tall labernums and, yes, the spiky plant, so the church sign was visible again. With a lot of tamping down two wheelie bins were filled to the brim - how we got so much shrubbery in them is a mystery!

Thanks as always to Janice and Tony from the church for organising us so efficiently - we'll happily come back whenever you’ll have us!