@GoodGymGreenwich met @CleanUpCharlton to show the streets of SE7 a little love. One hour, three bags, a suitcase, a tripod and something-highly-suspect in a small packet later we'd tackled some patches along the Woolwich Road and discovered Covid-era detrius under the shrubbery at the back of Lidl (plenty more to do there) - three bags duly left for Royal Greenwich Council.

Another highlight was being thanked by lovely 'Lviss' - a nature-loving, eco-conscious local, fellow litter-picker, poet and Insta-influencer! Cat and Fliss now posted and tagged for posterity on @LvissDavid. Do give him a follow! #lovewhereyoulive

Winter is coming. There was definitely an autumnal feeling in the air as four Good Gymers convened at Charlton House for Wednesday’s group run. Tonight, we welcomed a guest in the form of Steph from our Ealing Chapter. Welcome Steph, we hope you enjoyed the task tonight.

The task tonight took us to Charlton Manor Primary School, and after a gentle jog through Charlton park in glorious sunshine, we arrived at the school to be met by the amazing Joe, one of the teachers at the school, who now has the responsibility for looking after the garden. The school used to have a full-time gardener but this is no longer the case and sadly their lovely garden has fallen into some disrepair. The task had been set to be painting benches but the afternoon’s rain had put paid to that so we were directed to the raised beds to attack the weeds. The beds were certainly overrun with all sorts of undesirable growths, but many hands make light work and soon the beds were looking a lot clearer and it was time for the short run in the cold back to Charlton house. We can certainly see now the improvements that two Good Gym visits have made at the school and with a few more trips I’m sure we’ll have the garden looking back to its best.

Next week we’re back at the gardens outside Trinity Hospice and there will be fun down by the river for anyone who wants to join us.

It was great fun cheering the children and parents around the 2k course at Hornfair junior parkrun.

High fives and smiles galore!

This event was a fundraiser for Teach First, a charity training & placing teachers in the areas they're most needed. Volunteering roles included marshaling, water station & cloakroom duties. Plus lots of cheering on of runners doing 5 and 10k races! A brilliant event with such a fun, positive atmosphere.

It was back the Hervey Road today for lots of lovely Good Gymers, where a garden and wildflower area is slowly being created alongside the sports fields. The sun was threatening to come out but earlier rains had softened the ground from concrete-like (our last mission there) to quite soft, and there were new jobs to be done.

Today the team broadly split into two, with one group diligently removing the thistles and other weeds, and the other uncovering the old path, which had become quite overgrown, and laying down new chippings. Many thistles were found including some extremely large specimens and multiple bags were soon full of these pesky weeds. The pathfinding was slower, with care needed to ensure that we didn’t go beyond what could be covered with new bark but, despite this, around 10 metres was refreshed and the new path almost followed the route of the old one.

All that remained after that was some very fine weeding to separate the last few unwanted plants from a dense area of more valuable ones before a chat with Annie and Richard, the wonderful organisers, after which we left the garden with it looking mush refreshed

2 GoodGym-ers helped out at Maryon Park Community Garden today. Our mission was to help get the area tidier ready for the Urban Harvest Open Day next Saturday. Our tasks included sweeping away fallen leaves from the paths & tidying up with Edna in the polytunnel used for growing seedlings. We were supervised by a friendly Robin who has made the garden their home, and finished the task with a crash course in the rules of cricket from Tim! Everyone welcome at the open day next Saturday 14th September.