We were back with Southampton Action today for our second task with them. It was lovely to welcome Nia from goodgym Portsmouth with us today too! 😊

Southampton Action run monthly events for their service users to come and get free of charge items donated by the general public to take home with them. This month the focus was on woman and children.

Like last time we had to unload the very full van, then lift and shift the items into various rooms and up stairs before organising them all before the event began.

This time there were less service users helping with the heavy lifting up and down stairs so we found ourselves employed as the muscles dealing with furniture and boxes on the stairwell alongside some others.

We created a human chain and once the main lifting was over were allocated to help sort homewares under the supervision of volunteer Mark who helped us last time.

Steph expertly arranged all the towels and duvet covers and Nia and myself got stuck in with the plates, cups and cutlery often coming across some very random bits and pieces!

I even redeemed my poor folding skills from last time and rolled some pillowcases!

As ever it was a very satisfying and rewarding task. A definite workout and we look forward to coming back next month.

Jane, Nia and I made another dent in the Milton street litter today! Starting with the grassy triangle at the end of Essex Road, we cleared half a bag's worth, including behind the fencing (though of course we couldn't pull through the motorcycle helmet, kitchen bin or hubcap!) We then headed up by Milton Park and retrieved some of the litter stuck behind the fence with the long litter pickers hurrah! Including a funny note about bad parking - always a hot topic in Portsmouth of course!

Nia, Val and Abby joined the friends of nore barn woods in their monthly conservation activities on a beautiful saturday morning.

The team split and worked in three different teams. Val was working on building a boardwalk out of reclaimed branches for the super muddy path in the north of the woods. Nia joined the team in raking all the debris off the paths that the recent storms had brought in and Abby was having a mud bath assisting with digging a trench to help divert future flood water away from the paths the public use. At the end of the task I am proud to say I had earnt the label 50 shades of clay!

We worked hard all morning and treated ourselves to a well deserved lovely lunch in Emsworth.

We had family-fun finding the tiniest bits of coloured plastic and rope within the high-tide seaweed at Hayling.

There was Laura, and her Mum, Marion, and mini-GGer Jack; and Val with apprentice-GGer Cameron.

Digby-dog made friends, while the wind flapped his ears. Abby did a sterling job trying to fill the most-gigantic compost sack. And Nia won the get-fit-while-doing-good prize, by coming by bike from Southsea to Hayling by ferry and up the Billy trail.

A satisfying task that will be repeated when the Bike Ride to Billy is rescheduled.

After some more spring cleaning we were able to collect and donate duvets to the Southampton Street Angels, a local group who support people experiencing homelessness in the area.