Lots of fun and a good workout for Nicola and Stephanie as we joined the lovely volunteers down at Southampton Old Cemetery. We followed behind the strimmers raking up the grass and weeds. All ready for their open day next Sunday 10th May when they celebrate 180 years since the cemetery opened.

Steph and I were honoured to represent GoodGym Southampton at the Kendal Mountain Festival on tour. We arrived early ready for a mic check on stage ahead of our question and answer session. It was slightly nerve wrecking particularly when he found out 200 tickets had been sold! It became even more nerve wrecking after we watched some inspiring films and heard a talk by two twins who had climbed a 6000 metre mountain in Nepal while one of them wore replica Malory kit while they carried out a variety of scientific experiments! After a quick rehearsal in the interval it was time to go on. We think we just about managed to sunmarise all the great reasons to join GoodGym! Hopefully we'll have some new attendees and perhaps some new referrals too :)

Nicola and Stephanie joined the lovely Jill and crew from Woolston Station Garden group maintaining this much loved little corner of beauty and nature. We spent the session weeding the beds under the guidance of Patricia our plant guru. Wonderful to see signs of Spring everywhere as these pockets of nature are so important in urban areas.

What a fantastic session joining Mac and other volunteers at Millers Pond Nature Reserve/ Sholing Valleys Study Centre to plant trees around this vital green space allowing nature to thrive. Nicola, Leszek, Ashleigh and Stephanie had great fun planting a lovely variety of trees Dog Wood, Hazel, Hawthorn and more. We then dug up a few other saplings which had grown up in the wrong place although a few were rather reluctant to come out of the ground. Leszek and Nicola also took part in the afternoon litter pick around the reserve. We will return to see how the new saplings are getting on later in the year.