After assisting Elmington Community Gardens with maintaining their spread out garden for the past four months, it was time to say goodbye and see you in 2025. As the autumn months creep in, the residents of Elmington estate can manage the gardens by themselves.

Sam arrived at Old Spike Peckham nice and early to welcome in Cecilia, Daryl, David, Gemma, Isaac, Louise, Maria, Nelly, Rosalind. He went through his usual speech and welcomed Mansur and Rosemary, who came for their first group run in Southwark!

There was not one, but three awareness days happening this week - International Day of Charity, Read a Book Day and National Beer Lover's Day. Sam asked an ice-breaker question of each: "What charity is close to your heart?", "What book are you reading currently?" and "What is your favourite beer?"

We had a mixture of GoodGym and Women's Aid as favourite charities, I can't read what people are reading...apologies and lastly, we had from Neck Oil to Guinness as people's favourite beers...yes, Guinness is a stout...

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We were all so chipper

After a quick warm-up in the alleyway, Sam led the group out through the backstreets of Peckham and climbed up Chadwick to reach the top and head down the other side towards Camberwell. Maria backmarked the run and we met Benjamin) and Elena at the task as they had cycled/ran there from home.

Catalina was running late as she had just come back from work, so we patiently waited for outside the allotment as that's where the tools were stored. Since we had only 35 minutes by the time she arrived, we limited the task to just moving the rest of the woodchip from the pile near the Wildlife Triangle to areas that needed mulching. This was conducted by Gemma, Maria and Rosalind were part of team shovel woodchip, Benjamin, Mansur and Rosemary moved and transported the woodchip by wheelbarrows and a makeshift barrow from a shopping trolley. Louise raked the woodchip across the area that was mulched.

The rest of the team: Cecilia, Daryl, David, Elena, Isaac and Nelly took the limited tools we had to pull out the thistles and nettles from the Wildlife Triangle.

As we arrived closer to 20:00, we called it a day and luckily, there was only a little bit of woodchip left for the residents to finish off the task. We put away the tools back to Elmington's allotment for safe keeping. We can't believe that is it for the year and we will be back in the Spring of 2025!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Despite the limited time and tools, we managed to get a lot done. Thank you to Maria for backmarking the runs.

It seemed like the end of the summer holidays as we had 17 GoodGymers sign up and come for our group run tonight. Andrada, Daryl, Fi, Lindy, Maria, Nelly, Paulin, Rosalind, Steve. Once everyone had arrived, Sam talked through some changes happening at GoodGym Southwark after his time is up before continuing with his usual speech.

Tonight's ice breaker question, Sam asked everyone to think of their favourite beach as it would be National Beach Day on Friday. Yet, everyone didn't answer the question until we arrived at Salvation Army Camberwell Corps.

We had British beaches, Mexican, Greek, Indonesian, Icelandic and Thai.

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Cleaning frenzy

Our last visit to Salvation Army Camberwell Corps. was in May, so Valentina was happy to see us as we met up with her, Mikhail, Elena and Jessie who ran to the task. After going through our list of beaches, Valentina had 4 jobs for us tonight. The first group with Steve, Lindy, Rosalind and Isaac had to clean and oil the newly donated chairs. As the other groups:

• Daryl, Alex, Andrada, Gemma helped more donations from a cupboard to the newly installed donation bin outside before helping the next team.

• Paulin, Fi, Maria, Jessie and Sam started on the disinfecting and cleaning the baby toys.

• Nelly, Nathan and Elena were tasked with the outside activities which included window cleaning and sweeping.

As we busily cleaned in various ways, the time ticked towards 19:55 as Sam called "time" knowing that it would take 5 minutes to pack up and take a group photo. Some of us were up for a pint after the run, so as we headed back we made our way to The Old Nags Head.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Valentina is always happy to have our help and can't wait to have us back in October! Thank you to Mikhail for taking the photos and to Maria for backmarking the runs.

