This evening we started back at 1000 Trades and made our way down to our adopted spot on the canal. We've not been down for a while which meant there was plenty of picking to do!

Between us we managed to get a nice bag full, dropped off at Aston Lock and made our way back via the city centre. Great work today James!

4 good gym runners helped move bricks from the front to the back of the building at Dads Lane Community Centre in order to help complete a level paving area to be completed in the garden for wheelchair users.

We welcomed Megan who was a first time good gymer and enjoyed refreshments in some September evening sun whilst taking a mid way break.

Big thanks to Steve at Dads Lane Community Centre.

This morning Olivier and Jonny helped out at Hill Hook Nature Reserve in Sutton Coldfield.

The task was 'water kicking'. This meant checking the streams water quality. We did this by using the nets to put water into trays then seeing the number of different species.

This was really interesting, one tray showing 7 different species including; shrimps, water snails and even a stickleback fish.

We also found some freshwater limpits on a rock as you can see from the picture.

The water was also tested for it's phosphate level, which gave a reading of 0.6 which apparently is pretty decent.

Overall it was a very interesting morning and it was really surprising to find such a mix of species in a small stream.

Tonight Jonny and Chloe delivered the rest of last months leaflets for Guide Dogs UK.

We set off in Boldmere, getting plenty of exercise due to copious long drive ways.

Though after not long Jonny got a nasty sting on his leg from a rather angry wasp, it certainly left a nasty bit of swelling! Oh well, I carried on regardless.

By the end of the task we had delivered a good 200 leaflets.

Unfortunately Chloe had a bit of an achilles injury, but certainly got plenty of exercise with all the walking. Once done Jonny ran home doing a little loop covering a nice 5.2k.

We are back in Sutton Coldfield this Saturday morning were we'll be helping out at Hill Hook Nature Reserve. Then they'll be another Sutton Coldfield group run/walk next month :)

Tonight we were back at the Friends of the Earth.

We welcomed Marcella to GoodGym for the first time, it was great to have you with us :)

Morwenna, Eve, Jonny and James ran 2k to the task and met our walking group of Miriam, Marcella and Gabriel.

As ever we were also greeted by Marcel the dog, generally an ever present at the Friends of the Earth tasks.

We got to work bagging up cans to be recycled, composting and inside Miriam, Marcella and Gabriel did some paper shredding and cleaning some buckets.

Eve and James stirred in some shredded paper into the compost certainly a 'good good gym workout' see what I did there?!

Once done we had a quick picture with Marcel the dog and headed on our way.

Today we were back at Hill Hook Nature Reserve.

The job was to cut the meadow, well not exactly the volunteers job was to rake up all the hay and put it into huge bags. It was certainly a good workout!

Charlotte and her dad John did a great job of raking and dragging the hay for it to be disposed. Jonny did plenty of raking but also under the strict supervision of David from the Wildlife Trust got a go at using the cutter!

You can see from the before and after pics of how different the area looked.

Whats more, whilst doing our 'hay making' we came across 3 toads of all sizes. Unfortunately David mentioned when cutting a meadow there can be casualties, therfore the toad rescue was our 2nd good deed of the day. They were picked up and moved to another part of the nature reserve so that they were nice and safe :)