This week we attracted the attention of at least 10 children (and accompanying adults), who were playing in the nearby children's play area as we filled up our watering cans. After escorting us on our first lap of the Common and helping water the trees, the intrigued and delighted children all returned to the tap and helped us fill up for the next round.

The youngsters were utterly enthralled by proceedings and most remarkably, everyone remained dry!

Hopefully we have inspired a new generation of tree lovers and environmentalists.

The weekly watering session was going ahead as usual. The little rain that fell earlier in the week was not nearly enough to sustain young tree life on Stoke Newington Common,

Despite getting held up at work (again), I decided this week to work on the 'better late than never' principle (the same principle has been applied to writing this report). Despite being a good half hour late, there was still several rounds of the common to do so I was able to help out as well as get some fresh air after a long day.

Today we headed out to help Mrs H rearrange some furniture to make room for a hospital bed. Things got off to a slightly tricky start when we discovered that the doorbell wasn’t actually working — something we didn’t realise at first! Luckily, Mr H came to the rescue and showed us exactly what needed moving. Thankfully, much of the furniture was on wheels, so we were soon wheeling, shifting and rearranging our way to success. The armchair proved a little more challenging, but with a bit of GoodGym engineering (and some creative manoeuvring), we managed to get it safely into another room. And just like that, the space was cleared and the mission was complete. Another small job that makes a big difference — and proof that sometimes all you need is a few pairs of willing hands… and furniture with wheels! Wheels of Fortune: 1, Doorbell: 0. 🛞🔔

This week we had not one but TWO first time GoodGymers join us for the tree watering task!

Echo and Serafima immediately got stuck in and soon had the hang of the hosepipe (permitted despite the hosepipe ban because we're watering young trees planted in the last 3 years).

Hosepipe handling skills are measured in the number of fellow volunteers who get sprayed (or preferably don't get sprayed) with water during the bottle filling stage of proceedings.

With each tree receiving 15-20ltrs or 1 ltr per sapling there's a lot of bottles to fill and refill, so plenty opportunity to hone these skills.

Despite the rain forecast, we'll be back next Wednesday to do it all again.

Lending their hands for the second part of this Bike Shed thriller, Sooz and Matt should be commended for their diligent patience. They were left twiddling their thumbs for a good part of an hour as the dismantling overran. Maybe the timings were over-optimistic given the shed’s size…

Meanwhile, en route fast from the dismantling, Bike Shed originals Audrey, Louise and Md blitzed a sweaty scenic run through Victoria Park whilst Jack lazily took a lift in one of the vans - enjoying the A/C and eating cake whilst doing so, probably.

When the truck finally arrived at the school we carefully worked in teams to lift, manoeuvre and place down the heavy pieces in an organised fashion. Our work mirrored an Ikea instruction manual on the playground.

The trickiest part was moving the perspex roof covers, which bent and wobbled, teasing us that they might crack and make all our work in vain. It took all of us and some chuckle-brotheresque communication skills (to me, to you) to slide them off of the truck’s footbed and stack them daintily on top of each other.

By the time we had unloaded and organised the pieces it was sadly time up for the gang. With no time left to reassemble we vowed to fight another day should we get the call from the parents in need.

The Bike Shed saga, to be continued…