This week’s GoodGym Barnet group run was a little different as we started at The Bull Theatre in High Barnet, where we’d previously helped out with some painting.

The Bull is another of Barnet’s little community jewels. The building has a history stretching back centuries and became the Old Bull Arts Centre in 1975. Today it is home to the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School as well as being used by the wider community. The school has helped develop an impressive list of young performers, including Amy Winehouse, Jess Glynne, Daniel Roche from Outnumbered and West End performers Alexia Khadime and Aimie Atkinson. Amy Winehouse and Alexandra Burke are also among those who have performed at the Bull itself. High Barnet Fair was once one of the biggest livestock fairs in England, attracting huge crowds, with horse racing, boxing, drinking and entertainment. The fair became so famous in London that “Barnet Fair” became Cockney rhyming slang for hair .. hence your Barnet.

Then it was time for some GoodGym action. We set about pulling weeds and clearing the outside area, and with plenty of hands we got through the job in quick time ... leaving enough daylight ( but not much ) for a run.

We headed across the High Street and through Old Court House Recreation Ground, enjoying one of those useful traffic-free routes that makes you realise how much there is to discover locally. The park itself was once pasture with stables and a brewery before becoming public open space in the 1920s. From there the route continues down a leafy alley beside the tennis courts, across Mays Lane and eventually through the fields to Dollis Brook.

We caught a lovely glowing sky from the last of the sunset before heading back uphill to the Bull, finishing with a warm-down and stretch inside the theatre.

A good task, a bit of running, some local history and another important community venue supported. We look forward to helping the Bull again later in the year.

A few GoodGym members came together to do online Yoga along with people supporting Stephen’s House and Gardens. picture : my 1st sourdough loaf! yoga talk

Yoga can contribute to muscle development while nurturing physical and mental wellness. In yoga studios and classes, practices like vinyasa yoga incorporate strength-focused poses that engage muscles and encourage growth. While yoga’s primary goal isn’t solely muscle-building, it does enhance overall body strength and tone.

Subham rocked up first this morning, 09:44, with me hot on his heels, watching him go up the stairs to St Barnabus from the other side of the road. Then Paul rolled up on his bike out of nowhere a short while later, so we had a great little reunion over coffee in the foyer, bonding with some of the regulars about that classic North London competitive divide: Arsenal or Spurs?

Then the delivery arrived and we got stuck into unloading. This week saw: potatoes, carrots, onions, protein shakes, burgers, some kind of beef thing that didn't need fridging, soups, bananas, bread rolls, ciabbata rolls, and plenty more. We helped unload everything, then helped unpack things in fridges and store cupboards, then trotted off on our merry way.

Sadly, they've not had much fruit delivered to the Grocery this year, so we're going to try and work with Barnet Community Harvesters and others to get some fresh apples to them if we can, this month.

Also, Claire, Emily and Kenny are all away next week, so we're definitely needed - sign up soon if you're free!

The Phoenix Cinema had asked GoodGym Barnet to distribute leaflets for this film in an effort to support a community action screening and Q&A session. We decided to see the film ourselves.

I’ll admit I was initially a little cynical about Super Nature, but having seen it at the weekend,. I think I now understand much better what director Ed Sayers was trying to do.

The whole film is shot on Super 8, the old home-movie format many of us associate with the 1970s and 80s. A cartridge gives you only around two or three minutes of film and there is no recorded sound, so unlike a phone or digital camera you simply can’t keep filming everything. Sayers brought together more than 40 contributors across 25 countries to capture the natural world in this deliberately restricted way.

And perhaps the restriction is the point.

When you only have a tiny amount of film, you have to choose your moment. You spend more time actually looking, waiting and being present in the environment. It reminded me of taking photographs with film: every picture cost something, so you thought about it rather than firing off dozens of shots.

There is also something nostalgic about the grainy Super 8 image. Even the director said at the Q&A that this seems to affect younger people who never actually grew up with the format. It somehow makes what you are watching feel like a memory — and that becomes rather powerful when the subject is a natural world we are in danger of losing.

The film does show some very direct environmental threats: plastic in the oceans, threatened ecosystems and the last northern white rhinos. But I came away thinking there was another, less obvious message as well.

We live in a world where we constantly consume information — photographs, videos, messages, news and data. We record more and more but perhaps sometimes experience less. That endless appetite for more is not completely separate from the wider consumerism which is literally consuming the natural world.

I would have liked more time at the Q&A to explore the community side of this. Perhaps part of reconnecting with nature isn’t travelling across the world to see something spectacular. It is stopping, looking and becoming involved with what is around us — our parks, woods, gardens, birds, insects and local wildlife.

That links very nicely with GoodGym. We can actually do something: look after a local nature reserve, plant and care for trees, clear litter, support community organisations and simply become more aware of the natural world on our doorstep.

Maybe the lesson of Super Nature is quite simple: consume a little less, look a little longer — and get involved.

A great turnout of 12+ people for the regular Friday morning gardening session at Stephens House and Gardens.

This time I joined Heather and her team of specialist bramble-busters, trying to keep an area of the park under control. Armed with secateurs, rakes, spades and forks, we cut back the brambles and cleared the weeds.

We were working very close to one of the park’s special trees, a Ginkgo biloba. Sometimes called a “living fossil”, it comes from an ancient line of trees stretching back more than 200 million years, with fossil leaves looking remarkably like those we see today.

Having spotted Benedict Cumberbatch earlier that morning, our conversation topic was naturally close encounters with celebrities — always a good one!

After a couple of productive hours we headed back for the traditional tea and cake, this time with an extra reason to celebrate: gardener Ian’s birthday.

Another lovely morning getting outdoors, meeting people and helping to look after this special local park.