Four goodgym members met at the Phoenix Cinema to run the 4 km to Friary Park to help the friends group led by Richard and Yvonne. This is one of our longest runs with a nice section through Gleblands. One of the many green spaces in Barnet. Give a shout out to Antonio on his first group run with Barnet. ( click on the red link) also a sad farewell to Ali Who is moving on to Rome via Swindon! ( yes all roads lead through Swindon!) Bon voyage! We met Richard and Yvonne and set about litter picking and trimming the lavender. Both top jobs to while away half an hour. Valeria also joined us after cycling from home. Richard was explaining how these friends groups are becoming smaller as less people are interested in being involved. Which is such a shame for the community at large. It is great to be able to offer them a boost both of morale and with physical help. After completing our tasks we had a few bags of lavender and quite a lot of rubbish. The runners headed back to the Phoenix with a short detour through Coppetts Wood. We then had a warm down stretch and some refreshment at the Phoenix on its CAFE balcony... nice!

thanks for coming running, cycling and doing some good!

Three of the A-Team at Goodgym Barnet volunteered to assist with the forest paths at Martin Primary School. We gathered and ran from the phoenix cinema the kilometre to the school where we met John. There was an enormous pile of woodchip which we endeavoured to dig up and spread over The forest paths. We made a fine effort and reduced it to a small mole hill. Great fun on a gloriously summery evening.

A few goodgym members came together to help at the Tiny Forest near Henley‘s Corner. The Tiny Forest Barnet is a newly planted green space for recreation, education, and engagement through citizen science. With the aim of developing an appreciation of what a unadulterated planting of trees and bushes does for the local environment. As usual we gathered at phoenix cinema numbered up and suggested a favourite restaurant to enjoy. (Please add in the comments) mine was Dishroom in King’s Cross. What was yours? We warmed up with a gentle jog down the High Street doing side steps through the tube and into the quiet streets of East Finchley. Upon reaching Littleton playing Fields we did some power skipping through the grass. It’s amazing how exhausting 200 m of skipping can be! Well done all! Particularly John who had recently fallen off his bicycle and suffered some rib injuries which caused him a little discomfort. We then took a little detour through the big and little wood to see the bluebells magnificent for sight and smell! We soon reached the Tiny Forest and set about our task which was to number up the slabs and carry out a survey of the ground insects under each of the six slabs. This data was then entered into the Earth watch portal for collation at head office. Interesting to say the first colonisers were ants! Hopefully overtime more varied insects will be seen. (See photo) The injured Cloud had joined us so we walked back to the little & big wood to view the bluebells again. I’m getting addicted! We then ran back to the Phoenix with the option of a short sprint. Thanks for coming and doing some citizen science!