Tonight's task was an annual favourite: distributing flyers to advertise the wonderful Noel Park Festival.

First to arrive at GGHHQ was run leader Sarah, after having run from home in the heat to get there on time. When no one else had arrived by 6:45, Sarah made her way alone to meet task owner Rich, who was clutching a handful of flyers and wearing a suspiciously clean-looking red t-shirt. Welcome back to the fold, Rich!

Sarah had shared a 📍, and she was surprised by the arrival of Clare who hadn't signed up but just happened to be passing by, and decided helping the community was far preferable to a five minute fitness test run. Dave was next up, and just when we thought everyone else was super late Asan appeared.

We split into two teams of two, one each side of the road, with Rich going to flyer a smaller side street. Soon it turned into a little competition between Sarah and Asan on one side, and Dave and Clare on the other. Dave and Clare managed a narrow victory.

On the next street over, Mark appeared. Rich rejoined the group and now it was three on three. Sarah attempted to get a cat to join, but cats are not team players.

Meanwhile Latoya was somewhere in Noel Park trying in vain to catch up with our merry band. Alas, we were too quick for her!

Soon enough we had completed all of the target streets and it was time to melt away into the evening (quite literally perhaps, it's still very hot out there).

Two new Goodgymmers, Haoran and Helen, joined today's run leader Sarah at Blue House Yard on this balmy spring evening. From there, it was a gentle run to Lordship Recreation Ground to meet task owner Mike and the rest of the GGH gang.

Mike issued us with a wheelbarrow each and we headed to the woodchip pile. The first task was to uncover some logs that were submerged in the pile and load up the wheelbarrows. Then we had to wheel the barrows across the Rec to the bug hotel in the orchard. This is something we had started on a previous visit, so those who had been before (coughSarahcough) were reminded of how hard it is to transport a fully laden wheelbarrow across the Rec. We definitely put the Gym in Goodgym today!

As the sun set, the bugs inspected the improvements to their hotel. There was time for them each to have a snack before bed. Yet again, no one in our trusty team had remembered to put insect repellent on before venturing out this evening. That's just how altruistic (or forgetful) we are...

Last time our heroes were at Blue House Yard, it was to clear an unloved bed in the entrance and get it ready for planting. And now the day had come! Goodgym Haringey assembled at the yard, only to be told by Sarah that the first job for the day was to get rid of a tonne bag full of weeds from last time! This entailed carrying it up the road to the garden at the Haringey Learning Project. They don't call them tonne bags for nothing - those things are HEAVY! But one thing Goodgym Haringey are good at is teamwork, and they all took turns doing their bit.

The school also happened to be where the plants for today's task had been delivered. So Job #2 was to carry plants and tools back down to Blue House Yard.

Once there, we got to Part Three of today's task: placement and planting of all of the plants. Many holes were dug and plants were planted - no, not there!!

Our team made short work of the planting and had enough time to return the tools and empty plant pots at the end. Our friends at Ludo's bus bar promised to water the plants in, and the only job left for our team was to ensure we were also well hydrated before heading away into the night.

Ten Goodgymmers journeyed deep into the heart of Haringey's latest tiny forest for a spot of dregrassification.

Olfactory Blues

Our Goodgymmers ran a cool mile to the New Road Park Tiny Forest as part of the Tiny Forest Wildlife Count. Friends of the tiny forest met us there and after a temporary misunderstanding around whether Gramps was going to foot the bill for all the Big Fat Cats bonuses at Thames Water, we were pleased when Mina from the Friends group turned up with tools, bags, and clear mandate for our lot: de-weed this poor tiny forest so the trees get more of the rain water into their thirsty roots - whenever it comes.

Say no more. Our Goodgymmers pulled grass, yarrow, and dandelions to their hearts' content, while discussing the merits of medieval mead-making and the evolutionary reasons of why a little bit of pain is good for you.

All the while, Gramps was keeping a beady eye on the lookout for any sign of wildlife. Sam came to his rescue, in a way, when she alerted him to, as she put it, a very faecaly smell in the area she was weeding. Reader, she must hit the vulpine scatological motherload because we all had to move away from the area. All newcomers were warned to avoid Sam's behind because of the faecaly smell - 'behind' used here purely in its geographical sense rather than anatomical and in no way for comedic purposes at poor Sam's expense. No. Never.

After about an hour, our heroes stopped for the evening after a rather successful weeding session and we all headed home satisfied with a good day's work.

Boom.

Join us for another tiny forest expedition next week as we visit the folk at White Hart Rec.

3 runners dashed from Blue House Yard to Meadow Orchard, only to realise there was no GoodGymers meeting us at the task, so we could have ambled along at a party pace.

But that didn't stop us from working flat out at the task! The meadow had a tonne of wood chip delivered, which the fungus was starting to turn onto good quality mulch outside in the car park. With some solid shovel work, we cleared the lot before sunset! Starting to reclaim an old spoils ditch into a usable path. Despite all the goodness this will add to the soil, there was no worms yet. Sorry little robin assistant!