Last night 12 of us gathered, some for the run and some meeting at the task. The sweaty ones arrived to a very prompt group waiting at Montessori House (I love our group, you're always on time - except for Ivar obviously who is always compulsively early.)

We haven't been here for a long time and have previously painted the outdoor fence which was off the cards tonight due to the rain so instead the main task was to paint the hallway. Thankfully Wendy and Mr Roger were very well prepared with the floor covered and all the rollers and brushes at the ready for us to get started. It was definitely a tight squeeze for 12 of us but we managed to organise ourselves and get the job done to I think a pretty good standard in half an hour and everyone seemed to still be friends by the end, despite a few painted rear ends 😆

Special welcome to Megan and Rubaina for your first tasks with us and hope you'll be back for more soon!

This weekend as well as the Parkruns we've got conservation at Oxleas Woods

And Hornfair Juniors on Sunday.

Next Wednesday we're at Prince Philip Maritime Museum where we'll be doing some odd jobs and gardening.

Until next time!

Rachel 👋

Westcombe woodlands is a genuine hidden gem. Tucked behind Maze hill station, this former nursing home shows just what happens when sensible natural management and the power of nature can achieve in an urban space.

The woodland is an old Good Gym favourite and on a glorious Sunday morning, with the sun shining and unseasonably warm temperatures, a keen team of 5 runners made their way from other good deeds to join the local volunteers at their monthly session. Tasks at the woodland tend to fall into two categories: a relatively tough session removing brambles and other overgrowth to allow other plants to flourish; and sessions involving lugging all and sundry up a steep slope that put the gym in Good Gym. Dear reader, from the title of this report you'll realise that today's task was very much the latter.

The material to be lugged was twofold: three of the team set to work collecting mulch and woodchip to replenish the paths and the other two found themselves staring at a large and (very) heavy bag of aggregate, that was there to help ballast a new staircase that the amazing volunteers had carved out to open access to a previously inaccessible area of the woods. And we rose to the challenge, the chippers not being satisfied with just one bucket at at time carried huge quantities up the hill and those carrying the aggregate got enough stone up the hill to complete almost a whole flight of steps.

It was hard work, but reward soon came in the form of cup and tea, biscuits and the satisfaction of another job well done.

12 GoodGymers met outside Woolwich station for a warm-up & ice breaker discussing apps we rely on, before Walking the Line/Running up that Hill to Dee's Childcare. As one of our regular tasks, often involving building play equipment, we're not Lost Boys in this venue, so soon got stuck in to the various jobs assigned to us.

Beginning with Heathers (the planting of) and finishing lopping away at some (Poison) Ivy (where Julian, Marta & Pieter embraced their inner Edward Scissorhands!), we also got to plant daffodil bulbs which we can't wait to see next spring, a Memento of our task this evening. The Secret of Our Success was, as always, the A Team that is Greenwich Goodgym, and Mission: Accomplished (never impossible!) we parted ways at the Crossroads.

So whether you're watching this report on Disney, Amazon or Netflix, great work everyone & catch up soon 🎬

Probably the best organised skip filling ever! Since the project was completed a couple of years ago, RUSS have accumulated a lot of rubbish that they needed to get rid via a skip. They also needed people who skip and do heavy lifting, there was only one team who could help - GoodGym Lewisham!

First, in went a large quantity of unusable wood. Then, what seemed like, several thousand plastic plant pots were put into columns. Some people - Oli and Steve, excelled at this, some people have poor at spatial relationships and were less good - yes that’s you Paul. The flower pots were placed at the bottom and then the skip and a couple of dozen bags of builders’ rubble more or less filled it.

Meanwhile, Lindsay and Julian bagged up copious quantities of well rotted compost.

Tea and biscuits wrapped things up at the end of an excellent evening.

RUSS is a volunteer-led Community Land Trust dedicated to providing homes that remain affordable in perpetuity. There is more about them here. https://www.theruss.org