There are easier ways to spend a sunny Thursday than enthusiastically attacking a giant hole with a mattock, but where's the fun in pondering about it? Alongside Iyabo, we helped Froglife.org transform a soil excavation into what is now, against all apparent odds, a functioning pond 🤞 Our role involved hammering some mattocks, clearing loose soil and such, sharp roots, stones, glass and anything else that clearly wasn't part of the frogs' long-term housing plan. We then helped lay the liner and protective rubber before throwing plants and carefully dripping enough water to make the whole project look deliberate. The day's engineering highlight came when the Froglife team used a hose and plastic poles to establish the pond's level. To spectators, this resembled a cross between civil engineering and summoning a water spirit. Yet somehow it worked, and the water remained in the pond. Science wins again. Meanwhile, the council hose had thoughtfully evolved a side quest by spraying water through a puncture (pre-existing condition so no cover for that), requiring emergency bag-rescue operations led and solved by the cupcake chef using a brick to plug the leak. Locals kept everyone fuelled with halloumi sandwiches, fried tomatoes and Jaffa Cakes among other yummies, while a reporter documented events and an artist attempted to capture the spectacle of dozens of adults repeatedly running in and out of a muddy crater like in Twister game and at the end everyone gradually turned into a human pretzels.

Thanks to Froglife, local volunteers, the council's mostly-functional hose, and plenty of hard graft, the day ended with a brand-new pond 🤞 In the end, we all mattock'd the walk and pond-er'd the impossible. 🐸💧

The whole mission onsite was carefully currated and managed by Harry.

P.S. the pond's name TBD and then TBC.

Last night, 12 of us gathered at Charlton House before running or walking our way to Charlton Manor Primary School for an evening of community spirit, paintbrushes and several spiders.

After a short run, some of the runners met up with our walking crew at the school, who were already armed with paintbrushes and getting stuck into freshening up the walls of the Mary Seacole classroom. No hanging about here!

Meanwhile, another small but mighty team tackled the lost property cupboard. We made some decent headway, sorting the mountain of mystery belongings into different crates and uncovering what felt like a thriving spider community along the way.

As they say, many hands make light work, and with everyone mucking in, we got plenty done.

Thank you everyone - we'll be back later in the year to give the outdoor equipment a fresh lick of paint, so watch this space!

Coming up

🌳 This weekend: Alongside our usual parkruns, we've got two lovely community missions:

🌱 Spreading woodchip on the woodland walk at Horn Park: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/spreading-woodchip-on-the-woodland-walk-at-horn-park

🐾 Helping clean up at the Old Blue Cross Pet Cemetery: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/clean-up-at-the-old-blue-cross-pet-cemetery-4b4c6df7-1980-40e8-ab7b-12ef394e39b9

🏫 Next Wednesday: We're heading to Woolwich for a run to help out at Glyndon Community Centre: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/helping-at-glyndon-community-centre-fe52fe5b-49c1-4ed6-a817-a3de5d46ff9a

🌿 Next Saturday: Join us for a group run to Mycenae Gardens for some garden maintenance: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/maintenance-at-mycenae-gardens

Until next time, wonderful people! 👋

Rachel

12 GoodGymers met outside Woolwich station for a warm-up & ice breaker discussing apps we rely on, before Walking the Line/Running up that Hill to Dee's Childcare. As one of our regular tasks, often involving building play equipment, we're not Lost Boys in this venue, so soon got stuck in to the various jobs assigned to us.

Beginning with Heathers (the planting of) and finishing lopping away at some (Poison) Ivy (where Julian, Marta & Pieter embraced their inner Edward Scissorhands!), we also got to plant daffodil bulbs which we can't wait to see next spring, a Memento of our task this evening. The Secret of Our Success was, as always, the A Team that is Greenwich Goodgym, and Mission: Accomplished (never impossible!) we parted ways at the Crossroads.

So whether you're watching this report on Disney, Amazon or Netflix, great work everyone & catch up soon 🎬