Sabir went back to Canbury Community Gardens and sorted all the branches that he had chopped down on Tuesday. Great work, Sabir!

Tonight’s GoodGym adventure took our group in two directions - to Canbury Community Gardens and Latchmere Park.

The Latchmere Park task was quite straightforward - fill 5 planters with compost. Just a small matter that the compost was in 3 1/2 ton sacks about 100m away from the planters! Emily, Ken, Laura, Petra and Dave donned their gloves and proceeded to fill and empty countless wheelbarrows. the time flew and the task completed with 5 mins to spare. Off to the pub!

Slightly more involved at Canbury Gardens with compost to turn, an elderflower tree to tackle, watering to do and gardening to squeeze in before darkness descended.

Claire kicked things off with an excellent briefing, particularly impressive given the jet lag from her recent trip to Korea! Rachel then provided an unexpected highlight by confidently picking up one of the resident chickens. Despite never having held a chicken before, she looked like a natural, comparing it to picking up her three-legged cat. The chicken seemed perfectly content! 🐔

Luke, Saber and Jonathan got stuck into turning the compost, while also attempting to secretly sign Rachel’s birthday card without her noticing.

Meanwhile, Jana and Marie-Noëlle gave the dead elderflower tree a giant haircut. Marie-Noëlle wielded the enormous loppers on the larger branches, carefully avoiding the tomatoes below, while Jana tackled the smaller ones. Saber later took over with a saw and ended up up the tree, prompting a few concerned looks as we watched his balancing act! 🌳😂

Claire tracked down the wheelbarrows and collected water from the river with Rachel, who later became our human lighting department as daylight disappeared.

Jana then tackled one final job, digging a hole for a donated berry bush, which we just about managed to get planted and watered before darkness took over. 🌱

With everything wrapped up, Claire entertained us with tales from Korea.

Compost turned, tree dramatically restyled, water collected, bush planted, chicken cuddled and birthday card covertly signed, another productive and slightly chaotic GoodGym evening! 💪🌿🐔

This afternoon on the spur of the moment? Sabir and myself met to rehydrate all the colourful flowers in the Gg plot. This was very much welcomed and a promise made for more drink on Tuesday.

Saturday afternoon, a team of two GoodGymers, Saber and Marie-Noëlle, joined forces with the Friends of Fairfield Park group. Responding to a local call to action, we took responsibility for our shared green space with an eco-friendly cleaning mission. The atmosphere was industrious and fun, the sun was warm and bright. The local park was transformed: 7 bin-liners full of rubbish, all tied up and ready for final sorting and recycling. Afterwards, the team celebrated their hard work by coming together to share some well-earned homemade biscuits.