Clearing a field for (metal) cow...

Julianne Marriot writes, photos by Nick Bright:GoodGym's adopted aunt (Tabita's real aunt) wasn't well enough for a visit, so it was the one group run. After confusion about whether we were going to Stepney City Farm (down Cambridge Heath Road and left) or Spitalfields City Farm (to the right) and demands to inspect the map and route we turned to the right.After posing for a few photos we trooped into the farm and were straight into to the farm we were greeted by Jenny and given huge, but surprisingly light, spades, plenty of gloves and best of all: a scythe.As we walked, in the dusk, past towering plants with large, but stubbornly green, tomatoes Jenny told us that the area we were working on had been the former home of the popular Coriander Club, a gardening and cookery group, and had become an overgrown area for storing things.The first task was to shovel up what we were informed was poo and move it to under the palm tree. The rest of us got on with pulling up the long and tough grass, weeds and invisible but aromatic mint. A couple of GoodGymers disappeared into the compost bin. And it wasn’t long before the boys could bear it no longer and stole the scythe off the girls.A cow was discovered (a metal one, helpfully labeled “cow”). After 45 minutes of ripping out and stacking up the weeds, exchanging stories of first runs and marathons, we called it a day. Someone remembered the people in the compost bin, although nobody was any the wiser about what they’d been doing in there.There were two runs back. A shorter, direct run with sprints in Weavers Fields or a longer run past the cozy pubs of Columbia Road and out along the canal.Tom Rodriguez Perez, one of the people in the compost bin, writes:As the other GoodGymers diligently went about their task of clearing the field, Pete & Tom decided they were up for getting a bit messier... Armed with wellies and two huge pitch forks, they literally jumped feet first onto a tremendous mound of compost. The instructions were simple yet effective: move the mound from one section of the compost bin to the other, making sure it had been turned over and loosened up. The two boys took up the task in earnest, and their dark and mysterious shapes could be seen shovelling and forking furiously in the darkness. As they progressed in their mountainous task, they literally descended deeper and deeper into the muck, so that by the end little more than their heads could be seen poking out from over the compost bin fencing. If the others listened closely, they may have been surprised to hear Pete & Tom engaged in quite intellectual conversation regarding the future of mobile technology, social media & the multiple uses of Pete’s selection of hi-tech fitness accessories. It made for a wonderful juxtaposition of manure, manliness & media monitoring. They’re still waiting for a call from Channel 4 regarding a reality TV show. They’re even holding our collective breaths – although that may be due to the manure...