We kicked off the evening naming ourselves and expressing which form of art we would give a go if we could, from improv comedy to lino printing to songwriting. After a nice jog through Crystal Palace, admiring the newly regenerated Italian Terraces, we arrived back at the Paxton Centre for our second annual table tightening championships.

The Paxton Centre is an arts cafe/workshop space with a built in gallery. It's cool. They're also a non-profit. Super cool.

We upturned the tables, unscrewed the legs, tightened them up on the inside, rescrewed them on, and levelled them out with the bits at the bottom. I'm not sure who won the championship. Everyone I guess.

After that we took a photo on the stairs as if we're Blazin' Squad and set off on our merry way.

Nice one, team. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Emma, Mark, and Catherine spent a few sunny hours back with the ace Fieldwork Project on Saturday, continuing to dig the trench for a French drain (see photos for progress!) and painting their lovely big table in the polytunnel. We also had a go at excavating a big bit of flint that is sticking out into the trench - it probably needs a bit more work but it had a good wobble by the time we finished up. Ever the wonderful hosts, the Fieldwork team then fed us with some phenomenal home-made chips and Shakshuka, shared more about their work with wool from the farm, and took us to meet Bobby and the other sheep who live there.

Five GoodGymmers ran from Penge to Beckenham Place Park last night where we met with James and Tilly from the BPP Ranger team over at the newly-landscaped East Gate area. This was our longest group run in a while and, after some initially confused weather (sunshine and hail?!), we were treated to a beautiful rainbow as we made our way up to Beckenham Hill.

Once we arrived, our task was to move woodchip onto the new flowerbeds to help to suppress pesky weeds. After 40 mins of shovelling, we made our way back through the park and enjoyed the last of the evening sunshine.

Well done team!

It was so nice to be back on Monday evenings! We kicked off our new series with an easy 1k run down to Penge Congregational Church from the Bridge House. The church group were setting up to host a music festival and needed some tables, pews and cupboards moving to create space for a music festival. Our team got to work creating space to move some very long pews, and luckily we had the turning space available in the vast church. The church group were really grateful for our help - we were grateful for the indoor task 😅

5 pro diggers joined the lovely Fieldwork Project team today to help with digging out space for a French drain, which will ultimately reduce flooding and make the area more stable and accessible. It was great to welcome Jeff to his first GG session, as well as Leigh from GG Croydon and CP regulars Hannah and Laura. Thanks everyone for your top digging efforts. and to the Fieldwork team for some tasty pasta - a perfect way to refuel in the peace garden. It was great to learn more about the project's wider work and how the French Drain will work, once installed!

Ed and I arrived to help out with a litter picking session of the whole area, and helping to tidy out the pond Spring, planting and sinking plants in the newly cleaned water! Photos are courtesy of the Friends of the Albion Millenium Green.