GoodGym and MIND in Camden: The Big Hang Theory

Fabulous forward planning

A small, but very productive crew headed to Castlehaven this very wet Wednesday lunchtime where Nichola, our fabulous, forward planning task owner had prepared a variety of interesting indoor tasks…

Greeted by gastropods

On arrival at the centre’s Horticultural Hub, I found Tom and Nichola hunched over the Nursery’s Snail House! What a glorious gastropod greeting. Here we learned from Nichola that the house is indeed a spacious and safe environment for the snails (away from predators in neighbouring parks) and - I feel duty bound to bring you the answer to this question (in case, like me, you had wondered and worried about it): snails do perish if you tread on them and break their shells. All their internal organs lie in the shell (sorry to be the bearer of bad news). So watch your footing, folks.

A picture is EARTH a thousand words

Moving on to the designated tasks for the day, we settled nicely into the Hub’s spacious indoor work stations where Tom potted and planted sunflowers, and I potted the succulents we had left to take route in test tubes a few weeks ago.

We then moved outside to the garden area, and proceeded to spend the remainder of our time planting outdoors, and indoors, before moving to the fruit finale task of the week: planting small wild strawberry plants into hanging baskets.

This was way more time consuming and fiddlier than either Tom or I had anticipated – we agreed on a spiral pattern in the hanging basket, but getting these titchy little plants to stay standing was a test of patience (and deft fingers). And then Tom was tasked with negotiating the chain and getting it to hang. It was a task of tolerance, I can tell you.

And we ran over time-wise! Ahem. But we had previously agreed to head to the Castlehaven Park for a total body workout (Me: What do you fancy for fitness today, Tom? Lower body, upper body, abs? Tom: A bit of everything?. Me: Great! So, a Metabolic Meltdown then? Tom: What’s THAT? Me: Current fitness marketing term for age-old body weight exercises. Tom & Nichola in unison: *eye roll*. Oh, got it. ).

Sports specific training

Tom and I took a leisurely walk over the to park, where he brilliantly executed tough balance moves, such as the single leg squat, Bulgarian split squat, side plank crunch (on a very damp steel park bench no less), decline push ups... Amazing work. And hopefully useful, as one of Tom’s aims is to work on sports-specific goals, for his badminton and yoga, the other Healthy Minds activities he’s been enjoying.

The time flew again, and no sooner had we dumped our bags, were we picking them up again and talking a walk to the High Street.

What a wonderful session: loads done, fitness and gardening-wise. And all in spite of torrential Spring rain!

Can’t wait ‘till next week, when we meet again…(GoodGym and Healthy Minds will next meet at midday at Mind in Camden on Wednesday 15th May. The session runs from 12-1.30pm. Details can be found here).