Nettle, groundsel, alkanet, greeted us when first we met,

At Tiber Football, in the city, GoodGym magic would make it pretty.

Christine pulled and Pauline dug,

Ben hoe-hoed, and Rowan did tug.

Creeping thistle and common ragwort, we'll soon pull you up...or so we thought!

Jo was bending,

Kate crouched low,

All working hard, but progress slow.

Bindweed bound and couch grass grew, broad-leaved dock and brambles, too.

Tim cleared plants that stung and scratched,

Chris pulled grass, the weeds were matched!

Roots went deep, there seemed no end, tools were few, when used, they'd bend!

But Laura heaped the pulled weeds high, could it be...the end was nigh?

Serena filled the bins, and then... we filled them once or twice again.

And in the blazing summer sun, we all stood back, saw what we'd done.

The ground was clearer than before, we'd done three tasks, but needed more...

So, for today, our job was done!

GoodGym, you're fab! Thanks, everyone!

On a drizzly Saturday morn, 8 Goodgymers helped out Friends of Princes Park https://www.friendsofprincesparkl8.org.uk/ for 67 minutes with litter picking and protecting the trees. We more than doubled the number of volunteers for this day recognising 67 years of Nelson Mandela’s struggle for civil rights.

It was great to have Laura join us and help on clearing the tree bases. The youngest Goodgym recruit Isobel made a special appearance along with Becky and curiously surveyed the work. From clearing considerable amounts of strewn rubbish to clearing the grass and laying mulch down around trees, a solid shift was put in with only a brief pause of wonderment at the steam rising from the mulch! A warm welcome back to Chris Armitage!

Becky, Yan and Becky filled more than 5 bags with litter and after handing back our hi viz vests, we parted ways having made a good difference. Well done everyone