There's always a lot to do at Westcombe Woodlands and today was no exception. 3 Good gymers made their way there on a milder than expected January Sunday and were soon put to work.

Task one was a wet old tarpaulin that needed to be hung out to dry. And with some ropes and some long suppressed girl/boy scout knot knowledge we soon had the tarpaulin strung between a couple of trees like so much washing.

Next up was tackling the overgrowth. Holme oak, Holly, the inevitable brambles and some other plants were overgrowing the path and providing too much shade so had to go. Demonstrating agility that would shame a mountain goat we'd soon cut everything back extensively, letting in much more light to the woods.

Westcombe Woodlands is a wonderful task and we're all looking forward to getting back there in Febraury.

That's the thing with ivy- it creeps up on you 🫣 And before you know it, you need GoodGym to come and see it, say it, sort it.

For our first group run of 2025 we discussed our new years ressies before running the 1.3km to the church, Jackie meeting us there having looked like she was breaking into the church a bit further up the road😁 Great to have you back with us Jackie and extra kudos for coming and doing a good deed so that all those miles you're clocking for Ironman count for the Jan Challenge! Amazing.

We enjoyed a productive half hour at the Village Church pulling up and lopping down as much ivy as we could get into the bin bags. Ashton was definitely man of the hour, providing milk chocolate hobnobs (hands down the best biscuit ever invented.)

Next Wednesday we're back at Prince Philip Collections Centre

This weekend we've got the usual parkruns, Conservation at Oxleas, Maintenance at Westcombe Woodlands and Clean up Charlton .

Lots to keep us busy over January!

Until next time,

Rachel

On a particularly cold Monday evening in Lewisham, only the strong could be found braving the elements to gather homeless Christmas trees: that’s GoodGym!!

In order to maximise our impact, once approaching Hilly Fields the group split into 3 teams (captained by Darryl, Paul, and Steve) before proceeding to patrol their respective areas in search of discarded pine.

Despite the park already sporting 4 pretty big piles, a power hour of tree retrieval delivered a total of 28 specimens. But what of the (strictly friendly) competition between teams..? Well, the results were:

Team Paul: 7 trees Team Darryl: 9 trees Team Steve: 12 trees - congrats!

There was just enough time for a reunited group ascent of Hilly Fields, and a lovely moonlit view of Canary Wharf, before our return to Glass Mills