A stonking 9 GoodGymers turned up for what I think was one of our most unusual litter picks yet. At least in terms of finds!

It was great to see so many people 😍 Special shoutouts to Chris for completing his very first GoodGym task, to Soliane who'd just got back in from a run round the corner and popped over to join us with about 3 minutes' notice, and to Nigel for completing his 15th task.

After pairing up, we spread out across the park and filled a wholly satisfying heap of bags with litter. And not just bottlecaps, crisp packets and cigarette butts. Not by a long shot. "Weirdest Item Wins" doesn't always get that weird, but the litter louts of St Mary's Rest Garden gave us so much, I have no idea who to award the honour to. What do you think?

We had:

• A coconut with straw
• A fur coat
• A car bumper
• A road sign
• A parasol umbrella
• A Blue Peter badge (appropriately found by Peter)

Sound off in the comments with your vote!

GoodGym Nottingham returned to the wonderful Windmill Community Gardens for our Wednesday night task. They are hosting their annual Feel Good Garden Party on Saturday and needed our help with a few jobs in preparation for the event.

Carley set us to work clearing a large pile of rubbish and wood, transporting it in wheelbarrows to a skip which was located a bit further down the entrance road. Our main challenge was avoiding all the rusty nails sticking out of the wood. Most of the pile was destined for the skip, but we managed to save some glass, plastic and metal for recycling. We also rescued several slugs and a dog made out of welly boots!

Once the first rubbish pile was clear, our next job was to fill our wheelbarrows with wood chip from outside the gate and transport it to the very back of the gardens where it would be laid to make a path. Not wanting to waste a wheelbarrow journey, we filled them with more rubble and wood for the skip on the way back out.

It was a warm, balmy evening in Nottingham (a rarity at the moment). So much so that at one point Nigel decided to take a shower…door, from the rubble pile. We finished with a quick photograph by our full skip and headed on our way.

What a smashing task!

See the pictures for details of the Feel Good Garden Party and other events at the Windmill Community Gardens.

What a successful evening for our very first Starter Session! We're setting up a few of these at some of the places we've visited most over our first year, and they're designed to be extra specially friendly for people who've never come to a session before.

The weather didn't seem to know if it was coming or going, which made our run (led by Peter) particularly fun. He'd prepared lots of funky drills to get us warmed up (and garner a few odd looks from passers-by) before we split into runners and run/walkers so that everyone had a pace to suit them. Only the walkers stopped for a pic with the massive rainbow though!

After we reconvened, slightly soggy, slightly sweaty, we met up with some more GoodGymers and headed inside to find out what Mark had in store for us.

As usual, he was super- organised and had plenty of jobs to keep us busy. Peter started out breaking down cardboard, then joined Bozena and Leah sorting out donations of sheets and bedding to make them more easily identifiable and accessible on the shelves. Bozena and Leah also helped bag up the Winter Kits of socks, gloves, hats, blankets and Cup-A-Soups for the Food Bank to give out later in the year.

Meanwhile, Hannah and Jules were tasked with bagging up food parcels ready for the service users to take home – a bit like Supermarket Sweep but for a much better cause – and Rachel, Tom, Rosemarie and Vytautas were on dating donations and getting them onto the right shelves.

We had to cut off a little early as Mark needed to lock up, but we still got a huge amount done – many hands make light work, after all!

We returned to the Windmill Community Gardens last night for the second week running, with a bumper 9 GoodGymers in the group (one of our best attended sessions).

This time we were met by Carley who gave us a tour of the gardens and told us about all the amazing initiatives that go on there. This includes the beautiful space dedicated to the Growing Forward scheme which supports people in Nottingham to improve their mental and physical wellbeing through gardening activities. Even those of us who had been there before saw spaces we never knew existed!

Once the tour was complete, our task was to remove weeds from some of the paths in the main section of the garden to make them look tidier and more ‘path-like’. Each armed with a hoe, we set to work tackling the weeds – ‘decapitating not digging’, as we had learnt the previous week. As we were all working in close proximity on this task, the conversation flowed and the group had a good natter about all things GoodGym and beyond.

To complete the job, we spent the last part of the hour fetching wood chippings to lay on the paths we had cleared. By the time we left the paths looked as good as new!

Earlier in the evening Carley had mentioned that one of the beds contained some edible flowers, so after we had downed tools we couldn’t resist having a little nibble and a photo! We also raided the herb bed (at Carley’s invitation) so several of the group also went home with a selection of herbs.

We welcomed Rosemarie and Vytautas to their first GoodGym session last night, and also Hannah back for her second. Serafina also returned after a few months away travelling.

Next Wednesday is our first birthday party – we hope to see everyone there!