With the summer holidays still in full effect, we had some GoodGymers away, but these mighty 8: Alex, Daryl, Isaac, Mikhail, Nelly, Phil, Sam and Vic were up for GoodGyming on a Wednesday night. Everyone bar Phil and Vic arrived at Old Spike Peckham to hear Sam's quick intros before dashing out with no ice-breaker question as tonight's run was going to take the full 30 minutes.

Once at the site, Sam did ask the ice-breaker question to some...since it was National Radio Day (the day before): "Do you still listen to the radio and what programmes do you listen to?"

It's hard to distinguish between podcast and radio now, but Isaac and Phil do listen to the radio - mainly sport for Isaac, but for Phil it more the programmes that debunk myths and stats which is useful for his job.

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A welcomed sight

It been at least three months since we have been back to Galleywall Nature Reserve, but with their monthly Open Days and use by the local schools and scouts, it maintains itself. Yet, there are always tasks for GoodGym to do as Alan and Jane came prepared with a list.

Despite having only 8 of us, we were keen to get as many items on their list done:

• Alex and Daryl took on the first task which was to re-do the foundations of the wash basin on where people stand as it was quite wonky and needed a solid dig and fill with bricks to make it even.
• Isaac was up for cutting down to big cherry trees as Alan and Jane said they weren't producing cherries and cutting it down will encourage it to grow again.
• Vic wanted to untangle and discard the bindweed growing near the bike rack and shed.
• Nelly helped Jane identify self-seeding tree saplings to dig them out now before they grow into trees.
• Mikhail and Phil took a mattock and loppers to take out bramble bushes before they overtook certain areas of the Nature Reserve.
• Finally, Sam helped Isaac trim the cherry tree branches to put in the compost. Although, some larger straight branches were kept for planting.

Knowing that it would be a long run back, we called it at 19:55 to leave 5 minutes to tidy up and take our group photo. Sam informed Alan and Jane for his departure from the role come end of September, but he will help put in the next session in October before leaving.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Alan and Jane were pleased to have GoodGym back and can't wait to have us again! Thank you to Mikhail for backmarking the runs and taking the photos.

After noticing Nelly had signed up during the day, Sam rushed home from work as he needed to get a vital GG item...as when everyone arrived at Old Spike Peckham and Sam went through his usual speech, he announced that it was Nelly's 100th good deed tonight! He brought out the wings for her to wear as well as the customary party hat, balloon and no ginger cake this time, but lemon cake instead.

Although, Sam did mention his ice-breaker question which was to do with National Allotment Week and National Relaxation Day, which was happening the next day: "What would you grow in an allotment?" and "What do you do at the end of a working week to unwind?"

Everyone had named every fruit and vegetable possible, but David does have an allotment and really wants to grow Brussel Sprouts. For the relaxation question, people answered from going to the gym to meditation and yoga. There were also a couple of people mentioning a stiff drink.

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Sides and back: a hedge trim

After a quick warm-up in the alleyway, Sam led the group out through the backstreets of Peckham and climbed up Chadwick to reach the top and head down the other side towards Camberwell. Paulin backmarked the run and we met Phil and Emma at the task as they had cycled there. Also, Rebecca walked over from her flat, five minutes away.

Zulieka and her girls called us over from the Wildlife Triangle as some residents had already got going on a big hedge that needed some trimming. We split the team in three as Zulieka needed three tasks to be done:

• Emma, Steve, David, Cecilia and Rosalind took a pair of loppers each and proceeded to help the residents shape this big hedge.
• Nelly, Isaac, Nathan and Paulin took four watering cans to water the plants around the estate.
• Phil, Emma, Rebecca and Sam were the last group to be given a task as Zulieka directed them to a tonne bag of soil that needed to be emptied out into a corner as the soil was surplus.

All the tasks were done in on time with the team even taking the hedge trimmings and tools back to Elmington's allotment for safe keeping. Zulieka was very pleased and can't believe next month will be our last for the year!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! It was our penultimate session at Elmington Community Garden for 2024 and we got a lot done. Thank you to Paulin for backmarking the runs.