What a fantastic time we had helping out at The Community Hospice!

This was our most popular community mission so far, with GoodGym members coming from Greenwich, Tower Hamlets, Camden, and of course, Bexley. It was great to see so many friendly faces ready to get stuck in!

Jason, the Head Gardener, had lots of jobs for us to do to get the garden looking at its best before the Open Gardens Festival next weekend. And wow—we got loads done!

✅ We pulled out weeds ✅ Cleared ivy and brambles from the wall ✅ Cut back some bushes ✅ Tidied up the whole area

Everyone worked hard and made a big difference. The garden is now looking fresher and ready to welcome visitors!

We also had some brilliant milestones to celebrate: 🎉 A huge congratulations to John gaining his GoodGym crown with his 500th good deed—amazing 👑! 👏 Well done to Zita, Robert, and Caroline for reaching 10 good deeds each. Go team!

Thanks to everyone who came along—it was such fun, and we’re already looking forward to the next one. 🌼🌳

This evening we gathered at Charlton House (Khai unexpectedly starring in a wedding photo shoot) and shared which gameshows, past and present we'd like to go on. We also did some balance and core exercises - remember to stand on one leg while you brush your teeth, guys - suck your tummy in and squeeze your bum = strengthen your core for the Big Half!

Today we were celebrating Marta reaching the 900 good deeds milestone! 😇😇 She's hoping to get to 1,000 by next march and then she gets a new t-shirt with a sun on it because she will have then been deemed to have reached godly status (I for one think she's already there but the Tshirt will prove it!)

A lovely evening for a lovely task and after a short run and meeting Robert, Annie, Bobbie and Ivar (email not ipad) at the task, Annie got ten of us got to work watering, weeding, planting some fox gloves and sewing some seeds. We got loads done tonight and it makes such difference!

Bobby gave Annie a hand back with the wheelbarrow on the rest of us trundled off back to Charlton House and during a quick stretch we discussed upcoming tasks: we've got the Community Hospice (celebrating Johnny's 500th good deed) and Hervey Road again on Saturday; next week we're back at Brooklands on Wednesday and the following week we've got helping at Horn Fair PARKSfest .

Until next time :)

Rachel

To quote Marta "Thanks everyone! Very happy to have had 900 opportunities to spend time with amazing people like you guys!! ❤️". Well we're more than happy to share you with Greenwich and to celebrate the amazing achievement of 900 good deeds! You might have to wait another 100 good deeds for a tshirt and with your current rate of good deeds, we'll need to get planning for that one soon.

The task for the evening was to Alexander Care Home in Ladywell to continue tackling the weeds in the garden. We made a good dent in the flower beds last time and now this time we were focusing on the gaps in the pacing stones and the alkinet and brambles at the back of the garden.

The group then took a leisurely walk to keep me company on the short journey to Mamma Dough. It was good to chat about Charlotte Church, Marta staring in a gameshow, Saturday morning TV and the Pope visiting Charlton.

Thanks to Paul for getting the group to the task whilst I jumped on the bus. Next week is a double task so we need all hands on deck to tackle weeds at both Florence Green and Luxmore Garden.

Today we were back at Maryon Park community garden, a wonderful space that has been lovingly run by Edna and Tim for many years. Coming here has always been a favourite task for Good Gym Greenwich and it was nice to be back. The tasks today were manyfold; the garden having become quite overgrown in places and a gap had opened up in the orchard that needed to be plugged to make things safer.

So to work, and two of the team worked to plug the gap using some old pieces of fence (with some masterful manoeuvring needed to get said fences to the orchard), two of us set to trimming overhanging foliage and the rest of us set to removing copious numbers of weeds.

And karma was kind to us: despite a terrible weather forecast the rain held off for the whole session and after an hour’s hard work we were done. As usual Tim and Edna had generously provided snacks and we also benefited for some lovely leftover cake that Cat had prepared for her book group (thanks Cat, it was lovely).