Six Goodgymers met outside a relatively quiet Woolwich Cross Rail just before Christmas for the last group run in December. Amy from Waltham Forest and James were the first timers for Greenwich GoodGym- welcome to you both! Matt, Sarah, Pieter and I were the regulars and we kicked off by sharing our favourite Christmas desserts that we would like for the ideal Christmas. After a gentle warm up, led by Matt, we gingerly embarking a hill to the nursery. A short 2 km run brought us to the nursery where Pieter’s children go. Our task was to decorate the back garden / play area with Christmas lights. Pieter and I went straight to wrap round the wooden boat with a long strip of lights. The rest of us were gathered around the covered area and hung the lights around the area.

It sounded quite straightforward putting Christmas lights on; the most time consuming part was to untangle the lights! We were able to switch on the lights to see how we did, which was lovely. We hope that the children will have fun and enjoy the Christmas lights. On our way back it was a downhill run, Pieter tried to show us a house with the most decorated Christmas lights but unfortunately the lights were not switched on. A fun evening had drawn to a close.

See you all for our January runs!

Kevin and I ran the short distance to UpGarden dodging the puddles

Amy had arrived and was already helping re pot some of the plants.

Suz had a small list for us to complete prior to the launch event this morning.

Pallet moving was the first job,to be placed under the water bowsers so enough space to fill the watering cans.

Lots of bright coloured plant pots needed filling with soil ready for visitors to join in with some planting Kevin and Amy did an awesome job as I went of to place some information signs to ensure people could locate the garden. Final job was to fill the wheelbarrows and place them near the large planters so the children could help plant the donated plants.

We finished just as the first visitors came through the gate to be able to enjoy the activities in place to help launch this new community garden in Newham

UpGarden

This beautiful sun-trap garden had rather troublesome brambles that needed sorting as well as an overgrown lawn but it didn’t take long to trim back the stingers, mow the lawn, tidy the borders and weed the beds. The recipient seemed happy that his garden would be ready in time for BBQ season. Smoking!