12 lovely GoodGymers gathered at Cranbrook Community Garden last night to help clear a big backlog of leaves.

It’s been a while since we joined Janet and Eileen at this busy community centre, and the team needed a hand with the following tasks:

• Clearing leaves and older plants from the borders of the community centre garden, and all around the garden.

• Collecting - and disposing of - branches in the large bin, and the main rubbish areas.

• Trimming the hedges

There was a lot to get done, but the GoodGymers worked so fast, Janet and Eileen were nonethless having to continually find new areas for us to focus on.

By the time we finished up our tasks, returned equipment and debated the best way to spend the final 10 minutes, it was time to run back to the Hotel.

It was a lovely night – great to see faces old and new, squeeze in a little mileage and give Janet and Eileen a helping hand before the busy festive season kicks in.

And a great big shout-out tonight to Ivo, who led the run from the Town Hall Hotel to the task.

Next week, we head to the lovely St Leonard’s Priory Park in Bromley-By-Bow to see Larry for some more garden-clearing.

Until then.

Monday motivation

A damp evening was no deterrent for tonight’s group of GoodGymers.

Gathering by Columbia Road’s Ravenscroft Park Mosaic, we said our hellos; speculated about the weather (some of us more than others) and assembled new head torches (Emma).

The team sped through ‘the regular moves’ (Bulgarian split squats, single-leg squats, push-ups on the bench), with Emma and Oliver instead opting for a few laps of the park.

It was damp, it was humid - it was also relatively busy - but that didn’t deter tonight’s fitness squad.

At just before 8, we headed ‘round to the Estate gardens to meet Ed and Ed of the Columbia Road TRA.

Why were we here?

This Columbia Road estate is situated in-and-around Columbia Road, sandwiched between Hackney Road and Columbia Road. Managed by Tower Hamlets Homes, the Columbia TRA (a residents’ group living in-and-around the estate) also take a keen interest in maintaining these gardens.

The group are in the process of creating a Forest Garden, a ‘multi-level ecosystem’ (trees at the top, then bushes, flowers, etc) which will enable residents to produce food on the estate, as well as helping to ‘boost’ the environment, by supporting a healthy habitat for birds and bugs.

Today we were completing some planting; spreading woodchip (helps control weeds, and maintain healthy soil), and weeding (gives more space to those plants that are wanted and needed).

Top teamwork

Ed and Ed divided us into four teams: woodchip-shovelling, woodchip-wheeling, planting, and Weeding Teams 1 and 2. But first we enjoyed The Weed Tutorial. As it sounds, this fabulous little Show and Tell enabled the GoodGymers to see, touch and learn about the weeds found in the garden (invaluable when it comes to deciding what’s staying and what’s going on a dark Monday night).

The rain held out, the group size grew, and the time flew. It was a fantastic evening.

It was after 8 before we were gathering equipment and emptying the last bag of mulch.

GoodGymers and Columbia TRA gathered for a final group picture, before heading our separate ways but not before enjoying some much-needed cake, courtesy of Victoria and Emma.

How so?

Tonight we celebrated Emma’s 100th good deed. Joining us in the middle of 2021, Emma promptly clocked up a lot of deeds in a very short space of time, swiftly joined Task Force, and completed the Run Leader training to boot.

A regular GoodGymer and booster of spirits extraordinaire, Emma’s 100th good deed was a celebration for sure.

A wonderful evening all round – well done to all, especially to Fiona for tonight’s cool pun, and to Greta, who joined us for her first GoodGym session and did great! Hope to see you again soon Greta!

Next week, we head to The Royal London Hospital!

Until then.