Three Goodgymers made it to Oxleas yet again to dig out a path that until recently was completely overgrown and hidden. This is our third time since March, and what a difference we’ve made! Except for a much higher temperature, today was exactly like the previous times. Cutting back trees and bushes, and digging through years of soil that had gathered on top of the path. A long and hot session later we could look back at maybe 15 meters of path that can finally see daylight again. A couple more sessions and we reckon we would have dug out the whole thing!

It was a beautiful sunny evening last night, perfect for a GoodGym Greenwich foray around Charlton. We started warming up with the question:

What would be the first thing you did if you won the lottery?

Answers ranged from paying off family mortgages, taking a month away to consider what to do with the rest of life, buying one of those massive houses on Crooms Hill and giving 90% of it away. Some of the group ran a loop of Charlton and Hornfair Park and some walked directly to Charlton Manor Primary School where Michael was waiting with brushes, forks and paint. The task for the evening was finishing off painting the fences and a rather lovely trellis bench and weeding around the nursery play area. 40minutes later there was a fresh coat of paint everywhere, including a splatter which christened Mark's nice new GoodGym tee (we knew it wouldn't take long!) and one of the borders clear of weeds. Amazing what can be achieved in a short space of time - many hands make light work indeed.

We then headed to the playground for a short fitness session to top off the evening.

Thank you all - until next time!

Coming up

Sunday: Gardening at Oxleas Woods

Next Wednesday: Woodland maintenance at the Memorial Hospital

Squeezing in another good deed before our picnic we scurried around the streets closest to the Prince Philip Maritime Collection Centre with letters warning people about the noise during the community day and spreading the word on all of the activities on offer. A job well done topped off with a very yummy picnic at Well Hall Pleasuance :)

What a difference a week makes, and a glorious sunny Sunday made a brilliant day for the Hornfair Climate Awareness Community Fun Day, organised by the Friends of Hornfair Park in Charlton.

5 goodgym-ers attended at various times of the day, starting with set up tasks such as traffic marshaling & stall setup, progressing through the day with litterpicks, wayfinding & answering queries. We were based on a stall with the Friends of Hornfair, but also right next to the Friends of the Pet Cemetery, another regular GoodGym task venue.

Excellent music, lots of interesting stalls and amazing food smells made the day fly by, and the last tasks of the day involved final litterpicks and a bit more traffic marshaling to ensure the park was cleared safely.

A lovely event we'll hopefully see again next year ☀️

The good people of SE7 had been out partying as usual - loads of beer cans and cigarette ends littering the streets! Six of us and another lovely local volunteer (we're encouraging her to join Goodgym!) tackled our usual areas of the Woolwich Road, Anchor & (no) Hope Lane and Bugsby's Way.

We filled 10 bags of rubbish including three of aforementioned bottles, cans and those annoying BuzzBall cocktail containers as well as a few bottles of spirits. Enough to create the bar you really don't want to drink at... There were the usual piles of bits of plastic, takeaway containers, cigarette packs and a trowel!

As usual we adjourned at the end for the kind of drink we could enjoy - M&S coffee. Thanks to everyone who turned out as the litter was quite bad in places.

After a busy morning, this was the third task of the day for some of the group with several runners heading straight over from our session at Maryon Wilson Community Garden to lend a hand at Halstow Primary School.

Amongst the hive of activity with staff, parents and children busy painting, sanding and creating play equipment, our mission was to help transform the playground by building some little cabins for the children. AND we managed to create 2.5 little cabins. They may not have all passed a building inspector's scrutiny, but thanks to the collective ingenuity of the group they were successfully cobbled together and beginning to take shape. Thankfully there were no crate expectations of the quality of the craftsmanship.

A welcome BBQ provided some much-needed fuel and made this a particularly palatable task. The weather tried its best to spoil proceedings, and the rain arrived in force, but it didn't dampen our spirits although we did get a little cold and some may have developed cabin fever.

Well done everyone. We'll likely be back at Halstow Primary School before long to help with further fun construction projects based on what the children want build in their playground!