Six jolly Goodgymmers, plus GGWF’s youngest recruit, 3-month old Max, convened at Walthamstow Toy Library for our monthly task, where the ever-brilliant Helen set us up with a gentle activity, giving a significant number of tin cans a good coat of white paint. These are going to be used for an Easter celebration, where they will be decorated with ears befitting of the very best Easter bunnies, and will be used to store Easter goodies, or as pots for spring plants. With lovely enthusiastic Goodgymmers visiting from various boroughs we had many hands to make exceptionally light work and our task was accomplished in record time!

The Toy Library continues to do excellent work, both in Walthamstow and at its sister location in Leytonstone, and will soon be celebrating its 50th anniversary. As always, it was a joy to be there, lending a helping hand to this pillar of the Waltham Forrest community. Keep your eyes peeled for the April visit to the Toy Library, which will be listed here on the Goodgym website soon!

Four jolly Goodgymmers (and a bump – extra well done to heavily pregnant Charlotte for joining the task!) made their way this frosty evening to Walthamstow Toy Library for some festive fun, to wrap presents for Santa, who is apparently scheduled to visit quite soon, although we’ve no idea why as it can’t possibly be almost December already?! We were greeted by the ever lovely and brilliant Helen, who runs the Toy Library and supplied us with everything we needed to wrap lots of lovely books. We wrapped and chatted happily, good company making light work of the task! The Toy Library is always a joy and it was lovely to be back and once again able to support this incredible project, which has been part of the Walthamstow community for almost 50 years!

It finally time for some warmer outdoor sessions and Wednesday was the perfect day for it!

We have been working with Walthamstow Toy Library for a while and have completed many an indoor task but this week we had the pleasure of completing some weed trimming and seed scattering around the grounds.

As usual, we arrived to a warm welcome from Helen who provided us with a range of tools and gloves to get to work on the overgrown bushes pushing through the fence. We made quick work of trimming this down to manageable lengths before moving onto the weeds lining the pavement.

In between tugs of weeds, we came across seed bombs encased in clay that had failed to dissolve in the soil. Between Ramon's recommended foot twisting mechanism and a few whacks with the tail ends of our tools, we were able to break them apart and redistribute them along the soil beds and will hopefully be singing some wildflowers sprouting soon.

3 plastic bins filled to the brim with weeds and some very good conversation later, we could stand back and admire the fruits of our (relatively) intense labour.

Our task was made considerably more entertaining by some of the unbelievable Alpaca facts dropped by Sarah, so if you are looking to learn some wildlife facts while spending some time in the great outdoors, be sure to look out for our next task!

Our first physical task of the warmer weather!

A deceptively difficult foray into all things tree felling (or the aftermath thereof), we braved fairytale style thorns and walking the plank in order to clear up the paths that had been blocked by tree trimmings.

Gloves on and ready for (almost) anything, we took turns hoisting branch piles above our heads and tramping single-file to the designated spot behind the shed. A few, "oofs" and "ouches" later, we realised that the thorns and jagged edges were going to require us to be a lot more vigilant.

Refusing to be beaten, we quickly made light work of the pile of plant waste and were off into the evening for some well-deserved pizza!