Slowly but surely we arrived one by one to this evening's meeting point by Mile End Park's wonderfully-located Art Pavilion.

Each were greeted individually by our brilliant Task Owner John, who equipped everyone with a fork, and some truly sturdy gloves.

Why were we here?

Well, the countdown is on to clear some dense nettles and brambles in time for half term activity. And so Friends of Mile End Park called on us to help out on this tough, time-sensitive task.

Fork of the town

And so to work we went, our small group growing less small by the minute. We uprooted, we chopped, we stacked, we carried. It was quite the workout, not least for Rohan's fork, who gave up the ghost during the first half of the task. What can we say? John did say the nettles were tough. Impressive stuff.

With good ground lights saving the day, we proceeded to make large piles of our treacherous, discarded plants, which looked quite the stinger stash as we called it a night.

We gathered for tool deposits and our last pics of the day.

"So, you can do your keep fit up there," gestured John to the floodlit area of the pavilion as we finished up. "I'll come and see if it's any good."

And so up the hill we climbed, to the well-lit area above the pavilion for some spectacular views as we tackled mini (slippery) hills, Bulgarian split squats, hip mobility, and some fab static stretching with an official barre. Hur-RAH.

What can I say?

Another night to remember. "They blitzed a fair amount," John reflected as we walked back down the hill after.

I should say.

Until next time.

We had a lovely evening back at Hollybush Gardens during our usual Monday slot. This week we were based at James Middleton Growing Site and we were on a mission to complete as much as possible!

Anna, Pauline, Eimear, Leo, Isabelle, Philippine and Emma set to work cutting back the bushes surrounding the site. With a little help from some stools for the high branches!

Meanwhile the trio of Beckys busied ourselves with weeding and litter picking the areas around the planters.

The site was really spruced up by the time we had finished. Hopefully the residents will notice a huge difference!

On a frosty Hackney Dows we joined one of our favourite local groups, Tree Musketeers for a spot of tree planting and general tree maintenance 🌳

An absolutely huge 23 first-timers joined us for a taste of GoodGym. If they can get out the house for 10AM on a cold Sunday morning then I think we have some pretty tough new additions to the crew! 💪

After a starter session led by Hackney boss-in-chief Joel we were set to work by the Musketeers.

Sent to the farthest reaches of the Downs, in small groups we helped plant four new trees and tended to a number of existing trees - weeding around them and giving them a halo of mulch around their trunk.

Shout out to Lasma for managing to untie (then carry) one large tree, Ru for her enthusiam even with very cold feet, Will and Tom for some epic barrowing - plus Philippine, Josh, Olivia, Elle, Florence, Alice, Anna, Giovanna, Izzy, Julie, Rachel, Chloe, Helena, Aude, Fernanda, Elena, Monia, Toby and Nagis for joining us, many for their first time! Plus many of our Hackney GG regulars. (Sorry if I've missed anyone - you did a great job too!)

We'll have our regular group run on Tuesday evening: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/hackney-group-run-2020-01-21

And we have further weekend sessions helping Tree Musketeers on Sat 25th Jan (https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/care-for-hackney-s-trees-at-the-tree-musketeers-nursery) and Sat 1st Feb (https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/planting-trees-on-hackney-marshes-ba8d5c9f-10b0-4fd6-929e-a93ea9b7e644).

Do join us for one of them!