It was a small (compared to yesterday’s mega turn out) but perfectly formed group of six GoodGymers that joined Urban Green’s ranger Mike and gardener Robyn for today’s task in Hodgkin Park. This is a lovely open space with beautiful views beyond the River Tyne to - er - well - actually the Metro Centre! Well it’s a lovely space even if the final view is a bit industrial and it’s obviously very well used by the locals with lots of people enjoying the area today.

In many ways it was a typical Urban Green GoodGym task with Sam, Tom, Charlotte, Ana, Jay and I taking turns at lopping, chopping, sawing and litter picking. With Mike and Robyn adding the extra benefit of an electric saw we made huge progress in cutting back the overgrown shrubbery - take a moment to admire the before and after photos!

What wasn’t so typical was … drumroll please …

It was Tom’s 100th Good Deed!

Congratulations Tom - a great achievement!

Being the shy and retiring type (!) Tom commented that he was glad not to be running through the city centre wearing the golden wings like he did while wearing the Geordie Cloak of Good Deeds for his 50th task!

Also kudos to Tom, Sam and Ana for joining tasks two days in a row and to Charlotte for coming back for her second task. You’ll be wearing the wings in no time Charlotte!

Join us for our third day in a row with the second part of the Shieldfield Art Works leaflet drop on our regular Monday evening group run from Stepney Bank Stables tomorrow and a bonus midweek session on Wednesday delivering leaflets for FoodCycle!

Urban Green community missions are definitely one of favourite ways to spend a Saturday morning.

It was great to see so many familiar faces as well as first timers. Cllr Bell also joined us this morning and shared that our good deeds are making the park a safer place for the local community.

There was one final overgrown hedge to tackle and Ranger Mike was quick to get us sawing it down to head height. With teams on both sides of the hedge we soon had those trees and branches cut down to size.

The sun may have stopped shining by coffee break but it did not dampen our spirits. There was still plenty to do.

We split into smaller teams to replace the safety flooring under a swing, litter pick and clear the under growth.

Time definitely flies when you are having fun and before we knew it, our session was over. Well almost, we couldn’t leave without one final good deed…. Check out the photographs to see what that was!

Wow! What a busy morning at our big beginners session with Ouseburn Trust. We welcomed FOUR new GoodGymers to our Saturday bonanza and the sun came out too- eventually!

I did a quick round up and hello to Oliver, Briony, Sam and Suze who joined us for their first good deed before heading off to meet Dave and Dale from Ouseburn Trust. The sun came out as we were given our jobs: path clearing and litter picking around the network of paths around Ouseburn.

It was a real workout today and I bet there will be some aching arms tomorrow as we scraped and cleared the paths and cobbles to make them safe and accessible for the many users who pass through every day. The local humans and animals popped by as you can see from the photos!

Wrapping up the session we finished with a three station fitness session and I treated everyone to my annoying bleepy timer for the running, tricep dipping and star jumping. You are welcome! What a huge effort from everyone today.

There is no Monday session this week but we are back with a brilliant new Community Mission at Summerhill Park next Sunday. See you then!

We had another new venue for our task this morning at Walker Riverside Park. As you can probably guess, this is right beside the river and it was a lovely warm morning to admire the views. It was also great to meet two new Urban Green rangers Matthew and Hannah.

The GoodGymers and the tasks, however were very familiar, so Charlotte, Sam, Tom, Debbie, Tanya and I were happy to get stuck into litter picking, branch lopping and path clearing. For the first hour Charlotte and I walked in one direction along the riverside path while Debbie and Tanya started in the opposite direction with Sam and Tom soon joining us as we moved to an area further along the river.

We then moved away from the river and up some paths in the park where the shrubbery was very much encroaching on the path. Debbie, Tanya, Sam, Charlotte and Hannah did a fantastic job of cutting back some very spiky branches! Tom, Matthew and I put our backs into clearing soil and moss from the edges of the paths to re-expose the drainage channel. I’ve been trying to come up with a clever rolling stone link from the report title to the gathering moss but failing miserably! There’s a challenge for everyone reading the report!

We were much more successful though at completing the task as you can see from the photos. For a final challenge, who can tell me what kind of bird was sheltering under the van as we finished the task?

Whisper it.. Spring is coming!

We made a huge difference today in our big Urban Green Saturday session at Iris Brickfield Park. We drifted into the session at various times today and all had a pretty good workout!

Tanya was first to arrive and was already stuck into some litterpicking before myself and Paul were shortly followed by Seb, then Tom and Sam, and later Sara. We joined a group of Urban Green volunteers and got cracking!

Our tasks today were in preparation of wild seed planting in an area of the park that used to be home to a wild flower meadow and needed some TLC! We did the following:

• Litter picking (this sadly revealed the heartbreaking sight of a severed teddy bear head- see photo for evidence)

• Raking and wheelbarrowing huge piles of grass

• Path edging

• Wild flower seed planting

Between intense raking, lifting and moving today it was a really heavy full body workout and I am already concerned for my aching arms and core tomorrow. There are signs of spring everywhere and it was exciting to do our first task without 20 layers on in quite some time.

The before and after pictures show how much we got done, giving a satisfying end to a busy morning.

Congrats to Seb on his 10th good deed today- he received the gift of long-hair-style-advice as a reward.

Hope to see you at a session very soon!

…or even the Famous Five but, still, 5 hardy GoodGymers set off in damp & blustery conditions for a litter picking adventure.

Sam & Tom had warmed up with a pre litter pick litter pick and Lou & Dan had done several circuits of the town looking for a parking space on Match day.

In true optimistic style, I said something along the lines of “the litter doesn’t look too bad” and then we spent the next 45 minutes filling over 6 big bin bags. Note to self…..book an eye test! There were some impressive finds today – a camera, a skateboard, a full bottle of wine (though full of what??)

And, in between the litter, some lovely signs of spring flowers…a joy to find.

It was Dan’s 52nd good deed so the cloak of honour came out and was suitably modelled as match goers looked on in awe (or was it amusement?). Fingers crossed, they’re still smiling later today.

Congratulations to Dan – really well done. Our session ended with all the bags in the bandstand bin (try saying that in a hurry) and we headed our separate ways – a good job done and thanks to all.

Note from Anji: big well done and thanks to Liz on leading her first community mission.