7 Goodgymmers dug deep on an evening of mixed weather and pre-London sympathy Marathon jitters as they lent a hand at the Haringey Learning Partnership with a spot of water feature creation.

Haringey Heroes

Not all marathons are created equal and it would be churlish to deny that the London Marathon holds a special place in the heart of most London runners. Which is why this year we are living [or running?] vicariously through our very own Sarah and Latoya who will be attempting to win the race on Sunday ;)

You are both amazing women and we are so proud you're representing us in London's Top Race - smash it and we'll be cheering you every step of the way!

<3 <3

Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

As sure as eggs is eggs, you get a group of Haringey Goodgymmers together to dig holes for an hour and most of the conversation that unfolds is quite frankly unprintable. To be fair, our resident Smutmeister- who shall remain unnamed - managed to hold her first bawdy double entendre until around the 7:41pm mark - so at least that is something. Anyway, let's concentrate on the task at hand instead, shall we?

A group of us met at the Blue House Yard for a very short sprint over to HLP, where we met Luke from Grown22 who's helping the school create their very own wild nature pond. There, we were joined by the walking GG crew and we were tasked with, effectively, digging a pretty big hole. Reader, we dug. Oh, how we dug.

At some point, Luke mentioned some heavy wood sleepers needed shifting to the other side of the school, and Niamh and Sam jumped at it, flexing their biceps as they went. This was perhaps timely because even though she had been digging a pretty massive hole for over half an hour, Sam didn't actually seem to know what she was actually doing, having been surprised to find out halfway through the task that we were creating a pond. Credit where credit is due - you give that woman a shovel and she will dig, and dig deep and relentlessly, no questions asked. Boom.

After about an hour, Luke was satisfied we had reached the depth we needed to reach this evening and bid us farewell, not before we took some selfies and had a little play with Luke's trusty sidekick - the sweet Mylo.

Great eve.

Join us next week as we go back the wonderful Orchard Meadow in Crouch End where tasks will include trimming a bush and some tool maintenance. Oh dear!

9 lively Goodgymmers ran to the Haringey Learning Partnership tonight to lend a hand with a few tasks, as we stood in solidarity with all the striking teachers at the school.

Zen Gym

Having been scheduled originally to come and help dig out the foundations for a big toolshed, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the GrowN22 crew had done all the hard work over the weekend. So, instead, we were tasked with finishing the paths on the allotments area, prepping a side passage for a fence installation, and then we had to remove some old planks of wood from the allotment area and transport them to the composting bins. There must have been something in the air tonight as our usually rowdy bunch of Goodgymmers found themselves in a more introspective mood and they were very well behaved. The chat was quiet and deep, the banter demure and inoffensive. No one even made it into a bin (though there were some Julie-sized wheelbarrow shenanigans). A lovely, recovery run type of night for our crew.

Our Goodgymmers worked tirelessly and before you knew it, they were putting tools away and were getting ready for selfies.

A nice, quiet night full of zen in North London.

Join us next week as we no doubt descend into chaos again as we visit out old haunt at Tottenham Green.

5 Goodgymers tested their ‘impervious to the cold’ credentials with a chilly night of path laying at the Haringey Learning Partnership tonight.

Insane In the Membrane!

Dave, Charlie, and Gramps met at GGH HQ for the evening run in what can only be charitably described as ducking freezing conditions while Julie and Nurjehan represented the walking crew proudly by wearing varying levels of warm clothing. You could be tempted to make some sort of sweeping generalisation about the different levels of sensibleness between the sexes from that statement but don’t give in to the temptation! This isn’t the 1970s anymore, you know? Come on, mate.

Anyway, once at HLP, Luke from GrowN22 welcomed us with a plethora of tools and a fun task. The folk at HLP have asked Luke and crew to look after some planters that have not seen a lot of love in many a moon so the GrowN22 lot pressed the big red button labelled 'GET GOODGYM OVER HERE RIGHT NOW' and we heeded the call, of course.

First order of the day: sorting out the pathway around the planters. Our Goodgymmers began by clearing some leftover wood and weeding the concrete before laying down a weed-control membrane. Never ones to say no to a good pegging session, our Goodgymmers had malleted a number of clips onto the ground, fixing the membrane in place.

Next the gravel. Slight hiccup at this stage. I don't know if I've already mentioned this but it was ducking freezing, so much so that the big piles of gravel had frozen solid into one single piece and it was harder to break down that when the Avengers assembled, or summat. I don't know. I'm not a DC guy ;)

Anyway, although at first it seemed like game over for the gravel-laying part of our task, Smashing Dave smashed his way through the pile with a mallet and before you knew it, our Goodgymmers were wheelbarrowing the gravel into site.

