Today was a milestone in my life: my first Goodgym task as leader! We were at Boundary Brook Nature Reserve to dig up bramble roots and clean up litter.

Taking charge like a born leader, I said to the team: "Helen from the Nature Reserve knows what needs doing. Do what she says."

What needed doing was to dig up all the plant roots from the plot the Nature Reserve staff are preparing. In a pleasant surprise, the area had already been dug nicely with a rotavator and the expected bramble roots were almost all gone. This made life a lot easier for Anja, Steve and Joe, although Joe still got to show off with a mattock.

Less pleasant and not at all surprising was the amount of litter people had thrown over the fence, which Muireann and I picked out of the brambles. There were also a wheel and a saddle from a bicycle embedded in the mud- I am starting to believe that this is where bikes come from, and that they grow out of the ground like potatoes.

The most surprising thing was... the giant moth. You weren't expecting that were you? Neither were we, but local artist Mani had constructed one to hang in the trees. So Muireann and I, along with non-Goodgym volunteer Fred, helped Mani to assemble and position the moth in a flying pose. Eventually the tree branches and Ivy will grow through the frame to create a seamless moth-shaped part of the landscape.

All in all, a productive morning:

Roots dug up: lots Rubbish collected: loads Giant moths assembled: 1

A balmy spring (yay!) evening saw us back at Rose Hill Junior Youth Club, picking up our help with their preparations for new planters, to make the site just that little bit brighter.

Standing on the ground we'd previously cleared of shrubs, Meg ran us all through what was needed - part filling the newly delivered planters with small pieces of wood and topping up with compost from a GIGANTIC compost sack - a great arm and abs workout.

With so many of us, we even managed to form a splinter group to pick up some of the litter both on- site and in the surrounding streets - featuring chat about what makes a good litter picker (good grippy prongs) and multiple fun running and cycling escapades.

Looking forward to seeing the planters in all their glory!

Welcome to the group, Elsa!

This week took us back to OXRAD for a very welcome winter indoor task. Our mission was to continue the centre’s painting refresh, this time focusing on the studio.

A few of the group kicked things off with a one‑mile jog from the Up in Arms before we all met up and got painting. After an encounter with some mouldy paint and a handful of brushes that seemed permanently welded together, we got stuck in.

By the end of the evening, the studio was looking brighter with its first coat of white paint complete, ready for us to build on in a couple of weeks. We were kept entertained by the upbeat circuits playlist from the neighbouring class, along with visits from a GoodGym favourite—Nelson the dog. Ellie inevitably ended up covered in paint again and attempted to rescue her jumper in the sink to limit the damage.

As always, the painting came with plenty of chatting about running plans, adventures, and, of course, cats.

This morning we returned to Kate's Place in Florence Park. This is a regular haunt for Goodgym, previously we've planted trees, trimmed hedges, laid turf, created paths and cleared litter from the site.

With an upcoming family fun day on the horizon some piles of (quite prickly) hedge cuttings needed to be shifted, the dead hedge topped up with a few branches and litter and tennis balls cleared up!

In true Goodgym-flash-mob style we had everything cleared uo, ship shape and shiny within an hour, finding an amphibious friend and a duck in lederhosen along the way!

Welcome to Goodgym Steven and Thura! Thanks for getting stuck in, hope to see you at a task again soon!