8 Goodgymmers rolled up their sleeves and assisted the good folk at Harmony Gardens with an old school hardcore weeding session.

Couples Therapy

Did you know that the collective noun for a group of tadpoles is a knot? Now you do.

Did you know that the Irish for fox, madra rua, literally translates as red dog? Now you do.

Did you know that if you soak comfrey leaves for long enough, not only will they stink so bad that they'll make you retch but also could potentially create some fun, homemade explosive device? Now you do* (please don't blow anything up IRL. Talk to your mates instead)

Did you know that if you ever need anyone to lead a couples therapy session you should never ever ever ask either Niamh or Gramps to lead it? I suppose you could've guessed that one by now.

Anyway, enough with the free public service broadcasting, if you want to learn more lessons like the ones above, you should definitely join a GG live classroom near you pronto!

It wasn't all fun lessons at Harmony Gardens, however. Oh no, sweet Murphy was there too. For those unfamiliar with this absolute gem, Murphy is the official GGHarringey canine rep, whose vet last week confirmed he's roughly around 100 years old in human years. Not that that would stop him from walking to task, joining in the digging, and check notes engaging in a very public and sloppy snogging session with Gramps. Legend.

It wasn't all fun lessons and canine shenanigans at Harmony Garden, however. Oh no, there were also tadpoles. Our Goodgymmers kept taking little breaks to have a look at the little fellas swimming around, while Mike from the Friends group kept a close eye on an unnamed hirsute Goodgymmer who wanted to take some tadpoles for his own pond. No, unnamed hirsute Goodgymmer, that's not allowed. And yes, hirsute Goodgymmer, your fish will probably just eat them anyway.

It wasn't all fun lessons and canine shenanigans and knotty but nice mischief at Harmony Gardens, however. Oh no, we also found the time to do some proper work. Three-cornered leeks were pulled with no remorse as they had taken over one of the beds at the back of the centre. Meanwhile, at the front of the building, a lovely field of self-seeded poppies were being crowded out by weeds but our Goodgymmers came to the rescue. They even managed to find a previously unspotted dog rose. Fun. All in all, a good hour's work if we say so ourselves.

Again, you should definitely come

The sky was on fire as seven Goodgymmers joined Mike from the Friends of Harmony Gardens for a wheelie wheelie fun eve of mulching.

Kudos Corner

Everybody make some noise for Paul and Fiona who joined us for their first ever Goodgym task. Absolute naturals! We hope you had a good time and come again.

Fire In The Sky

You can't argue with a good North London Summer sunset. The sky last night, as pointed out by ever-punctual Niamh, looked almost as if it had been just painted by some watercolour maestro in a juxtaposition of muted pastels and vibrant crimson shades coming together with ease. There was even a rainbow on what was, by all accounts, a pretty dry eve. On second thoughts, maybe the fumes emanating from the massive pile of eucalyptus mulch we were working with tonight left us with addled brains and groovy eyesight. Hmm.

So, let's dig into the mulch pile a bit more.

Mike from the Friends group welcomed us with open arms and wheelbarrows as he pointed us in the direction of the aforementioned mulch pile. Our mission for the evening was to add a second layer of mulch to the paths at the kids garden, on top of the layer we created on our last visit.

We wasted no time in getting stuck in and soon we had created a two way motorway from the pile to the kids garden that worked mostly ok, apart from one particular Goodgymmer who seemed intent on doing twice as many trips as any other Goodgymmer. Love you, SuperDave, never change.

After about an hour's work, and with 8pm looming, we managed to cover the complete path with mulch - just like last time. I love it when a plan comes together.

Join us again next week as we visit the lovely Tottenham Community Sport Centre. 

8 Goodgymmers pushed the envelope as they implemented a paradigm (and compost) shift at the Harmony Gardens for an evening of blue sky thinking and wheelbarrowing.

Deliverable Goals and Low Hanging Fruit

Mike from the Friends of Harmony Gardens reached out to Mr Corporate Goodgym Gramps with an eleverator pitch for a game changer of a session, helping to transport a mountain of compost to the kid's garden at the site to rehabilitate an elliptical path for children to access the gardens.

Mr Corporate Goodgym Gramps evaluated whether we had enough bandwidth for such a task, and once he ensured enough buy-in from our talent pool, he committed our tribe to the job.

Working in perfect synergy of invested stakeholders and proactive actors, the evening got off to a flying start. We drilled down on a complex pile of compost and proceeded with a multi-layered transference strategy. Getting all our ducks in a row, we put our heads down and really took a deep dive into the task at hand.

We even had to time to unpack some personal conundrums, including the merits of bird watching, the scrumping of under-ripe apples, and some family dynamics catch 22s. But we had to put a pin on that as before we knew it, Nurjehan was telling us it was squeaky bum time so it was all hands on deck.

We circled back on discussions for future activities with Mike, and agreed to a few more visits going forward. We then came to a hard stop, but not before we scheduled some time for a photography sesh.

A wonderful evening where our core competencies were the stars.

Today's wordsmithing-lacking report is courtesy of Sarah who suggested a corporate-themed report title.

I feel a little queasy after all that jargon so I'll stop here because I feel like I need a sick bucket now.