The heat got to our 10 Goodgymmers last night as they went wild at the meadow in Lordship Rec in a thistley frenzy.

Big Shout...

...to everyone doing the Camino Ultra London race on Saturday - not least our very own Ultra GGHers <3 Win it for us, team!

Thistle Be A Day They Won't Forget

Caroline from the Friends of Lordship Rec welcomed us with open arms and clear, succinct instructions - the thistles were taking over the meadows and the prickly twits needed to be shown who's boss.

Before you could say 'we gotta save them Lady's Bedstraws', our goodgymmers had jumped into the meadows in the shadow of the always beautiful Broadwater Farm Estate and started handing out life lessons on the circle of life to the thistles.

In a warm evening when Goodgym got desperately close to tipping over the 250,000 Good Deeds mark, our GGH Fam pulled well into the evening without a care in the world. Thorny On Main Indeed.

Conversation ranged from the undeniable superiority of bocadillo as a long distance nutritional aid, to our resident GGH doctor diagnosing a few lazy asses. That's the medical term and I'm sticking with it. Just don't ask about how she conducted the physical.

We even had time to stop and glare at a rival running group who kept doing laps around us. Gramps considered briefly leading a group to introduce them to the circle of life curriculum we had been applying to the thistles all evening, but we remembered ourselves and instead waved at them. We'll be back before you know it :)

We have an action packed week coming up: Traid on Monday at 6 and then Luos on Wednesday at 7. You should definitely join us.

Peace

Many thanks to everyone who nominated us and to the outgoing Mayor of Haringey Sheila Peacock for recognising the work we do in our community by giving us one of the Haringey Heroes 2020 Awards. Party time!

How many Goodgymmers does it take to plant a bulb?

Big up to Charlie, Julia, Kapil, and Neil who braved the elements with me for a rather spirited 5K jaunt around Finsbury Park before we headed towards our pre-lockdown HQ, where the rest of the team awaited us.

For old time's sake, we indulged in the classic 'Circle Name/How Many Burpees Can We Get Kapil To Do' game before making our way into Tottenham Green where Laura was waiting for us with a cornucopia of tasks. 

Earlier this week, we'd heard the Friends Of Tottenham Green had been collateral damage in some austerity budget shenanigans and had not received any bulbs for planting yet. Spring will not be cancelled on our watch, so a GGH fairy godfather donated a few hundreds crocuses, daffodils and other sweet little flowers and we were ready for action - to paraphrase Neruda, 'you can cut the budget for all flowers, but you cannot keep Spring from coming.'

11 Goodgymers quickly divided into five teams: three bulb planting squads, one litter picking crew, and one hollyhocks seed sorting gang.

They were indefatigable in their efforts, let me tell you. They pulled up dandelions and planted bulbs with such skill, it was a joy to watch. Sam in the litter picking squad even tried to litter pick an old telly at some point - such was their commitment. And let's not even discuss Niamh, showing off her hairy hollyhocks to whoever walked past. What a night.

But all good things must come to an end and so we tidied up after ourselves, took some photos, elbow bumped our way into a long goodbye, and then ran our separate ways home, dreaming of spring.

Boom!

You should definitely join us next time, after all, we come Mayor of Haringey Approved now! :)