The English Dance and Song Society, situated at in the heart of Camden, is a registered charity which relies on wedding hire to make ends meet. Marriage ceremonies rely on good pictures, and the beautiful Cecil Sharp House and gardens, the society’s HQ, needs to be kept looking smart and well maintained.

Which is where GoodGym Camden came in. To clear the grounds of fallen leaves, which look a mess and prevent the grass from flourishing, we used a mixture of a rake, two brooms, a large leaf grabber and – for the first time, in my experience - a leaf blower, as used by the local council and which we’ve all secretly wanted a go on. This meant we could clear the grass of stifling leaves without the rather crude raking which risks harming the turf itself. The leaves were blown onto the paths, to join their fellow fallen, which were then all swept and raked into strong plastic bags.

The six GoodGymers joined over-worked task owner Susannah with clearing the back lawn, but such was our speed and hard work, we had time to clear the front of the building, and then to tackle the side paths as well. By the time we’d finished, we’d filled about twenty bags with leaves, and it only remained to somehow cram them into Susannah’s car, for transporting to the recycling centre.

A special welcome to Rose, taking on her first ever GoodGym task tonight. We look forward seeing you again for many more Good Deeds!

We've got further tasks next Wednesday evening https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/friendly-group-session-setting-up-the-cold-weather-shelter-at-the-american-international-church,

on Saturday week https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/friendly-group-session-moving-timbers-digging-earth-autumn-gardening-at-st-cuthbert-s-church,

and every Wednesday lunchtime! https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/help-a-green-environmental-project-2c4dfb10-3e02-4987-9a2d-a169b836f988

Mr T was happy for me to start 30mins earlier after my previous mission which wasn’t far from him. All ready and I helped him with his Saturday luck, then Tesco before Lidl, all pretty straightforward except that I can’t get the chicken legs, I couldn’t believe that it was out of stock and it did surprise me, first time ever. The shop keep said “there is always first time for everything, I just laugh”. I did my little shopping for a different charity when I was there, so I can contribute for the event the next morning. All finished in an hour and I rushed home for the heating! Mr T wasn’t well and he promised to do better next week!

Ms F was feeling anxious and upset after a tough week. She asked me to help with her printer, scanning and attaching it to her email before the shopping. Her printer is very out of date and the printing quality was not good enough, so we had a few go and eventually she is happy with one version, I helped her to do the scanning and attached to her email. She was grateful with the extra help and off I went to do her shopping. All pretty straightforward for the heavy stuff and I left her to do the salmon steak later in the afternoon as agreed. We had a chat and she told me about the bad week etc.. and felt better after my visit. I hope she will have a better week next week. I left and noticed a wonderful tree a distance from her and reminded myself it’s the autumn and some vulnerable people are just like the tree getting through rough time of their lives.. always happy to assist when am able too. Off I went to my mission.

This was an extension of an earlier mission and David had already attended 'Part 1' of it so knew I was in good hands :-)

Ms M has a beautiful and well organised home and she wanted her paperwork to be in order in a similar manner so we picked up from what was done before and finished it! I was on the filing duty and David was on shredding duty (pic shows the proof of our work - a bag full of shredded paper in the recycling bin!)

Even had some time left to help Ms M change settings on her new tablet to make the fonts bigger and change the wallpaper.

At the same time Kemi Badenoch faced Kier Starmer in her first Prime Minister's Questions, there was no Question that it was Maxim's first GoodGym task. Being between jobs, he found time to make his way over from Somers Town to help us with the perennial autumn task: leaf sweeping!

The paths in Elm Village community garden look beautiful with their covering of leaves, but they can't be allowed to mulch. Instead, they make good compost material! Using a rake, a broom, and leaf grabbers, and making many trips to the composter, we completely cleared the path of the tree's debris.

Except, as we left, we thought we'd missed a couple. No - they were new falls! We might have more of this to do by next week...

Helped the RSPB nature reserve volunteers to clear rotting fence posts and thrash a way through the brambles so the professional fencers could get in to replace them. PS This is for Cambridge, but we ate not on the list yet! Had to put Camden as nearest word!