Last night the GG Lambeth crew were scheduled to head over and help out Valcie and the local residents at Landor Road Allotments and as of the morning we had a group of 5 of us.

This was also the second attempt to get over there as the last session had to be postponed so we wanted to do a good job but as the day progressed the attendance list began to fluctuate. By 6pm only AA Yianny was signed up (but others had committed verbally) to coming so when Michael arrived at Papa's it had been decided to postpone again...

Michael and Yianny decided to keep the Run portion of the evening and head out together only to receive a call saying two more volunteers (Marie-Noelle and Paul) plus two community members were at the plots (enjoying a glass of red opposite) waiting for us! And so in the end it was TASK ON for the Lambeth team.

After all that it was a very satisfying task chopping wood, pulling weeds, tidying, collecting green waste and generally helping to put the allotment back to some kind of order for those who had not been able to tend their plots. There was also a listing tree that needed propping back up with metal rods (perhaps a glass of red too many...?)

Just after 8 we deposited our black bags at the entrance and made our separate ways home. Big thanks to all who turned out and keep an eye out for our Summer GG Picnic event which will take place at the Allotments kindly hosted by Valcie for all our help. ;0)

What better way to celebrate the message of the Big Plastic Count (Reduce Reuse Recycle) than to do a two for one special task helping out our friends at Get Rid of and Donate (GROAD).

GROAD directly benefits those underprivileged, impoverished communities and people in need of that extra support, providing immediate assistance with free clothing, shoes, and other living essentials and we were helping spread the word to the community around Brixton Water Lane so people could make donations of pre-used and pre-loved items to be redistributed.

Mark met AA Yianny at Papa's while we agreed with Louise and Jo to meet on the way as well as Marie-Noelle our resident walk leader!

We set off in 2s and 3s down various roads and by 8pm a huge stack of flyers had been reduced to almost nothing - and we barely got sprinkled on to boot, although just enough for a rainbow to appear, so that was a bonus :0)

It is a simple but satisfying task and one that we hope will make a big difference to GROAD in their search for donations to give a deserved 2nd life to. If you are interested in supporting GROAD why not sign up for one of our weekly Sunday sessions at St Faith's Church where the donations are packed and sorted? Check out the links below for the next couple (and they run every week!) https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/taking-in-and-sorting-donations-for-get-rid-of-donate-can-you-help-53ba1ab7-a400-46ad-ac04-765dbe637b52

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/taking-in-and-sorting-donations-for-get-rid-of-donate-can-you-help-553fd5fc-f470-49a1-997e-a027c55df4a2

Big thanks to all and see you next time!

We are back folks! A great turnout last night for our Group run after a few sparse weeks and we were heading over to help Father Nature (James to his friends!) with the Lavender Maze in Max Roach Park.

An all too familiar story for AA Yianny who is crocked again and wasn't able to run to the task so had to hobble across but never fear we had Louise and Michael who were able to lead a fast loop up to Stockwell and then back down the Brixton road to the park with Mark. We would also like to wish Mark a big Happy Birthday for his Bday this week - another year younger and if like me no wiser at all ;0)

Once we had all arrived at Max Roach we were met by our resident walkers, Jo, Paul and Marie-Noelle as well as James and our task was to weed and clear all the invasive species that were muscling in on the lavender in the maze. it was absolutely wonderful to see how the maze is looking now and we can't wait for some sunny spring days to get a real look at it in full bloom.

With our kneeling boards, hand tools and plenty of fingers in soil we managed to clear the whole maze of weeds and leave it looking tip top while also allowing the lavender to grow free of intrusion.

Just after 8pm we were done and packed up and our walkers and Mark headed home, Louise and Jo were off to do a reccy of the Effra social for the London GG April social (details available soon), while AA and Michael made our way slowly back to Papa's - sorry Michael!

Big thanks to all and see you next week.

We had a very small group last night but all the better for a good chat especially as the weather decided to take a turn just as we were setting off from Papa's!

AA Yianny had plenty of time to contemplate all things GoodGym while waiting for Document Checks to come then Fi came blasting in having run down to Brixton (excellent work!), one of us was freezing and one of us was nice and toasty - I'll let you guess who was which!

