Seven GoodGymers showed up in the cold, autumnal weather to join the usual gang, including Otis the dog, at the pet cemetery, and leaves was yet again the key word for the task.

With our usual dumping ground soon to be removed because it’s become a suspected rat residence, we bagged up mountains of leaves and wheeled them away on a trolley. The rats’ days of rent-free living are soon numbered.

The rain had the decency to wait until we left, and before we did, some of us harvested a little thyme, which is now presumably adding flavour to a nice and warm autumn dish while the rain pours down outside. 🍁🍂

There are easier ways to spend a sunny Thursday than enthusiastically attacking a giant hole with a mattock, but where's the fun in pondering about it? Alongside Iyabo, we helped Froglife.org transform a soil excavation into what is now, against all apparent odds, a functioning pond 🤞 Our role involved hammering some mattocks, clearing loose soil and such, sharp roots, stones, glass and anything else that clearly wasn't part of the frogs' long-term housing plan. We then helped lay the liner and protective rubber before throwing plants and carefully dripping enough water to make the whole project look deliberate. The day's engineering highlight came when the Froglife team used a hose and plastic poles to establish the pond's level. To spectators, this resembled a cross between civil engineering and summoning a water spirit. Yet somehow it worked, and the water remained in the pond. Science wins again. Meanwhile, the council hose had thoughtfully evolved a side quest by spraying water through a puncture (pre-existing condition so no cover for that), requiring emergency bag-rescue operations led and solved by the cupcake chef using a brick to plug the leak. Locals kept everyone fuelled with halloumi sandwiches, fried tomatoes and Jaffa Cakes among other yummies, while a reporter documented events and an artist attempted to capture the spectacle of dozens of adults repeatedly running in and out of a muddy crater like in Twister game and at the end everyone gradually turned into a human pretzels.

Thanks to Froglife, local volunteers, the council's mostly-functional hose, and plenty of hard graft, the day ended with a brand-new pond 🤞 In the end, we all mattock'd the walk and pond-er'd the impossible. 🐸💧

The whole mission onsite was carefully currated and managed by Harry.

P.S. the pond's name TBD and then TBC.

Another beautiful day at Charlton House & Gardens with residnet volunteers around to help and guide 🙄 The garden master, Jason, is also running around with his cup of coffee telling people what and how to do things here... with love and compassion, of course. While one GoodGymer was tidying up outside the house, another one was caught in dilemma of human selectiveness of what is weed soon discovering that bulbing and weeding on a cold morning requires more clothing. The result is: 🧹Fronts done 🌱 Weeds out 🧅Bulbs in

Two of us from GoodGym joined the regular CABAHS volunteers at Charlton House for some gardening today, helping to spread aromatic woodchips to create lovely pathways through the Glade.

We had so much fun! Even though the rain cut our session short to just an hour, we still managed to chip in and make a difference. Every little bit helps!

Another do good, get fit moment in the bag!

Great session, great company, and plenty of woodchip puns!

Last night, 12 of us gathered at Charlton House before running or walking our way to Charlton Manor Primary School for an evening of community spirit, paintbrushes and several spiders.

After a short run, some of the runners met up with our walking crew at the school, who were already armed with paintbrushes and getting stuck into freshening up the walls of the Mary Seacole classroom. No hanging about here!

Meanwhile, another small but mighty team tackled the lost property cupboard. We made some decent headway, sorting the mountain of mystery belongings into different crates and uncovering what felt like a thriving spider community along the way.

As they say, many hands make light work, and with everyone mucking in, we got plenty done.

Thank you everyone - we'll be back later in the year to give the outdoor equipment a fresh lick of paint, so watch this space!

Coming up

🌳 This weekend: Alongside our usual parkruns, we've got two lovely community missions:

🌱 Spreading woodchip on the woodland walk at Horn Park: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/spreading-woodchip-on-the-woodland-walk-at-horn-park

🐾 Helping clean up at the Old Blue Cross Pet Cemetery: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/clean-up-at-the-old-blue-cross-pet-cemetery-4b4c6df7-1980-40e8-ab7b-12ef394e39b9

🏫 Next Wednesday: We're heading to Woolwich for a run to help out at Glyndon Community Centre: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/helping-at-glyndon-community-centre-fe52fe5b-49c1-4ed6-a817-a3de5d46ff9a

🌿 Next Saturday: Join us for a group run to Mycenae Gardens for some garden maintenance: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/maintenance-at-mycenae-gardens

Until next time, wonderful people! 👋

Rachel

On a sunny but cold October morning (belated signs that Autumn is definitely upon us), 4 GG'ers made their way to the walled garden next to Charlton House. The reason for the gathering was to help the resident CABAHS volunteers with their annual plant sale. This event is high on the CABAHS agenda, with proceedings going to the Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice.

As soon as we arrived, we were greeted to the sounds of "We can stop lifting the heavy stuff, GoodGym are here to help!" - good to know that we carry such great reputation! Not wanting to prove the shouts wrong, we quickly set out to carry as many plants in boxes, crates and makeshift containers as we could to their respective pride of place for display to any interested buyers.

Such was our dedication that we were done in 30 mins, leaving us time to admire the plants and even make some phone calls to flatmates to entice them to buy the fruits of our labour. We hope the plant sale is a treemendous success!