5 Good Gymers joined Team Clean Up Charlton to tackle a bad patch on the Woolwich Road near Selco, and a usual favourite grot-spot down Anchor & Hope Lane. With 9 of us it was almost a scrum to chase that litter down! The youngest member of the team showed amazing talent for searching out clean recyclables - we got two bags of bottles and cans between us and 11 bags in total in just an hour.

As usual Ashton was the first behind the bushes and down in the ditches - we know he puts Sarah and Ivar on a pedestal but maybe this was taking it too literally. We might love a fair but there's no excuse for dumping the signs behind the shrubs - there's no hiding your trash from us, Blackheath Fun Fair!

As usual the approved bags are left for our friends at Greenwich Council to collect. Thanks to everyone who came along!

The sun was out and so were Good Gym. An amazing 8 of us turned up to help the team at Hervey Road, where Annie and Richard are working hard to build a garden behind the sports field.

We were met first by Khai who had had the presence of mind and kindness of heart to bring water for everyone, which was really helpful as it was certainly hot. Annie soon arrived and were assigned to a multitude of tasks with some of the team watering some very thirsty trees, others cutting the grass and others weeding the various beds, all the time making sure we didn't cut down or kneel on or otherwise trash any of the beautiful wild flowers growing. And what was also nice to see was that we were joined by countless bumblebees and ladybirds, showing that South East London is a wonderful hot-bed for nature.

After an hour we were all pretty much exhausted and it was time for photos before heading off to enjoy the sunshine,

Finally, I can''t finish the report without a shout out for Sarah, who had completed her 400th parkrun that morning,. This is such a brilliant achievement so well done Sarah.

This morning 10 of us gathered, with four mini litter pickers in tow, to join the Friends of Woolwich Common for their monthly litter pick. Such is the GoodGym community that several of us bumped into each other in Charlton Park - on that note, special welcome back to Ibrahim on your third task in a week! Seems like someone's got the GoodGym bug!

After gathering all the necessary equipment, we all headed off to different parts of the common, filling lots of bags of rubbish and a couple of dumped chairs and lots of chats along the way. Thanks to Robyn for sharing her snacks at the end! And to Ashton for pumping up my running buggy tyres. No excuse now!

On Wednesday we're back at Brooklands School for more soil shifting.

Until next time 😊

Rachel

A fired up team from GoodGym joined Clean Up Charlton members for an hour on the circuit around the retail park in SE7. Half the group tackled the usual debris in Anchor & Hope Lane and Bugsby's Way, and the rest Woolwich Road and a 'grot-spot' at the car-charging station. Now, as well as clean energy, we have a clean pavement there. Then it was a brief call to 'Frankie & Benny's Alley' which we will have to rechristen 'Popeye Lane' now - doesn't mean it has any less litter!

Thanks for a great effort to everyone who attended - you light up our life!