Leo

It was a quick cycle from the office to Miss P's flat for a lunchtime mission helping spruce up her already impressive patio.

She was very comfortable with me doing whatever I liked on her patio with no oversight or guidance, perhaps mistaking me for some sort of professional gardener. We briefly chatted about what I thought was the best use of my time and got about pruning and weeding.

There was also some calculating shunting of plant pots to accommodate the inclusion of a recent birthday present, a Peruvian Lily which ended up in pride of place next to the outdoor table.

It shone and it poured intermittently but the 90 minutes flew by and she seemed pleased with my work despite the before and after pictures looking remarkably similar!

According to Mr E, the outside of his windows hadn't been cleaned for about 20 years, so I was on hand to give them a bit of a wiping down.

He had the necessary cleaning fluid and some wipes for drying the windows afterwards so I was able to get stuck straight in.

I tackled a total of 6 panes in total, and whilst doing so he enquired as to whether I cleaned windows as my job which must have either been out of incredulity or hopefully a resounding endorsement of my handiwork. Hopefully the latter.

A team of 9 headed back to Hollybush Gardens tonight to help Margaret tidy the garden, just 48 hours before the London in Bloom judging.

We were divided into two teams: Leo and Sara on the front of the garden tidying rose bushes, while the rest of us headed to the orchard. All but one were on weeding, with Aine stationed in the compost area, sifting sticky weed from True Compost.

All was going according to plan until we encountered a truly troublesome plant. I surrendered rather too quickly, saying "I've seen this before," before 'borrowing' Leo from the front of the garden to try and tackle the stubborn roots. However, albeit as part of a terrific team effort, it was actually Becky who excavated the final part of the root on a victorious moment.

We then proceeded to commence the cleanup effort, with Margaret grabbing some final pics of us.

A whopping six of us then headed over to Middleton Green for Part II of the evening, where we used grassy mounds, tree stumps, and grass, as our fitness playgrounds, egged on by passers by.

It's official: Team Monday, you continue to rock.

We all gathered under a nice tree outside the Hub cafe at 10am but thankfully the shade wasn’t needed from the threatening rain as we enjoyed a couple of hours of somewhat competitive but mostly sociable rounders with only the mild “threat of rain” lurking in the background.

Teams were picked with the age old 1,2,1,2 around a circle method and for simplicity of the report and by coincidence one team had Aine and one team had Stephen as the co-organisers of the event so we will refer to them by that name!

Everyone helped set up the team and Aine gave a high level run through of the rules and point system - one point if you get a home run, half point if you make it home otherwise.

We did one game of one round batting each, followed by two rounds of combined batting (or if we had three outs, whatever comes first). The teams were well matched and everyone was warming up nicely with the skills improving massively over the hour. There was a lot of “oh wow that was harder than it looked!” Uttered across the pitch. Stephen’s team won the first game 12.5 to 10.5. This was followed by a “bat until you're out” round where Aine’s team triumphed mostly due to Leo’s amazing skills behind the batter to knock out the team in record time.

We then finished with one quick game of one bat each but the in the aim of socialness we didn’t really keep score (although all agreed it was probably Aines team that won ;) )

Everyone brought a few friends, Stephen being the winner of that the unintended competition with 5 as he proudly declared.

Each team had a home run king in Leo and Nathan but all round everyone played brilliantly and enjoyed a full match debrief over a coffee in the Hub cafe afterwards.

We’re hoping to arrange another game in August. If you have ideas for social squad ideas please get in touch!

Report written by Aine, and photos from Aine and John.

Continued great turnout to ensure the adventure playground is at the top of its game come its reopening.

Goodgymers came from far and wide to toil across the playground, reassembling goals, painting benches and containers and building gentle slopes out of soil.

A good day's work in the afternoon sun!

It was an early but glorious Saturday morning start as Beth and I met just north of Victoria Park to help Mrs J get a TV mounted on the wall.

Fortunately the stand had already been mounted on the wall (from a previous TV) and we just needed to make it work with a new TV, and a clever contraption to attach to the back of the TV and then hang it on the stand.

After a bit of head scratching and experimentation we settled on a strategy and found the right approach to screw it all together and in no time the TV was hanging up high on the wall and all plugged back in again.

With a quick check to ensure the TV turned on again still worked, we were on our way leaving Mrs J to enjoy some Saturday morning television.

As the Eurythmics sang…'Thorn in my side you know that’s all that it was worth' this time though, the thorns came with a bundle of laughs to champion a blooming lovely and very bushy Hollybush Gardens.

This evening’s GoodGym team met with the wonderful Margaret this fine summer’s evening. Emma led an enthusiastic bunch of GoodGymers and with Leo conquered overgrown prickly brambles, itchy ivy and that sticky long stuff. While the remaining team got stuck into the compost heap and helped repot some blooming lovely petit pois and watered 24 community raised planters.

Everyone enjoyed supporting prep for London Bloom which will be judged at the start of July.