Ashley, Naomi, Mandy, Helen and Pete met on a beautiful Saturday morning to help out Ian of the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with some little picking and collection of discarded items. Along our way we discovered two tents hidden in the trees. One of tent seemed to be still in use, possibly by someone fishing, the other was long since abandoned so needed to be collected and disposed of responsibly. Taking a long loop around we collected several bags full of litter, chopped down an overhanging branch and generally have a great time chatting and laughing. We are all looking forward to helping out the Wildlife Trust on a regular basis.

Naomi and Pete turned up for the task far too early and had to sit around and make small talk before Ashley arrived and the task was able to start. David, as ever, was most gracious and plied us with hot drinks before the task. We set about probing the ground with a screwdriver, trying to find hidden grave slates. Once 4 were found we set about digging down through the years of accumulated dirt to uncover the slates, some of which might not have been seen for over a hundred years. Pete managed to uncover 2, but that was only because his were more shallow, compared to Ashley's Herculean effort for his that were so deep, a complex pulley and ladder system had to be set up. Another great task at the Church on a beautiful summer's evening.

Ashley and Pete were joined by Naomi for our semi regular tidy up of the Derby Womens Centre garden. Usually it takes Ashley and Pete 1 hour to complete this task but since there were 3 of us it took 50 minutes. A fun task with a great result.

... and leave it to someone else to scatter. Ashley, Naomi, Mandy and Pete met once again at the church along with our leader David and helper Heath to create some beds suitable for wild flowers. By the time Ashley and Naomi turned up most of the hard work had already been done. After a bit more raking and picking up debris the team left the site looking clean and ready for the wild flowers to be sown.

Goodgymmers across the country took an hour out of their weekend to watch their garden for an hour and help the RSPB track bird populations. Well done everyone!

I (Rachel) picked an hour of mostly heavy rain, which probably wasn't in my favour, but meant I got to snuggle in an oodie in the conservatory feeling snug and smug.

Paul - "As I wasn’t expecting to be in the same place for an hour I combined it with a gardening task on Friday. It was a clear sunny day and while some food had been left out, the feathered visitors were not that frequent though. 19 were spotted, mainly pigeons, plus a robin who I have seen there before, along with a few sparrows and a Great Tit who disappeared as soon as the neighbours dog came out."

Gwyn and Tracey from Derby, as last year, visited each others gardens - "Gwyn was able to photograph some birds, whilst I'm only able to take pictures of things that don't move very quickly. We did the RSPB bird watch together twice; at Gwyn's house on Friday, and then at my house on Saturday, so were able to submit two lots of results whilst drinking lots of tea."

Anita - "I logged parakeets, blue tits, a robin, a collared dove and a magpie in a West London garden. I also spotted sanderlings, oyster catchers, gulls, crows and a magpie (and learnt to differentiate waders) in Wales but I don't think the view of a sliver of Swansea Bay really counts as a 'garden'."

Dave - "It was really interesting and made me take much more notice of what different types of bird arrive in the garden.

I was amazed to see a Long Tailed Tit and Siskin (I think) but boringly my garden seems to be most popular with Blackbirds!"

Sarah went for a walk with her son on the transpennine trail getting him engaged in nature.

Naomi - "I was just visited by 2 pigeons, although they flew off before I got a photo! I have cats, so don't encourage birds into our garden, as much as I love them. However I do get to see lots of birds in our neighbour's tree, safely out of the cats' reach!"