This week the echo show was in Mill Hill Broadway. Educating and informing those that were interested in various sustainable activities. We had a lady selling local honey, cosmetics, an art recycling stall, how to make your own cleaning products. There was also a political lobbying group to improve the availability of solar panels called power for people. check out the link https://powerforpeople.org.uk/

Goodgym were there to promote sustainable activities. We do this by physically supporting local green spaces building fitness and resilience in our members. Encouraging active travel. Cycling walking, running. Discover and engage with our local environment and its communities. If we physically engage with our environment (and its communities) studies show it improves our sense of well being and connection. Active travel improves our health and of the environment. What’s the bigger picture? Check out this TED talk. Please DO LOOK UP! https://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_how_to_make_radical_climate_action_the_new_normal?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

“The climate emergency demands action from all of us. We need to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and everyone has a role to play,” said Niklas Hagelberg, UNEP’s Climate Change Coordinator. “We, as individuals, must change our consumption habits and pressure those who represent us – our employers, our politicians – to move rapidly to a low-carbon world.”

Here are 10 ways you can be part of the climate solution from the United Nations.

https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/10-ways-you-can-help-fight-climate-crisis

Goodgym and Tiny Forest were represented in the Eco show and tell at Clitterhouse project near Brent Cross. There’s a great community CAFE and on a sunny afternoon we had music and flag-waving. There were numerous tables with representatives talking about living sustainable lifestyles. There was a great organisation giving free advice to help improve energy bills called the green doctors. 03303653005

Goodgym looks to promote sustainable activities in our community.

We do this by physically supporting local green spaces. Building fitness and resilience in our members. Encouraging active travel. Cycling walking, running. Discover and engage with our local environment and its communities.

Check out our reports https://www.goodgym.org/areas/barnet/reports

If we physically engage with our environment (and its communities) studies show it improves our sense of well being and connection. Active travel improves our health and of the environment.

What’s the bigger picture? Check out this TED talk. Please DO LOOK UP!

https://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_how_to_make_radical_climate_action_the_new_normal?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

https://www.goodgym.org Goodgym is a national charity looking to get people active and connected with its local community and environment. Charity number 1160988 It’s FREE to join but we do ask for a donation if you use us regularly.

8 of us came out today from across Brent and Barnet to help-out at Clitterhouse Farm, including Lucas and Harry both there for the first time, thanks a lot for coming out! 👌

In fact none of us had been here for a Community Mission since September last year, and there have been developments, despite Coronavirus. Most striking is the large conservatory near the back of the farm. There should now be plenty of indoor space to have a quick break when the more grim months come around. No need today though as it was glorious out. ☀️

The farm was open for Open House weekend so there were lots of people coming and going, children pressing apples 🍏 🍎 and people selling jars of honey and such. We were there for real work mind, so the 8 of us split out to handle soil (and dust) moving at the front and back of the farm.

At the back, the ground needs to be levelled to make a path so the team were helping regular taskowner Thomas to turn it over and help grade it.

In the front, the rest of us helped gardener Alan with filling a new raised bed for bamboo 🎋. Once established, the bamboo can be dug-out and parts can be sold. For now though, we needed to sort the soil and fill the bed up bit by bit. There was plenty of fun bits of plastic and broken glass in there, but best of all, the jaws of several animals 💀, both rather different (see pics.) Any zoologists reading who might recognise the teeth / jaws, let us know below perhaps please... 🐶🐱🦊🐮🐷🐴 ? Whilst filling the bed from a pile of soil way down in the playing field, we also took turns fighting back some ivy that was crowding the path by the new raised bed.

It was all tough work to be done today so thanks so much for coming down team! Chances are we’ll be back again soon enough (lockdown #2 notwithstanding) so watch this space for that...

Clitterhouse Farm is a regular haunt of both GG Barnet and Brent and today they were hosting an event alongside The Youth Sports Trust.

I arrived to see that Patrick had already tasked Sarah with filling up one of the planters, a planter which many months ago we had emptied the rubbish out of during another visit. Armed with some shovels and a wheel barrow we made our way to and fro from the planter to the back of garden where the soil was kept - we lost count of how many trips we made! After the first couple of trips it looked like we weren't making a dent but many more trips later we got to the half way mark, where we then decided it would a good time to take the fig tree from its pot and place it in the planter. After filling up the planter with a few more barrows of soil we then placed two bushes and five purple leafed plants to adorn the base of the tree. We used 4 bags of compost and compacted it down around all the plants and then after a few photos we called it a day. Sarah went off to another mission 💪🏽 and Valentina arrived after we left to lend another helping hand.

Straight from our Barnet back-to-back Community Mission part. I, we arrived at Clitterhouse to the usual wonderful warm welcome of cream tea, hot drinks and a relentless canine with a gobby tennis ball. 🐶🎾

It was a busier-than-usual day there today, and for once GoodGym weren’t the most important visitors (imagine that..)

As ever things had changed a lot since we’d last been, not only with the change of weather, but with the remarkable momentum and gravity that it’s gaining, getting more and more people contributing. This time there was a new amphitheatre thing mate out of hay bales.

With hot drinks and scones onboard, we went off to the farm and got to work. Two of us tiptoed through the flowerbeds weeding, and two of us got stuck into the ivy creeping onto the premises from next door. It was somewhat delicate work, but we filled a couple of wheebarrows-worth, and dumped them away on a big pile of rubble and weeds, which curiously appeared to be the focal point of all the hay bale seating. Goodness knows, but I’m sure all will become clear next time were back there... 😋

For part II of today’s Barnet double deeds, we went along to regular GoodGym task location Clitterhouse Farm, just up the street from Millennium Green.

Between a lot of work from local people and GoodGymmers, things are taking shape there remarkably quickly. So much so in fact that it’s now spilled out into the neighbouring park, so the area around the entrance is getting worked into a play area for kiddies with plants around it. Before this can happen though the soil needs to be rejuvenated, so our task took on two flavours…

Whilst half of us turned-over the existing hard soil to break-up the surface, the rest shovelled nice new soil over the top of it. This way, the new plants will be able to get started and not give-up once their wimpy young roots reach the tough old stuff.

It wasn’t just soil mind, but also a ton of rubble that made forking through it a journey of intrigue, and hard-work. There were plenty of worms to keep us company in there, plus one of the local volunteers found an enormous cleaver stashed in the brambles. Naïvely, our lovely task-owner Patrick put his fingerprints all over the thing, so hopefully he has an alibi for the night the cleaver was last deployed.

After an hour of graft in a bitter wind we paused for an amazing cream tea and coffee laid on by the farm, the remains of Abi’s century cake (thanks Liz!) and a selection of Romanian biscuits (thanks Valentina!) All this food made us even more popular with Clitterhouse regulars Maya and Ella, the labradors that weave their way amongst people as they work.

After these refreshments our hardcore runners put in another hour (on top of the one spent at Millennium Green) before calling time and disappearing off hopefully somewhere warmer.

Thanks so much for coming out all, you deserved better weather for so much hard work!