What a better way to start the bank holiday weekend with a planting session at Denmark Hill Community Garden.

After two group run visits to dig out the stony trench, we were in prime position to start planting the hedge saplings that were meant to be planted like a month ago. Yet, the roots were still wet and strong, so Rose and Sam positioned out the hazel, willow and two other types of trees saplings that were kindly donated by Southwark Council.

By the time we laid it all out, we were joined in by two other residents who came to help out put in the soil and add woodchip mulch on top.

All in all, the session took just over an hour! Funding the future.

Last night, 14 Goodgymmers came out to help out at Galleywall Nature Reserve.

First to arrive at our meeting point, Old Spike, was Steve, who had been away recently. Whilst we caught up, newbie Chong arrived - and then nipped back out to check out a bike shop. Similarly, Isaac came dashing in, only to dash back out to do a quick lap of the Rye. Emma, Sarah, Nelly, Fi, Tim and Katy arrived and stayed 😅

Once everyone had arrived, I started welcome speech, and we gave a proper welcome to Chong. Our ice breaker question this week was related to the task... "Imagine we're going on a nature walk together, what do you see?". Tim started us off with a caterpillar, Chong gave some insight into his favourite sports team, and everyone else built a beautiful scene with a river, a waterfall, some salmon swimming in the river, some light filtering through the trees...🥹. It was a great team effort!

After a quick warm-up, we set off on our 4k run to Galleywall. I think it was the warmest day we've had this year, so it was a sweaty one!

When we arrived at Galleywall, James, Richard, Daryl and Andrada were already there. Eddie from Galleywall welcomed us and explained to us the task: we had to move some logs out of a ditch, and then put them back in a less haphazard manner, so that it would be safe for children.

Even though outcome was clear, we were not certain about how to achieve it initially. Steve came up with the idea of taking everything out the ditch, and then putting the big things back first, to give a stable base, so we rolled with that. We got into pairs and started to self-organise, and we completed the task surprisingly quickly.

Eddie came to inspect out work, and during this, he had the idea to dismantle some of the bug hotels so that people at the bus stop would be able to look through the "windows" to see into the nature reserve. After some discussion and experimentation, we opened up two windows.

At some point Daryl got separately picked to mow the grass.

Just as I started to worry that there may not be enough work for us, Eddie came round with laminated booklets which was a guided nature walk of the nature reserve. We split off into fours and off we went!

We finished at 8pm exactly to run/walk/cycle back to Peckham, perfect timing for our social at Skylarking. 🍻

Not a supermarket deal, but 3 volunteers for 1 drop off was what became of this session.

We have been helping out GROAD at Old Alleynian Rugby Club for two months now and over all the Sundays, there has been probably 2 Sundays that were busy (4-5 drop offs). Since the beginning of the year, it's been quite quiet. Unfortunately, this was the situation today too. Joao, Olivia and Sam (who was slightly late) arrived to one drop off that had already been made during the day.

After chatting with Olivia and catching up with Joao, Sam decided to call it a day after 30 minutes and allowed Olivia and Joao to make the most of their afternoon as they cycled away. Sam waited for Fran (GROAD volunteer) to arrive with her car and collect the solitary bag. Upon reflection, this session should have been for one person and this feedback was given back to Andrea (GROAD founder) who thinks a drop-off box/storage container and no one manning could be a future solution.

I would like to thank Olivia for coming for her first GoodGym session and can promise you it's more active than what happened today. Big thanks to Joao for showing up too!

Four of us went to St. Faiths to sort out the donations ready to be handed out to rough sleepers tomorrow.

We were a little surprised at the amount of women and children's clothes but sorted them dutifully. When Andrea arrived, all became clear, as we realised the rough sleepers and refugees donations had been mixed.

Never mind, we quickly sorted them out again and sent them on their way in the van..

Today, 5 Goodgymmers went to help out at Surrey Docks Farm. After a slow start, we found Pat, who gave us a series of sweeping tasks. Pat told us that was particularly impactful because the farm some troubles with drainage, so sweeping the paths meant that dirt and hay won't get washed away in the rain causing blocked drains.

We worked like a team on one of those cleaning transformation shows on TV, turning paths, gutters and goat yards sparkling clean. We made 5 wheelbarrows of dirt/poo/hay and we took them down to the muck heap. The goat yard had baby goats in, which was different to usual.

At the end, we had a special treat to see the "orphaned" lambs and then we fed the sheep and the goats.

I went to the rugby club in Dulwich for the monthly green team session. With Ian's help, we extracted a whole bunch of logs from the overgrowth behind the club house, and piled them up out front ready for skipping. We also collected a bucket-full of litter.

I found a log shaped like a saxophone (see pictures), and the club house gave me a free bacon roll as a thank you!