We set off to Holy Trinity at a nice pace to hold a conversation and in no time we were there, soggy, but in good spirits to meet with Paul and Marie-Noelle who had walked to the task directly.

Nicole, Andy and Naomie from the committee were there to meet us and our task was to stack and move hundreds of chairs (see before and after pics), move some boards and lay out some trestle tables ready for this weekend's Ceili (dance / gathering). AA also popped in for a quick look at the straw bale hall and it is looking fantastic!!

We stacked and wheeled chairs, lifted and shifted the boards, unfolded and placed the tables and that was that, another great job done and all happy all round - not bad for a blustery Tuesday night!

As ever thanks to all and see you next time!

Last night despite the freezing temperatures the GoodGym Lambeth crew were back out there heading over to Jubilee Primary School to give Juan a helping hand.

The task was a simple one but any help during this time of the year is warmly (!) welcome so the team set about weeding and trimming back the bushes to have the place ship shape for the young learners when they arrived on Wednesday morning.

Our All Star Task Force member Nathan led the run and brought the group there and back in no time, while Marie-Noelle and Paul joined us walking.

Thanks to Kaz, Fi (welcome back!) and Michael for risking your fingers to frostbite and I look forward to being back with you next week for a really fun session - it's Litter Pick Bingo !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night our fantastic Run Leader Joao stepped into the breach to cover the run as AA Yianny was on family duty and it was a great group turnout to boot!

Most of the group met at Papa's to get out of the cold for a few minutes before setting off while Marie-Noelle, Paul and Lindy met the group at the task. It was also lovely to see Elsa back for her second session in two weeks (that way a streak lies!)

After an easy run the group arrived and were let in by the cleaning staff and by the looks of the pictures were in charge of shifting loo roll about as well as some weeding and pruning of one of the outdoor spaces.

We will keep it as simple as that for this week's report but if any of the group want to update on any humourous goings on then please add that into the comments section below.

Big thanks to all and we are now on the final countdown to the festive period so some great tasks with our fantastic partners as well as the end of year party on the 19th - get signed up here: Ho Ho Hold My Pumpkin Spiced Kombucha

Another lovely Tuesday evening at GG Lambeth with a mix of new and long term members joining us for the task with Thames Reach hospice. We are certainly getting lucky with the crisp cold but dry conditions although most of the group insisted it wasn't that cold..... AA Yianny begs to differ!

First up a warm welcome to Liz and Elsa (?!) who were attending their first GG session as new members, it was lovely to have you both with us! Also welcome back to Charlotte - back with us after a long injury layoff, glad to have you with us again.

Tonight's run was a good one. We were heading down to the Thames Reach Hospice about four kilometres each way to help out with their communal garden. Communication had been sparse and it turns out on arrival that our point of contact with Thames Reach no longer works there. But thankfully the team there were happy to see us and were able to let us in and into the shed to find the tools and carry out the job.

We were met at the task by our resident walkers / cyclists Marie-Noel and Paul. And now that our group was complete, we were able to get our gloves on and get cracking with weeding the planting beds. 45 minutes later, we'd done a great job in clearing out the large planting bed so that the onions (or possibly daffodils?) could grow in peace. We also managed to disturb a large number of creepy crawlies from the planting bed, to the delight of Louise, who was doing a bit of good gym tourism this evening. In the last few minutes we were able to collect a bit of litter to spruce the garden up a bit, put everything in the bin and then we were ready to head back to base and those who were running separately or cycling could head home.

Huge thanks to everybody for this evening and a reminder that next week's session will be held in French, followed by sessions in German, Norwegian and any other language that people care to share with the rest of the group. Only joking, but great to have some really fun conversation about where people are from (Oslo such a beautiful city!), where they've been living, and what languages they prefer speaking.

See you all at the next one!

A change of start point last night as we all made our way variously by bike, running or even walking to the task so that we could get an early start as there was plenty to get on with at Holy Trinity Church.

