On a sunny but cold October morning (belated signs that Autumn is definitely upon us), 4 GG'ers made their way to the walled garden next to Charlton House. The reason for the gathering was to help the resident CABAHS volunteers with their annual plant sale. This event is high on the CABAHS agenda, with proceedings going to the Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice.

As soon as we arrived, we were greeted to the sounds of "We can stop lifting the heavy stuff, GoodGym are here to help!" - good to know that we carry such great reputation! Not wanting to prove the shouts wrong, we quickly set out to carry as many plants in boxes, crates and makeshift containers as we could to their respective pride of place for display to any interested buyers.

Such was our dedication that we were done in 30 mins, leaving us time to admire the plants and even make some phone calls to flatmates to entice them to buy the fruits of our labour. We hope the plant sale is a treemendous success!

Well what a night, and what a pun! All credit to Ivar of course, who struck GOLD with that one and set off a tirade of puns in the whatsapp group.

Some walked and some ran to the task - with two simultaneous ice breakers, the best of which being "what's one thing you hated as a child that you now love?"

On arrival we split into teams - an indoor and an outdoor group. The innies were putting back up some gilded ceiling panels, the golden evidence of which is still on Mark's face apparently - what a great way to evidence who did the real work in that group 🤓

Meanwhile the outies pottered around the community garden, watering the beds, weeding and chatting. And Rubaina gallantly rescued me from a spider - especially glad you came back Rubaina and you can be paired with me for all future bug related tasks, thanks very much 🙋‍♀️

But last night was more tour that task and hey what a great way to spend a Wednesday evening than looking through the stores at the Prince Philip Maritime Museum. We checked out lots of paintings of shipwrecks and battles and portraits of lots of middle aged white men, and one woman who looked a bit taken aback to still be there. It was cool to get a peak inside and hear about some of the paintings - it's been a while since we've been in and we've had lots of new friends join us since then!

Time came to head off and then Aidyn caused some drama almost getting himself locked in (we almost did but we wouldn't have actually forgotten you, Aidyn.)

Great to see you all as always!

Coming up

There's loads going on this weekend in addition to the parkruns so come and join a session if you have some time!

Saturday:

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/spring-bulb-planting-and-mulching

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/gardening-at-hervey-road-community-garden-1ed22d2f-d7a0-489e-8a74-da9f3d7430db

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/remove-fence-in-sutcliffe-park

Sunday:

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/helping-at-the-cabahs-plant-sale-e89cf473-6588-423d-85cf-691658b18405

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/clean-up-charlton-10ce0687-9b2d-408e-b009-96e6222da227

Next Wednesday we've got a Charlton House start and a run to Charlton Manor Primary School: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/gardening-at-charlton-manor-primary-school-e46f1ec7-a47c-4ac6-bf6f-fb36414e9c9c

Until next time!

Rachel