MULCH OF KINTYRE

Full of Christmas spirit Goodgym runners from two cities joined the local community to tackle a lot of deeds and a lot of lunch at Living Under One Sun's allotments in the heart of Tottenham.

On a chilly Saturday morning a magnificent seven Goodgym runners joined local volunteers to provide muscle, music and motivation at LUOS' Green Community Day. It was pleasing to see runners from multiple London boroughs and a special guest appearance from Paul Becker, one of the three from Bristol goodgym in town for the London goodgym Christmas party (one of three goodgym parties in a row: good effort guys!) .

The sensational LUOS women (Sandy, Jamie, Anna and Diane) brought us up to speed about the amazing work and vision of LUOS thanks to a guided tour of the allotment, explaining the various projects ranging from bee-keeping to growing food to support hospital residents. Sandy also explained the many properties of comfrey leaves: it is believed to be a great fertiliser and herbal remedy.

The group had a quick warm up to shake off the chill before we divided and conquered to take on the six tasks for the day: painting, wallpapering, repairing beds, laying woodchip on the paths, collecting fertliliser and mulching around the trees: plenty to do!

Andreana, Caroline and Danica gave the sun-shaped path a facelift by shovelling, wheelbarrowing and spreading absolutely loads of woodchip; Patrick and Paul P spruced up the trees by spreading comfrey, cardboad, mulch and woodchip around the trunks while Frances and Paul B sawed, nailed and hammered wood to made new beds!

Patrick made sure the team were entertained and motivated while they worked thanks to his weatherproof speaker and upbeat old school and contemporary dance tunes and made sure everyone was warm and energised with tea, coffee and biscuits.

The team worked, sang and danced through the drizzle and before long it was time for a delicious, healthy and hearty lunch including plenty of nuts, hummus and fresh Turkish bread.

Paul B had to dash off to catch his coach back to Bristol and get ready for his third Christmas party while Frances went to help out at a food bank near Chalk Farm. The other four of us stayed for another hour or so to put in the finishing touches before going our separate ways, warm up and enjoy more festivities.

Goodgym are back at LUOS for the last good deed of 2015 and will be welcomed again many times in 2016.

Very grateful for the pun, pics and report contributions from Patrick Luong and Sandy (L.U.O.S).