The nights are drawing in but we brushed that off and were looking forward to meeting Nicole and Adam to help paint the newly built eco hall which is annexed onto the church. We were also in celebratory mood as Lambeth has just completed 1000 Community Missions and AA Yianny just had his birthday so there were sweet treats for all at the end!

We were delighted to welcome a long lots of new faces, Daisy, Will, Emma it was great to have you with us, although if you think it's all indoor tasks and cake at GG you are in for an interesting winter....! Fi it was lovely to have you back with us as well.

As everybody changed into their painting clothes (no GG t-shirts were harmed during last night's task) Nicole explained that the walls of the hall are compressed straw covered with clay while interior walls were gypsum board so we had both clay paint and emulsion to contend with. Marie-Noelle and Paul were aproned up and on emulsion duty while Frances, Daisy, Michael, Nathan, Fi and later Will on clay paint (glad to have your extra height Will!)

Daryl had bravely chosen to run over from Peckham for his first Lambeth session and arrived in time to help AA shift some gypsum boards. With every board at c. 40kgs we shifted 640 kilos in total - not bad at all.

Paul then headed over with Adam to stack hundreds of chairs ready for this weekend as well.

Holy Trinity's priest Richard also paid us a visit to see the work in action and gave us a score of 60% for painting technique but 100% for effort and application so we'll take that!

By 8pm it was time to pack up and get stuck in to some cakes, brownies, cookies and non alcoholic fizz and blow up a few balloons to boot. A huge thank you to all for coming out and the ongoing efforts to getting fit by doing good.

See you next time.

The cold snap continues in London but that wasn't going to put off our Lambeth GGers who were out tonight to start our new partnership with Thames Reach.

It looks as if the hall at Papa's now has a standing booking so we congregated outside as we waited to head off to the task and it was great to have Michael back with us for Group Run after his exertions in the Saharan marathon conditions back in August - well done on completing 42kms in that heat! If you're looking for podcast recommendations btw look no further than Frances's suggested How Things are Made on the invention of Strava, one close to our hearts for sure.

It's a solid 3kms to the task so we set off at a good pace and 18 mins later were at the address only to find the centre was nowhere to be found. We took every little alley and road we could find, circling round no. 1 (we were looking for 1a) but seemingly you had to pass through platform 9 & 3/4 to get to the place...

It turns out that number 1a is two roads away from number 1 - but of course it is!

Anyway, on arrival we were met by Marie-Noelle and Paul our resident walkers/cyclists and it was lovely to have Mikhail from Southwark Task Force with us as well, welcome Mikhail!

After a few salutary greetings from the clients at the centre we headed out to the lovely but very overgrown gardens with only a couple of pairs of secateurs and some recycling bags. No tools? No problem. We gloved up and started pulling weeds and chopping back bindweed for all we were worth and by the end of the hour had cleared 3 large bags worth of compostable material. We look forward to coming back next month to continue our progress!

Thanks everyone and in case you missed it we were delighted that Lambeth GG has now done its' 1000th Mission - way to go everyone - that's a lot of good, done and a lot of fit, got !!

See you next week.

A change is a s good as a break as they say so last night we changed things up and set off from a new running location. Our task was in West Norwood which is the outer limit of our run distances from Brixton but we needed to be there as early as possible as we had a lot to get through.

AA Yianny met Louise in Tulse Hill and set off from there with the rest of the group meeting directly at the task either walking or on their bikes.

Ed from Lambeth GP Food Co-Op was there to meet us and had two wheelbarrows and 5 shovels ready for action, with our task being to get the compost from the one tonne bags over to the two remaining empty planters at the top of the hill. Marie-Noelle led the shovel and tip team, Louise and Tilly kept the compost coming from the bags and Paul, Will and Yianny took the wheelbarrow relays.

The group divided into two with half loading and walk / running the barrows up the hill and the rest shovelling and tipping the compost into the planters. One hour later and after too many trips to and fro to count the two planters were over half full and ready to be used for planting by the patients of the GP Practice at West Norwood.

Sadly this evening was Will's last for a little while as he heads back home to Stroud for a few months, it's been fantastic having you with us and we look forward to your return in the New Year!

Thanks to all and to Ed for hosting us and see you next week!