A GoodGym classic - a hardcore pruning session for three trees that had become rather overgrown!

It's officially headtorch season, and armed with a very fun array of loppers and secateurs, we got to work along the perimeter of the garden at Cressfield Close, taking back all the overgrown foliage to clear some space. We left the one late flowering rose in place, but had lots of other thorny branches to contend with!

Once a huge pile of cuttings had been raked together we had a slightly tricker challenge - working out if we could fit it all into one wheely bin.

Luckily, we're quite adept at condensing down green matter now, so the pile was rapidly sliced up and compacted into about a quarter of its original size!

We left the garden looking much neater, and reader for part of the fence to be repaired to maintain the resident's privacy.

St Peter’s was looking really nice this evening, especially with the lights we put up during our last session now all lit up!

We split into two groups, with one group outside collecting up the leaves and clearing them away. Once we had gathered them all up, they were put into the compost, giving them a chance to eventually go back into the ground and give something back to the garden.

The other group definitely had a more hands-on job, getting stuck into taking things down, unscrewing bits, carrying boxes and helping to clear and reorganise the space inside the church. There was plenty to get involved with, and everyone was happy to get stuck in.

Lucinda was also busy giving one of the benches a fresh coat of paint, while a few cats made an appearance outside too!

With so many people coming along, it made for a really enjoyable evening with plenty of teamwork, good vibes and lots getting done.

Another perfect morning greeted us under the Big Tree today - and the blue sky, sunshine and ideal parkrunning conditions (occasional fallen leaves aside) brought out a crowd, with 61 runners completing today's 2 lapper around the fields, which included 8 absolute first timers and a whole series of PBs. Excellent work by all concerned.

Nick, as today's RD, was very glad to have the support of London Fields GG regulars Sooz and Hilary, along with Fuad, John and Louise who had answered the call to various local GG groups for more hands, and volunteers Gary, Marion, Nick, Tom and Ching-Yi, who all kindly gave up their time this morning to make it all run as smoothly as it did. Judging by the (mostly) smiles and out of breath faces as runners got their barcodes scanned having sprinted down the finishing straight, everyone did a great job.

We'll be back next week under the big tree for more of the same - can't ensure it'll be the same clear blue skies, but join us if you can - feelgood and happy smiley junior runners guaranteed.

Monday night was another big one at Cranbrook Community Centre!

We got stuck into improving the outside areas, with plenty of leaf picking, clearing up and getting the garden looking a little more loved. Lucinda also came prepared with the lights and made sure everyone had gloves, which definitely came in handy as it started getting darker!

We also had a couple of new faces join us, including someone doing their very first GoodGym session! It was lovely to have them join us at Cranbrook, and hopefully we’ll see them back here again soon

But the biggest celebration of the evening was for Kareem, who completed his 100th GoodGym session! 🎉 It was also his last session with us for a while as he’s moving on to his next plans, so it was a lovely way to mark the occasion. We’ll definitely miss having him around, and wishing him all the best with whatever comes next!

A big thank you to everyone who came along, got stuck in and helped make a difference to the outside space. Another Monday night well spent!

Lady Andrea was quick to invite GoodGym to host a stall at St Matthew's community event to celebrate the church's 280th birthday. A lot of people were interested to hear about us, and many took our flyers. I also had a lady from a community organisation asking for our help, so look out for a brand new task on a future Monday night! We also got to sample the buffet, climbed the church tower, listened to a history talk, got a demonstration of the organ, rang the bells and saw the inner workings of the clock

Our only panic came when we emerged from the tower to find our precious GoodGym flag had disappeared! After some detective work, we discovered that Lady Andrea had taken it home for safe keeping. So we got to see the fantastic collection of plants on her balcony!

Great heavens, can you believe it, it's bulb planting time again already!

On Wednesday evening, we were back at our regular haunt, Cecil Sharp House, for our monthly maintenance session.

Our first task was to start getting some new bulbs in the ground, for a bit of extra colour come Spring time. We had a huge bag of daffodil bulbs to plant in all the beds around the front of the building.

As always, we also gave the place a very through sweep and bagged up many fallen leaves to keep the building looking smart for lots of exciting activity they have coming up this autumn!

Lydia did a wonderful job working with our host, Susannah, to replant two big tubs that had been looking very sorry for themselves since the drought. We left the place sparkling, and full of new life!