What an absolutely gorgeous evening for doing some good! ☀️

This evening we met at a buzzing Papa's Park. The music was blaring, the cafe was open and Valcie came to say hello!

We briefly discussed our favourite beverages for a day such as today (including several healthy and soft choices!) 🥵 and then we got going to Larkhall Park's petanque pitch/court/arena(???) which had definitely seen better days...

There we met Alex who gave us very clear instructions of our task:

• Uproot a load of weeds that had gone wild around the edge of the pitch
• Rake the gravel into piles
• Shovel the gravel into wheelbarrows
• Wheel the gravel to the big pile at the edge of the park so it can be reused

It was a proper workout but most of us switched up jobs so we didn't get too tired. Ed kept going on his weeding patch though, right up until the end. 👏

Some locals and one of the Friends of Larkhall Park who walked by said they were super grateful for what we were doing, pleased that the petanque pitch would finally see some use! (And definitely be easier on the eye...)

Petanque you very much

Nice work guys! Here's the link to next week's task and we'll head to the pub afterwards too! 🍹

11 of us headed up to Jubilee School to help Juan, the caretaker, prepare the school hall for an Inset Day on Friday! Welcome to Megan and Gayle who were both here for their first Lambeth Group Runs!

We met up at Papa's Park and each picked a place we would like to be right now other than a grey and cloudy London. Spain was the clear winner and Tim revealed he had been there just a few weeks ago.... not envious at all 😄

The school hall needed emptying of all the random things that had been there all summer whilst building work has been going on and so we had an eclectic selection of tasks:

• Moving tables, dining tables and table tennis tables outside
• Clearing the ground of felt and nails that had been discarded when building the new shed roof
• Taking a load of broken scooters to the skip
• Loading up some trolleys with some vintage IT equipment and rolling them to the skip and getting stuck on the slope (we made it with some teamwork)
• Posing on and parking some little bikes in a bikestand
• Building shelves in the shed and putting all the games and toys on the shelves

The hall was much emptier by the time we were finished and Juan was pleased so we headed off back to Papa's Park for some stretches.

Goodgym Islington returns to Market Road Gardens on a surprisingly dark Bank Holiday Monday, along with a classic group run from the Arsenal Hub.

Simon, John and Ben (first group run with GG Islington- welcome!) ran 2km each way (4km total) across Holloway Road, past the Ringcross Community Centre (home of our weekly cycle delivery missions) and over to Caledonian Road. Frannie from Octopus Community Network had given AA Simon the keys to Market Road Gardens earlier in the day, so all 5 of us (Caitlin and Mali too) let ourselves in.

Our planned task was to continue our long running renovation project of this lovely community garden. Earlier this month, a collection of fruit trees were planted in special grow boxes at the bottom of the park. The surrounding area used to be a small forest of weeds, brambles and vines, which have since been cleared and curated into pathways and wild growing space. Our intention was to clear away most of the overgrown vines, thistles and brambles from the area, ready for children and parents to visit in the near future.

The team did a terrific job, using clippers and gloved hands to clear the weeds and overgrown shrubs over the course of 45 minutes, gathering up many boxes and wheel barrow loads of green waste. After packing up tools into Gertrude, the beautiful old dairy delivery truck (now a tool shed), we parted ways- some on foot, others by bike. A great way to make the most of a Monday evening!

Area Activator Simon's 2nd Year Celebration!

Area Activator Simon will be celebrating 2 years as the Goodgym Islington trainer next Monday after our scheduled group run (task TBC).

We will be meeting up at The Highbury Library on Drayton Park at 8.45pm. Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/simon-celebrates-2-years-of-goodgym-training