Just before 8pm, we had managed to secure all the membrane we had on site and covered it with as much gravel as our hearts desired. A lovely evening of rock hard smashing and level peggings. Boom

Selfies here, warming hugs there and off we all went into the night in search of hot toddies and blankets.

5.5 Goodgymmers took an intimate stroll to the Haringey Learning Partnership for an evening of mulching that nearly blew one Googymmer's mind, literally straight out of his head. 

Flipping Good News Corner

At a time when the UK seems to be riding a reality rollercoaster of eschatological/scatological proportions (delete as appropriate depending on your beliefs), let us rejoice in the news that our very own Carolina, who reached the 10 good deeds milestone tonight with a smile, is now Goodgymming for two! A GGHaringey baby is on the way and that is frankly the best of news. We celebrated tonight the only way we know, by handing her a spade and asking her to shovel some mulch. Standard. We're all very happy for you, Carolina, and in case you're in the market for ideas, let me say that we all think naming bubs Baby Gramps sounds like the kind of news the UK could do with right now #JustSayin

A Leaf Blow Job Of Trascendental Proportions

On a rather chilly night, 5.5 goodgymmers battled with the desire to stay snug on the sofa and instead met Luke who needed a hand at the Haringey Learning Partnership.

Earlier in the day, the HLP had received a donation of a mound of freshly mulched wood chips for their flowerbeds. The mound was an impressive size and had been deposited in the car park. It now needed a group of avid volunteers to bag it up and move it into the HLP's compost area for processing and our Goodgymmers were just the team to do it.

Our five Goodgymmers worked indefatigably and were the picture of a well drilled and undistracted machine... That is, until Hubert arrived at the scene.

Hubert, oh, Hubert. What can you say about Hubert that could make him justice? With a strong power head and a large and firm blower tube (yes, I looked up the names of the parts) to many he would be just a leaf blower but for a brief breath of time in this lukewarm speck on the corner of the cosmos, he was the belle of the ball. Gramps made an initial approach for their affections, but it was Julie who communed deeply with Hubert. For a fleeting moment, Julie and Hubert choreographed a dance of fallen leaves that swirled and twirled around Sam, Carolina (and Baby Gramps tbc), Charlie, Luke and Gramps with the precision of a cosmic ballet. Before too long, this beautiful and transcendental experience led inevitably to the moment when Gramps demanded that Julie aimed Hubert's blower tube straight at his face - nearly blowing his head off. We'll miss you Hubert.

Anyway, I'm glad that didn't get weird.

With Hubert's help, we wrapped up the evening with a Nurjehan Special (we finished just before 8pm) and we all went our own ways, savouring our brief dalliance with the sublime.

You really should join us next week!

5 full sized goodgymmers (and two half pint sized honorary ones) got up nice and early on a Saturday morning to lend a hand at the Haringey Learning Partnership.

What A Drag

It was all fun and games as we joined Luke from GrowN22 for a spot of hardcore gardening at the Haringey Learning Partnership.

On the menu for the day: delimbing some fallen trees ("Poor trees have passed away. RIP u will live on forever. Cant believe it. I wanna run to u. Really cant believe this"), using the delimbed branches to create some natural fences/ bug hotels, clearing some ivy, and then dragging the bags full of garden detritus across the grounds of the HLP. Easy as.

On we got with the delimbing. Alex, Julie, and Louise are old hands at the processing end of dealing with fallen trees and they made some quick work out of a massive pile of branches.

Rosa, mini-Gramps 1, and mini-Gramps 2 got on with clearing dead leaves from the beds so we could used the delimbed branches from some jenga-like fence-making.

You should've seen them, reader. Buzzing here, beaming there. Their effervescence soon paid dividends and it was time to drag the very heavy bags across the playgrounds and courtyards of the HLP.

I say it was time to do that, but instead we had some more fun and games and even a bit of Badgym™ bubbled up as we put a cool cat in a bin [1]. Shocking, I know. But you had to be there.

We then said our goodbyes and went our merry way.

Happy days.

Join Charlie and Co on Wednesday at Tottenham Green for even more fun and games

[1]No children were harmed in the making of this report and they had a jolly ol' time

Two new residences opened up at Haringey Learning Partnership opened by GoodGymers Louise and Charlie, along with Luke from GrowN22 and gardener, Patrick.

The first home is a cosy bird nest box that we hung up on the side of a tree - perfect for raising a new bird family.

We then got to work on a brand new bug hotel. This five storey bug hotel is built with wooden pallets collected from around the site. It is packed with branches, twigs, bricks and leaves which will provide perfect hidey-holes for local invertebrates. We even had some snails, woodlice, slugs and spiders settle in already!