Back to the garden at St Michael's Church and it's sunny for the third week in a row(!). We must be doing something right.

Good progress was made, and the soil is looking more and more ready for growing season. The attached photos show before and after, with much of the weeds now removed.

Ivo and I arrived ready to tackle Mrs S’s mission: relocating a collection of boxes from her living room to an upstairs storage spot. The boxes didn’t stand a chance. We made light work of them, and Ivo even applied some advanced structural engineering to the stacking situation- stability was achieved, gravity was respected. Next up: An unwieldy mattress needed persuading up the stairs, while a couple of its mattress companions took a one-way trip down to the basement. There were twists, there were turns, there was strategic angling… but the stairs were conquered. After a final check with Mrs S to make sure everything was exactly where she wanted it, we said our goodbyes- leaving her with a gloriously clutter-free living room. As we headed off, the sun even made a brief appearance. Clearly, even the weather approved. 🌤️

An almost GoodGym takeover made life easy for this week’s junior parkrun at the Fields.

With a full house on the roster, and newcomer Kim joining the ranks, the team made swift work with the set up.

Simon, Harvey, Sooz and Kim set about laying the course on one side of the fields, whilst Sarah completed the opposite side.

Sooz led the warm up and welcomed a lot of new parkrunners!

As timekeeper, Louise counted down 3-2-1 and they were off - heading up the opening straight to Lucinda then onto Harvey. Sarah, Simon and Kim kept the runners going all the way round both laps with lots of encouragement.

40 incredible youngsters made it round today including 13 newcomers and setting 4 new personal best times. Thanks to all the GoodGym volunteers for making it happen!

Another lovely morning of weather for gardening at St Michael's Church in Stoke Newington.

The resident volunteer gardener, Manda, and I picked up where we left off from last week and continued to dig out stubborn brambles from the soil, and generally tidy up. We also made handy use of an abandoned buggy in order to transport some paving slabs to their new resting place...

There is more work to do, but the garden is gradually becoming ready for growing produce in the spring time.

What connects today's top 3 finishers, 13 of the 23 runners, and 7 of the 12 volunteers...

If today's run title didn't give it away, then I'll provide the answer...they were all female.

Parkrun really is a great leveller in so many different ways, and long may it continue to encourage anyone and everyone to participate, even on a rainy and muddy February morning at the Fields.

Thanks very much to today's GoodGym "regulars" - Hilary, Louise, Lucinda, Rue and Nick, as well as our three DoE volunteers, and everyone else who donned the Hi Viz for another successful morning of slip sliding around the course by our 23 intrepid junior runners.

It was time to turn the compost again at Hoxton Garden and a 6 strong team of GoodGymmers were on hand to do the job. On the team were two first timers - Torrey and Miret who embaced the task and spirit of GoodGym with enthusiasm - and two intrepid travellers from west London - Kamil and Harvey.

The team worked across 5 composts heaps, each at varying stages of decomposition. Team Soil (Miret and Torrey) worked with the most advanced compost heaps, which was relatively easy to turn, while Team Twigs and Leaves (Dan and Kamil) had the harder task of turning more bulky matter. Harvey did an excellent job of supporting whichever team needed the most help and advice, while developed theories of composting and phd thesis proposals.

Many hands made light work and soon the job was done. The team left Hoxton Gardens, lifted by their connection with the earth and the sun on their faces.