What a beautiful morning to spend time with friends doing some good! Perhaps, said Jenny, it's natures way of easing us into the winter months now the clocks have gone back ☀️

After a morning where some of the team helped out with Junior Parkrun, getting very soggy socks and having a very quick tea at my flat, we joined forces and gave a welcome to Chloe for her first good deed, and Calvin who came back for more after joining the run on Wednesday! Really great to have you guys join us 😁

We shared our favourite cakes and then played a game of under and over before setting off on our 3.5km run to Mycenae Gardens.

And this was an extra special session because it was GoodGym's power couple Sarah's 350th and Johnny's 450th AND Marta's 800th! That's a lot of goodness they've brought to London - just think how many brambles they've taken out, how much litter they've picked and how many little hands they've high fived in that time! Absolutely amazing.

At Mycenae today we split into teams, one for weeding and the other for lopping branches off trees and dragging the branches down to the much loved dead hedge to keep curious children out of the wildlife protection area. Many hands make light work and before long we were packing up and having a lovely cake provided by the Friends.

All topped off with a lovely local coffee.

Excellent job team! Thanks to Calvin for the pics. On wednesday we're joining with GoodGym Bexley.

Until next time!

This week we gathered at the Old Royal Naval College and shared stories of our worst jobs before a run up maze hill towards the lovely St Richard's Centre in Charlton.

This was our first task at the church and there's loads we can help out with here, from weeding and painting to sanding and varnishing the lovely old doors.

Owen met us with tools at the ready and the rain held off right to the end of our task which was a nice bonus. The task tonight was weeding down the side of the church, a spot that needs a bit of tlc to make sure people stop dumping rubbish there! 7 hands make light if not prickly work with some hidden brambles - our head torches came in handy. We made it quite a way up the path and will continue at our next session.

Next week we're leafleting for the Woolwich foodcycle: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/group-run-fun-session-tbc

Until next time!

Rain, sieving soil and rolling stones summarises this week's task! We were back at Dee's childcare to collect loads of stones for stage 2 of laying a roundabout for Pieter's son to bike around.

It's always wonderful to come to this nursery and its incredible garden, even in the dark and the rain. After a soggy run from Woolwich, Dee showed us to the piles of soil. The task? Sieve the soil to get as many stones out and into a pile as possible! Have you ever sieved soil? Well, if not, it's pretty hard work. Or so I hear having avoided that part. My technique was picking the stones out and eventually coining the avalanche technique to loosen as many as possible while Kerry perched at the bottom collecting them all!

After 45 minutes we'd collected 4 big crates- enough to lay out around the roundabout and back we'll come for another stage in a few weeks time! After managing to straighten our backs out, we ran back to Woolwich and onto the rest of our weeks. Sore arms reported the next day 🤪

Well done team. Next week we're at St Richard's Centre in Charlton. Tomorrow we're helping out at Danson park https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/working-on-the-woodland-walk-b7aa6989-3b3f-4ac5-a866-0de30a9a1086.

Until next time 👋🏼

Tonight's GoodGym mission saw us racing against a (frankly beautiful) setting sun as 11 GoodGym-ers headed to the gardens outside Trinity Hospital in Greenwich, with the aim of helping tidy this area by the Thames Riverside.

Our tasks included a lot of weeding of plant beds, clearing away fallen autumn leaves, as well as a good pruning session to chop back overhanging trees/shrubs including the aforementioned Buddleia. A tough battle was fought but all too soon, the setting sun gave way to a Harvest Moon, signalling our task was done for the evening and we could head to the pub!

Hopefully we had a positive impact on this lovely area by the river. Thanks all!

Next week we're at the Prince Maritime Collections Centre. Until next time!