On a sunny summer's eve, the good folk of Hackney GC found themselves shovelling shit for a good cause, namely preparing the ground for a new hedgerow at Hackney City Farm.

Fun was had by all (I think), and the team at the farm we're grateful for the help.

I know you're all on the edge of your seats wondering; will they finish this Herculean task, will someone fall into the mound of shit (probably), will Chi ever do any work when he turns up (probably not) and who genuinely thinks this task has had a life-changing impact on their lives (all of us - we're now scarred).

For more on this, watch this space for the next thrilling instalment of this epic adventure.

Friday night was a fantastic follow-up to our fabulous fork-filled Friday a fortnight ago.

This time there were a hardy 17 of us on a slightly chilly, breezy night. We convened, in a break from tradition, on the lawn on Old Ford Road in a nice big open space suitably keeping our distance from each other, while tremendous task owner Katherine gave a quick welcome and listed our activities for the hour or so ahead of us.

As jobs were dished out, we ended up scattered around the estate immediately getting stuck into the tasks at hand.

First to put up their hand for some weeding near the recently planted fruit trees were Jess, Srta, Kat and Sian who were so keen to get started they did so without any tools, relying on considerably brute force to pull the weeds out most successfully.

Just down the road, Team Isabecs™️ (Isabelle and Becs) were joined by Alex to weed the delightful corner bed, and as you would expect did a suitably excellent job of it.

Boris and Reika got stuck into weeding the flowerbed diagonally opposite them and what a superb job they did particularly considering their relative GoodGym inexperience - both clearly naturals!

The fab four of Rosa, Lucy, Charlotte and Sree were dispatched to the beating heart of the estate carrying out a myriad of digging and weeding tasks with the crew joining Raspberry Queen Lucy as she tackled pruning and tying back of some crucial raspberry bushes.

Hilary and Si were on Rose bush planting duty which meant digging two large holes and then planting the colourful variants of roses after Laura has expertly transported them to their new home. Their digging efforts were most appreciated given the designated spots were less than conducive to their forks and spades sliding through the soil, and but their toiling was well rewarded once the roses were in the ground 🌹🌷

That left me with the only job remaining, and having been bestowed with a trowel rake and a packet of hollyhock seeds I sought out suitable places against the wall with suitable sun exposure for them to be planted. A combination of some liberal scattering of seeds under a layer or two of soil and plenty of luck should see a smattering of hollyhock bushes climbing up the fences and further brightening the estate in no time at all.

The timed raced by the team had transformed some key areas of the estate and planted a great number of future delights to brighten the picturesque estate 🌴🌲🌳🌵

Special mentions section

A massive GoodGym welcome to Reika for her first ever task - as you didn't get the customary welcome round of applause, I hope this virtual clapping will make you feel suitably welcome and we can't wait to see you again! 👏👏👏

A big Tower Hamlets welcome (back) to Newham Hamlets duo of Rosa and Hilary. It's been great to see the recent influx of GoodGymmers in both directions across our wonderful boroughs 👫👭👬

Kat for showing up enthusiastically well ahead of the start time and despite not having her trainers but still got stuck in with delightful alacrity.

Well done to Alex for working extra-specially hard to make up for his comparatively less than punctual arrival ⏰

Laura for flitting around spreading joy and laughter throughout the estate whilst taking many superb photos (the majority of which make up the report) with thanks to Becs for her brilliant photographic contributions as well 📷

Great work to Si for his athletic endeavours managing to fit in a lap of Victoria park before the task had even begun 🏃

Many hands make light work

There were plenty of wonderful helping GoodGym hands available tonight to spread out over the lovely Parkview Estate to help the Residents Association plant some trees, dig holes, plant seedlings, weed, and prune roses.

We were greeted by Cathering and little Liam who wasted no time in dispatching us to five wonderful corners of the estate to carry out these environment-enhancing jobs. Catherine is working hard to offer her estate food growing options, bee friendly plants, and gardening SOS's for the elderly residents unable to tackle weed-infested borders.

So the team busied themselves for over an hour helping one another out the minute they finished one task, to enable us all to finish on time.

No sooner had we laid down the last trowel and made our way to beautiful Bonner Gate in Victoria Park was my phone pinging with a message from Catherine to say, "You are all magnificently brilliant. Thank you so SO much." Who am I to disagree.

Atmospheric exercise

Once in Victoria Park, we lined the pavements, out of the way of cyclists and pedestrians keen to reach the next stage of their evening, and giving one another bundles of space, where we proceeded to workout for a full half hour covering cardio, balance and strength work and then...YOGA! Yep, enter Kat, our brilliant yoga teacher for the night, who'd come to join the task, but so generously taught a wonderful, flowing flexibility segment. THANK YOU KAT! First GoodGym run and you teach us yoga!!

And we finished with some dedicated breathing exercises to fully land for the weekend.

Amazing! What a team.

And lastly, big big shout outs...

To Becs, Becky and Leo who helped plan and lead our activity tonight.

And hello, thanks and welcome to our fabulous first time GoodGymers, Katriye, Paula, Charlotte, Rachael, Martha, Rachel, Hugh, Georgina and Gaga. Hope to see you again very soon.

Have a brilliant weekend everyone!