.... It may have also been because the good old British summer was upon us and we had light drizzling and grey skies last night but as I always say Lambeth GoodGymers will not be deterred!

We were delighted to have a new GGer with us last night so a warm welcome to Becky it was lovely to have you join us and on a longer run as well - welcome to the community!

Tilly and Michael also joined AA Yianny at Papa's and we set off on the long incline up Brixton Hill for our first leg of 3.6kms over to Hillside Gardens where we were due to help Tom with a few tasks. GG had been a way for a little while as Tom was focused on getting the Friends of the Park up to speed but now is happy to have us back to get through plenty of work across the summer.

Paul met us directly at the park and our tasks were to chop back the unruly brambles and pull up the wild garlic along the railing, scrape the edge of the pavement, collect litter and shift some coffee grounds from a local cafe onto the compost in the planters so we divided up, grabbed tools and made a start.

Conversation turned to whether you can eat wild garlic (let us know in the comments if you can?!) and it turns out that one person had tried but said it tasted horrendous so maybe we ill just stick to mulching it rather than cooking it.

Due to the length of the run the task was a short 30 mins but we are hoping to set up a few more Saturday Missions so if you are in the area keep your eye out for those and come down to help out.

We left just after the hour and zig-zagged through the local estates to get back to base - turns out it's 3.4km back so shorter by a hair - and were greeted with another fine sprinkling of rain to help us along.

Big thanks to all and we'll see you next time :0)

The hour flew past as we got busy pucking up litter and putting up some bunting

This Saturday morning 5 Goodgymers came along to volunteer at Hillside Gardens with the Friends Of group.

Catherine, Tracey and I had a go at clearing leaves (and weeding the path) in the dog-free area. Meanwhile, Vanessa and Frederic (congrats on getting your first deed in with Goodgym!) had a go at litter picking.

As tasks were completed we began dead-headding some bushes and weeding. We finished off with a coffee before parting ways. A very productive session for the start of the year! 🙌

It was a good turnout today, with 6 of us turning up to help out at Hillside.

I thought that I was (for once) early and had beat the lot, but Lindy and Tracey were already out there watering plants when I arrived!

As soon as we had all arrived Tom gave us all jobs: Lindy and Louise had a go at trimming the hedges by the tennis courts and the rest of us, Tracey, Kaz, Frances and I had the job of watering and weeding by the the trees/hedges we had planted months before.

Three returners showed up to Hillside this weekend. We had Louise and myself, and a surprise last minute sign up from Kaz! The team was hard at work clearing and tidying the paths around the park. Meanwhile, with the help of the other Hillside volunteers we flattened out an area of the allotment garden and erected a new compost bin.

We'll be back in two weeks!

My first trip back to Hillside for a few months and today we were raking up the grass that had been cut during the week.