On Tuesday evening, GoodGym Barnet volunteers Beattie,Theo,Ed and Richard headed back to Long Lane Pasture, the site of our group run, for a session filled with teamwork, headtorches, and a whole lot of woodchip.

Richard took the lead as run leader, guiding the group safely along the darker parts of the route. Beattie welcomed everyone with her trademark warmth, while Theodore and Edward kept the group together as back markers, ensuring no one was left behind.

🌱 Meeting Donald & Getting Stuck In We met with Donald, one of the dedicated task owners from the Long Lane Pasture.

Donald had prepared three large sacks of woodchip, ready to be moved up a hill and spread along a 60cm‑wide earth pathway. Armed with shovels, buckets, gloves, and headtorches, the team got straight to work. The group formed a smooth rhythm — scooping, carrying, tipping, and raking — gradually transforming the track into a refreshed path that will benefit visitors and protect the site’s biodiversity.

Huge appreciation to everyone who came out — Beattie, Theodore, Edward and Richard keeping the group safe and together.

Long Lane Pasture looked better already by the time we left, and Donald was delighted with the progress. A brilliant evening of community, graft, and GoodGym spirit.

For this morning's delivery to the Community Grocery, Filip joined me bang on time for his first shift. Fortunately, the team from Volunteers on Wheels wasn't there early, so he had plenty of time to do the manual lifting training.

Then the truck arrived and we rolled trolleys down the ramp. Four of us made light work of this week's goodies: carrots, tomatoes and potatoes, plus fridge stuff like gyros and pizza. Some more drinks cans, which went in the store cupboard, and a few boxes of fresh lettuce for the fridge also. We helped stack and store some surplus and then we were out the door into the sunshine.

A few Goodgymers around the country joined the Great UK WaterBlitz

Testing the waters at Mutton Brook

Another little GoodGym citizen-science mission for Gus and me, back at Mutton Brook.

I’m really enjoying returning to the same stretch of water. There is something rather nice about sitting quietly beside the brook, fiddling around with the little test tubes and watching the colours develop — and, once you’ve done it a couple of times, the testing is actually very easy.

Today’s results were interesting. The water looked remarkably clear, but the nitrate reading appeared quite high — around the 2–5 mg/L range, possibly close to 5 — while phosphate was very low at around 0.02–0.05 mg/L.

So it’s a mixed picture. Low phosphate is encouraging, but the nitrate suggests there is still a significant nutrient input somewhere upstream. Mutton Brook starts only a few miles away in Cherry Tree Wood in East Finchley and then flows through a very urban landscape, including alongside major roads and beneath the North Circular. Urban runoff, drainage and other sources could all contribute, although one test can’t tell us exactly where the nitrate is coming from.

It also shows why these tests are worthwhile: clear-looking water isn’t necessarily clean water.

Results uploaded, another tiny piece of data added to the bigger picture — and Gus and I got a peaceful few minutes beside the brook into the bargain.

Report from Paul Browning

I did my testing on the River Quaggy in Manor Park in SE London where I have done testing several times before. Concentrations of nitrates and phosphates were both low, phosphates lower than last time I did the testing.

A bright and energetic Saturday morning saw Jacqui, Subham, and Richard heading to Sunny Hill parkrun for a start‑your‑weekend‑right session.

Meeting at the start line just before 9am, with the group gathering at the starting. The atmosphere was classic Sunny Hill: friendly volunteers, eager runners, and that familiar mix of nerves and excitement before the countdown begins.

The trio joined the 5km course, taking on Sunny Hill’s famously undulating route. Whether powering up the climbs or cruising down the descents, everyone kept strong momentum and supported each other throughout. A great effort all round.

The team meant to support the parkrun community but it wasn't required at the end. Sunny Hill parkrun relies on volunteers every week of barcode scanning, stewarding, and keeping the event running smoothly for all participants. Keep yourself updated on their Facebook page

After finishing, the trio walked down to the local cafe to drink a well deserved refreshment.

Turn up and help make someone’s Saturday healthier and happier, we’ll be back again soon.

The Friends of Warnham Green have collected their wildflower meadow seeds from the Finchley Pollinators as part of their plan to plant 600 Mini-Meadows in Barnet. Now we need to actually clear a space. After a bit of discussion about where to put the meadow, we agreed to dig into an area of brambles we'd chopped down earlier in the year, but not dug up the roots from. The soil is relatively poor quality and the patch gets a fair bit of sun, unlike the wildflower area from earlier in the year, but the brambles had regrown at least a metre.

The plan - from the Finchley Pollinators - is to clear and weed a patch, wait a month, then dig any regrowth, then sow. So we got stuck in to create a 1m x 3m rectangle (approx) with a bit of extra clearance around for movement and to prevent overshadowing from the brambles.

With David, Marsha and myself, we made light work of it. We chopped ('minced', according to our conservationists) the brambles and nettles down to the ground, then used forks and a spade to dig up what we could. We left a bit of grass, a thistle and some dandelions around the edge of the area, and marked it with some of the fallen lime branches from earlier in the summer. And we'll be back next month to finish the job!

Our third visit to St Joseph's Orchard to help the Friends group was the last for apple juicing. I arrived late from a morning session and there were already half a dozen sacks at the top of the hill and another dozen by the fence, lots of them bramleys.

I briefly got to meet some of the brave fleet of pickers who'd been there since the morning. All in, 14 people showed up over the course of the session. Then I got stuck in to picking mostly windfalls from the spartan row. Loads of lovely crisp and juicy apples scattered along the floor. Tim, John, Martha and then Sue helped us for another hour or two, going along the rows. They also have joybells, golden delicious (not doing well), and arthur w barnes - at least those are the ones I know about. The summer hasn't been kind, but the old trees know what they're doing.

Great to briefly meet Sean on his way out, and Martha, both of whom signed up through the Daniella's list for the Barnet Community Harvesters. Tim reckons they've picked nearly 2 tons of apples this year, with another 2-3 still in the orchard. Not all are ready yet, but he'd like it to not go to waste. So BCH may organise further picks through to bring apples to foodbanks and the North Finchley Community Grocery and Goodgym will do our best to help!