It was back to Kingsgate Church on Tuesday evening, where our host Sarah had some quite different tasks for us at this valuable food bank facility for local students.

Julie and Sabir were quick to work, sorting out noodles and weighing out bags of 'spicy seed mix', an alliterative combination that Jade, Luke, Rachel and Dave will not forget as they wrote out ingredient labels for the new packets.

Some super scripting solidly served - sterling stuff, squad!

As Tom and Claire checked over some new stock and moved it into crates upstairs, Jade smashed our cardboard boxes into smithereens and Luke finished wiping the fridges.

There’s always a nice welcome after climbing the infinite stairs in the church - we even got name tags and the offer of some spare pots of plant-based non-alcoholic brandy cream - and we’ll be back for another visit soon once the students disappear for the summer.

We were greeted by the sun and residents on arrival to our task at the peaceful communal garden of a sheltered living accomodation. The residents flats look out onto the garden which have been neglected over recent times.

Most of the residents are unable to maintain the garden due to their physical and medical limitations.

Our team today were Saber, Rachel & Mel who were ready to tackle the task of clearing the flower beds at the lower end of the garden. An initial stumbling block was that the shed with gardening tools in was locked as the resident had forgotten to open it for us! A little creative thinking led us to another kind resident who had a cupboard full of tools she kindly lent us.

Saber got to work removing ivy and Rachel tackled the weeds and dead plants. Mel worked towards the back of the bed to pull out more weeds. 2 hours later we'd cleared a 6m area and the roses and plants can now be enjoyed by the residents! Rachel & Saber used their super strength to drag a huge bag of weeds to the front of the building for collection. Mission complete. Residents thanked us with cookies and a jigsaw puzzle for Mel. We hope to return on a monthly basis. Great work team!

The GoodGym flowerbed had become a little full of weeds over the Spring so it was time for a tidy up and the sun was shining so we got stuck in.

We tackled some well known weeds with very long roots that went on for ever, the dreaded bind weed and brambles.

Having cleared the weeds it was time to plant some new plants to bring some extra colour.

Sabir and Claire then headed off to collect some woodchip and Melissa and Julie headed to the river accompanied by our 4 legged helpers for water to water in our new plants.

Having laid the woodchip and watered the plants it was time to leave and hope that the plants will continue to flourish.

Tonight Claire, Rachel, Julie and Dave started with a warm up before running over to Searchlight where we were joined by Luke en route.

Emily, Jade, Petra and Sabir joined us there where Martel explained our task. We were required to do some heavy duty weeding to clear a bed so that flax could be grown as part of a Ukrainian refugee project by community groups. It will then be harvested to make a community patchwork.

We all got stuck in; Luke removed a massive plant whilst the rest is us tackled the long grass and rubbish.

Meanwhile Dave looked at how they could make a raised bed for wheelchair users.

After an hour the weeds were on the compost heap and once dug over the bed will be ready for planting.

Weeding ponds, paths and hedgerows was the name of the game for our Tuesday evening session, when eight GoodGymers headed to Edith Gardens, in Berrylands.

One of 12 designated nature reserves in the borough, this special site is used by people to access nature who might not otherwise be able to - such as disabled people and people suffering from mental health problems. So it’s important that it’s kept in good condition for their use.

Luke bravely volunteered to lean and ‘rake’ the pond to remove the algae on its surface, Tom and Sabir worked hard clearing brambles from the hedgerow GoodGymers planted a few years ago, Jana enjoyed slashing the nettles on either side of the wheelchair accessible path, while Dave, Julie, Rachel and Emma weeded the path to make it ready for flattening next week.

It was a slightly longer run from the Quaker Centre to this task - 3.5km - but great to get back to this site and hopefully we’ll return again this summer to lend a hand to the volunteers that manage this space so brilliantly day-to-day.

Always a pleasure to help the lovely Marilyn @ Canbury Community Gardens...

Today's tasks were to chop up weeds & green waste for the compost pile and make the garden path more accessible. Saber and Dave set to work chopping and clearing and soon got the job done, with a little help from our feathered friends!

GoodGym Kingston smashed out another session at the amazing Growbaby this evening. After we had all run, walked or cycled there, we were greeted with a long list of tasks to tick off so we got straight to it.

Tom, Sabir and Dave were upstairs sorting out the bookshelves, toy boxes and board game cupboard, Claire, Mel, Skyla and Chloe were tasked with sorting out the huge amount of donations that were dropped off by DLAG at the weekend - nappies, wipes and babyfood to give out to the local families in need. Jana amassed a load of clothing to hang out on the rail for the families to browse when the charity was open the following day. Rachel kept us all in check and made sure the jobs were done well and within the time!

A big welcome to Skyla and Chloe on their first good deed! Lovely to have you along and hope to see you soon.

Great to support Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean today with a litter pick in Canbury Gardens. The sun unexpectedly shone down on six GoodGymers, as we met at the bandstand and armed ourselves with gloves, bin bags (held open in nifty hoops!) and pickers! We were pleased to see the park and tow path along the Thames, remarkably clear of litter - well done park visitors - but were still able to make a difference filling three bin bags with plastic bottles, polystyrene, paint pots and wrappers. Emily, Melissa, Sabir, Gemma, Rachel and Emma can now reward themselves with an Easter egg or two for a job well done!

It really was wet wet wet for this evening's task but a little rain won't stop our intrepid GoodGymers from getting out and doing good! Tonight we were at the Searchlight Centre, a funtion space used by many local charities and organisations. The task was to make a good start on painting one of the function rooms in the building.

After a run / walk / ride in the rain to get to the task, 7 of us set to the task in hand. First things first we needed to prep the walls, cover the floor and move all furniture to the middle of the room. Once ready, we set to work painting, changing the colour from a tired magnolia to a fresh and functional white.

Many hands meant we made a good start on the room - still a bit to do but more volunteers getting involved over the weekend to finish up. Mission complete.

Tuesday's group run got us up the hill to Surbiton Library where we met the walkers and the cyclists. A great turn out which was much appreciated as we had some heavy work to do. The ivy in the planters had got 2/3 foot deep and the poor plants were trying hard as they could but were struggling to get through the mass of roots and stems. It was our job to get rid of as much ivy as possible and free the plants.

With great gusto we grabbed loppers, secateurs and mattox and got to work. It took great effort to give the planters a haircut but we really got into it with our head torches in the dark. Once we shorn the first planter within an inch of its life we split into two teams with the first team continuing to get out as much of the root mass as possible and the second to start the process again with the other planter. So many hands did indeed make light work and we started the tidy up process well within the hour. Three massive sacks of green waste was produced from the two planters and 11 very delighted GoodGym volunteers!

We are looking forward to the next session where we empty out more of the planters so we can refill with good soil and then the planting can be done. Join us for the next session at Surbiton Library