It’s just a continuation of last week’s clearing the garden. Today, we did mostly pruning of Lime trees. They now look better without the overgrown parts sprouting from the trunk and roots. Thank you Annie for taking the photos.

I cycled to the task and met Owen there. Though it was only two of us, we did what we could. Owen gave instructions on what we can do realistically for approximately 2 hours task.

This is how the task went. We started emptying and spreading a big bag full of woodchip, removed some old cardboad, pulling out weeds by hand including some roots too which was satisfying. After loosening the soil, later on, we seemed to have attracted 2 robins, as they found some food there like worms and insects. I love to be of help even in my small way.

Please note that this is an ongoing project and they continue to need volunteers every Tuesday from 1-3pm. Owen thanked me for my time, I love gardening so I will definitely come back.

After the task, I have been invited to have some cup of tea and biscuits which I accepted the offer, and said, why not? ☺️

A gorgeous spring evening saw seven goodgym-ers make their way along cherry blossom-lined streets, to St Richard's Church in Charlton.

Our task here was to continue our project working on the outside area, clearing away weeds and making the area into a usable outdoor space. First up was moving back the cardboard placed down during the last task, then tackling those pesky return weeds with all the tools we could find.

It was time to level up the playing field a bit to make a flatter surface for the membrane layer. A game of rock paper scissors then ensued to get the membrane down, and we embraced our inner cave people discovering which makeshift tools worked best for hammering in the pegs without a hammer.

The surface is now ready and waiting for a delivery of wood chip mulch so watch this space for its progress!

Have a lovely Easter weekend/Spring break everyone & catch up soon! 🙂

Next week we're back at Prince Philip Maritime Collections centre- hope to see you there.

And this was one of our last dark tasks because guess what folks, by mid April we will be finishing our task when the sun is up 😎☀️ Happy days!

But what a job we did tonight with our headtorches. After a run from the Naval College, the running group joined forces with the group meeting at St Richard's and after catching up on the ice breaker (what's our favourite thing about Easter -- unanimously chocolate), we got to work.

Some of those pesky weeds had come back so our task was to continue digging them out by the roots and laying down plenty of fresh cardboard and pinning it down with slabs to prevent the weeds growing back.

The time flew by as usual and half an hour later most of the alley was a sea of cardboard. Job done! Some of the team ran back to the naval college to top off the evening. Well done everyone and special welcome to Claire on your first session with us - hope to have you back very soon!

Next week we're meeting on Tuesday to help at James Wolfe Primary School .

Until next time!

*credit to Khai, pun-king

Normally your author would start the report with a summary of the task, but today seems a perfect opportunity to remember who we are and what we bring.

So firstly, I want to shout out our newest member, Cecliia, who has just dived in to Good Gym, doing not one but three missions on her first weekend of Good Gym volunteering.

And secondly, we have the genius of Khai. Many of us are happy to write run reports but struggle with a good pun for the title. Khai has made this task so much easier with many amazing suggestions including today’s report title.

And so to the task. Today we were back at St Richard’s church hall in Charlton to continue clearing the garden of weeds. For some time, we’ve been slowly clearing out the weeds, the alkanet, the general overgrowth and the brambles. In fact, one of the tasks today was bagging up the huge pile of cuttings we’d cut down on Wednesday. Four of us got down to work digging and cutting and after an hour we’d cleared a huge space. And dare I say that, after many months of work, we’ve finally cleared all four sides of the church ready for them to start work on creating a paths and green spaces or all of the local community to use.

Well done to everyone involved. Our next run is a rare Thursday trip to perennial Good Gym favourite More2 childcare https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/group-run-helping-at-more2-nursery-6826c8ed-1377-414f-bb6e-91f3aaf528cb

On a cold and clear evening, 6 of us arrived at the naval college for another run and good deed. Special welcome to Iyad for your first official session! And welcome to Bilal down from Birmingham for the week- great to have you with us! After a run to St Richards up the hill we got to work out the back pulling up brambles and grass and the odd beast of a root which was very satisfying. After half an hour of chatting and listening to the live music inside, we had a massive pile of weeds to show for our labour. We're making great progress clearing the garden!

We're switching our days the next two weeks with a Thursday session at More2 next week and a Tuesday session at James Wolfe Primary School the following week.

We're back at St Richards this weekend to pick up where we left off.

Until next time!