We kicked things off last night with a warm-up and our Quiz Qu of the Week: Which country is wider than the Moon? Russia certainly threw us off the scent, but three of you cracked it! 🌍 Well done! Apologies that I forget to mention at the time, but a huge shout-out goes to Pritesh for running the Royal Parks Half Marathon yesterday – fantastic effort! 🏃‍♂️👏

We also welcomed Molly who joined us for their very first GoodGym session. 👋 Great to have you with us!

Then it was time to head out into the darkness and make our way to Paradise Community Garden, a special green space that provides a haven for wildlife and a green oasis for the local community. Community gardens like this are vital for supporting biodiversity, creating habitats for wildlife and giving people a place to connect with nature.

Unfortunately our original task to shovel manure had to be postponed as access issues meant it hadn't been delivered. Luckily, there were still two tasks to keep us busy – chopping up firewood and painting the shed. But first, we had to navigate our way through the frogs! 🐸 We've never seen so many - they were everywhere, creating, as Joput it,'a carpet of frogs', so careful footwork was essential. We did our best to avoid stepping on our tiny amphibian friends and keep this happy, healthy ecosystem thriving.

Once we'd safely negotiated the frog-filled terrain, we found our way to the firepit and split into two teams.

🎨 Team Shed Painting took on the challenge of finding the right colour for the job. Getting the shade just right was all part of the challenge, as was the dark surroundings. Nevertheless, they persevered and a beautiful newly painted shed was soon underway.

🪵 Team Firewood tackled the sawing, which came with its own challenge: mastering the two-handed saw. With a bit of practice, the team perfected their techniques with various implements around the site, keeping a safe distance from one another. All fingers and toes remained intact – result! Great work, everyone. 💪

As the rain started to set in and we'd already had a good workout, we decided to give the fitness session a miss this time and head back for some well-earned stretches. We took care to avoid the wildlife on the way, although the snails unfortunately didn't all make it through unscathed. 🐌 Let's just say it wasn't a completely casualty-free journey!

A huge well done to everyone for being adaptable, getting stuck into the tasks and helping look after this lovely community space.

Next week: We're heading back to St Mary's to give the outside of Battersea's oldest church a good blitz. 🧹 We hope to see you all there!

Until then, happy running, and thanks for being brilliant, GoodGym Wandsworth! ❤️

Our task last night was a local nursery for under-fives, a fantastic facility that provides outdoor spaces to enhance the children's learning experience. There was plenty to do, and not much time to do it - so after a few stretches and a quiz question featuring the iconic golden arches (which Lorna nailed on her very first group run!) we set off for Balham.

A massive special welcome to Andreas and trivia master Lorna, who joined us for their first GoodGym experience last night, and a welcome back to Harriet. It was absolutely great to have you all with us, and we hope to see you for many more.

We divided and conquered to tackle all the jobs. One team repainted the benches in bright, vibrant colours to cheer up the welcome area, while another transformed the outdoor chalkboard to give the kids a fresh surface for their creations. We also cleared out the mud kitchen, sorted out the flower beds, cut back overgrown trees and bushes to reclaim the pathways, and took down the last of the summer bunting. The latter wasn't quite as straightforward as it first looked, taking the collective detangling skills of Robyn, Pritesh, Lorna and Beth to release the material. If you were watching at just the right moment you may have caught Beth speeding down the slide in a moment of post-bunting glory. And it was great to see Jason debut his brand new 100 tshirt!

Natasha, the head of the nursery, was thrilled with the transformation. She let us know that our evening of hard work saved the nursery loads of time and money, allowing them to focus resources directly on the children.

With the autumn nights drawing in we made a quick dash to Clapham Common for the fitness element of the night. We tackled a fitness blast specifically focusing on three different muscle groups. Everybody showed great form as we worked through arms, core and glutes before heading back to base for some thorough stretches.

Up next:this Wednesday we have a lovely evening mission over in Roehampton, helping to build raised beds for a fantastic local food-sharing initiative. For next Monday, I am just waiting to confirm the final details for our task—keep an eye on the website sign-up page. Great work everybody, see you at the next one!

It was our monthly trip back to Doddington last night. This former multistorey car park has been transformed into a thriving community garden, providing a valuable growing space for local people who might not otherwise have access to a garden of their own. We also had some very special reasons to celebrate: a huge congratulations to Jason on his 100th Good Deed! 🎉 And a very happy 30th birthday to Annabel! 🎂

We kicked things off with a warm-up and the evening's quiz question: how many dimples are there on a golf ball? There was some doubt over the answer, but I'll leave you to decide whether to trust the quizmaster…

We arrived to find a whole host of jobs waiting for us: clearing mallow and teasels, laying down cardboard and mulch, shifting mulch into the raised beds and transporting soil. Before too long everyone was busy getting stuck in. 💪🌱

There was also an added incentive for the evening: whoever collected the most teasels would win the famous Tromboncino!

But what exactly is a Tromboncino? This wonderfully weird looking vegetable is a variety of butternut squash which is used like a courgette — and if you leave it to mature, it can grow into a long, curved, trombone-shaped fruit of up to around a metre!

Once we'd done our bit at the garden, it was time to head down to the square for some fitness. This week's challenge was 130-themed: working in pairs, we had to complete a series of exercises which cumulatively added up to 130. Plenty of counting, plenty of reps and plenty of teamwork. Congratulations to Katie and Catherine, who completed the challenge first! 🏆

Then, of course, it was time for cake and the grand presentation of the Tromboncino. After her impressive teasel-gathering efforts, the prize went to Annabel — who immediately demonstrated the true versatility of this magnificent vegetable by wearing it as a rather beautiful neckpiece at the pub quiz. 🥒✨

A brilliant evening of community gardening, celebrations, questionable golf-ball trivia, fitness, cake and vegetable couture.

Huge congratulations again to Jason for this huge milestone - 100 good deeds shows massive commitment, energy and effort which has had an unquantifiable positive impact.

Next week... We're off to Balham Nursery to help with some jobs. You can sign up here

This Monday we were really pile-ing on the pressure! A sunny Bank Holiday lunchtime saw the team return to tackle the task we started last week. We arrived ready to shift the last bit of the pile, which initially seemed manageable. However, as soon as we started moving it up the stairs, it became very clear that this was a much bigger job than we first thought!What followed was a fantastic all-over body workout as we shovelled, shuttled and shifted the remaining mulch up the steps. We were watched over by the estate manager, who was very supportive of the progress and pleased that access would finally be reinstated to both the estate and the bins. With the sun shining we pushed through. The result? A massive sense of satisfaction when we finally got it done and looked back at the cleared space. Great work everybody!