This mission was all about stairs and we certainly were stairstruck but managed to hold it together to complete the task at hand! We tag teamed to bring a load of stuff for storage down from the mezzanine which involved navigating a very narrow, steep set of stairs. Then carried it all across the car park to another community centre and up two flights of stairs (correctly recognised by Cat as an old school for the iconic reddish flooring). After several reps the mezzanine was looking much clearer and the new storage room was full up, signalling a successfully completed task and a decent work out for a friday evening - good job team 😁

Until next time!

Tonight's task saw 12 Greenwich GoodGym-ers meet for a de-brambling session at Vanbrugh Pits in Blackheath.

Talk of favourite shops, past and present, got us through our relative journeys, and we were just about to walk on by, when suddenly, and without warning, there was this Partial Eclipse of the Sun! It got slightly dark, and there was this strange humming sound, like something from another world...🎵

OK, so that's actually a line from a Little Shop of Horrors song. Thankfully, the brambles we had to tackle weren't carnivorous like the one from the musical, but were pretty prickly, so we made good use of the tools provided, including loppers, forks, and mattocks, hacking & twirling and digging out roots. After a few trips to pile up the cuttings for collection by the local council, our time was up, and the "after" photo shows what a dent we made in the overgrown area. A total Eclipse of the Bark indeed!

Thanks all & see you soon ☀️🌙

7 Goodgymers turned up to help the Friends of Sutcliffe Park with an absolute Everest of a task: tearing up Himalayan balsam (not to be mistaken for celery). And there was no need to go to base camp to find it. We have all we need here at sea level.

We pulled up the balsam and separated the flowers from the stems to stop it going to seed and spreading even further. It was a real uphill battle, but we were determined to stem the tide before the balsam reached new heights.

No sherpas or oxygen needed, just a red shirt, some gloves, and the Goodgymers usual peak performance. A mountain of balsam tackled, one stem at a time.

This morning we were back at the wonderful Maryon Park Community Garden, and what a lovely morning for it. The sun was shining, the garden was looking fantastic and we weren't looking too shabby either (maybe a little shabbier after the task to be fair 🫠)

There was plenty to get stuck into. Kam and Aman took on the heavy job of shifting compost, while the rest of us split between giving the front gate a fresh coat of varnish, painting two fences, weeding and picking our affectionately termed 'runaway beans' - how apt! They will be enjoyed with Arthur's dinner provided they don't escape before then.

With the garden spruced up, it was time for some much appreciated refreshment, generously put on by our brilliant hosts, Tim and Edna.

Thank you everyone- until next time!

Rachel