Emily, Alice, David and Cherion were joined by new Goodgymers Hannah and Gary (welcome)!

Tasks for the morning included moving tables up to the top field, putting up marquees, carrying manure bags, and cleaning tables, ahead of the Apple Day tomorrow. Cleaning the tables was tougher than expected - we even used kitchen implements to scrape off the dirt (thanks to Gary's ingenuity).

Miriam was so pleased with our help she invited us back to set up the Christmas fair in December.

10 GoodGymers turned out for the most autumnal of all autumnal tasks AND Emily hit 200 good deeds!

This special group – Alex, Danny, Emily, Helen, Jackie, John, Kareem, Siobhan, and Steve – donned head torches and gloves and grabbed rakes and brooms in our first properly dark task of the season!

Our home for the evening was Cecil Sharp House, which is itself home to the biggest and best trees in all of Camden...

... which does mean there are plenty of leaves!

Cue 10 GoodGymers meticulously collecting bag upon bag upon bag of falling autumn :)

And amidst all of this effort we were celebrating a very special milestone yesterday evening: Emily – who frequents Camden, Islington, and other GG areas – hit a whopping 200 good deeds! A huge well done and thank you, Emily!

We will back to Cecil Sharp every 3 weeks during the leaf-falling season, and I'm already looking forward to the next session :)

Thank you, everyone!

It’s getting dark out there now, but that didn’t stop our GoodGym crew from heading to Shepherd’s Hill Gardens to help Pat and her team keep the area in top shape for public use.

We began as usual by gathering outside the Phoenix Cinema—which, by the way, is currently hosting a French Film Season. Well worth a look if you fancy supporting one of London’s last remaining independent cinemas. After a round of wide-leg squats, stretches, and a chat about the books within us, we were ready to go.

George, of course, raised the bar (or the bookmark) by already having two books under his belt—with a third poetry collection and a fourth imaginative project in the works. The rest of us were… shall we say, developing drafts—ranging from fantasy travelogues to autobiographies still very much in outline form!

We set off into the night, head torches and body lights glowing. About halfway there, we stopped for a quick set of bench tricep dips, just to keep the group together (and arms warm).

At the gardens, Pat greeted us with her usual warmth—and a fascinating oak tree lesson. Apparently, oak trees drop huge numbers of acorns every five years in what’s known as a “mast year”, overwhelming the squirrels so enough acorns survive to sprout new trees. (For fellow nature fans, there’s a brilliant BBC iPlayer documentary about oaks that’s well worth a watch.)

We got stuck into clearing acorns and leaves from the paths to make them safe and welcoming for visitors. Emily joined us directly at the task, and together we made quick work of it—head torches bobbing through the undergrowth like busy fireflies.

As always, Pat treated us afterwards to hot chocolate, herbal teas, and a tempting selection of biscuits—the perfect finish to a productive evening.

We jogged back to the Phoenix feeling satisfied, muddy, and just a little bit oak-obsessed.

A great effort by all thanks for coming out, running, and doing good. It really does make a difference.