This morning we were back at the wonderful Maryon Park Community Garden, and what a lovely morning for it. The sun was shining, the garden was looking fantastic and we weren't looking too shabby either (maybe a little shabbier after the task to be fair 🫠)

There was plenty to get stuck into. Kam and Aman took on the heavy job of shifting compost, while the rest of us split between giving the front gate a fresh coat of varnish, painting two fences, weeding and picking our affectionately termed 'runaway beans' - how apt! They will be enjoyed with Arthur's dinner provided they don't escape before then.

With the garden spruced up, it was time for some much appreciated refreshment, generously put on by our brilliant hosts, Tim and Edna.

Thank you everyone- until next time!

Rachel

When our planned task fell through at the last minute, 11 GoodGym Greenwich runners and walkers proved that adaptability is one of our greatest strengths. Rather than call it a night, we grabbed the litter pickers and headed around Charlton for an impromptu community litter pick.

Before setting off, our icebreaker question was: "What's your favourite thing about Greenwich?" Answers ranged from its beautiful parks and riverside walks to the markets, history, community spirit and, of course, GoodGym itself. It was a lovely reminder of why we're all so keen to help keep the borough looking its best.

The evening was also packed with milestones. A huge welcome to Cathy, who completed her very first GoodGym task, hopefully the first of many! Meanwhile, massive congratulations to our Norwegian pun-King Ivar, who celebrated an incredible 300th GoodGym task!

We split up to tackle litter hotspots around Charlton, collecting bags full of cans, bottles, wrappers and plenty of the usual unexpected finds. Every bag filled was another small but visible improvement to the neighbourhood.

A big thank you to everyone who embraced the change of plans with such positivity. Another lovely evening spent amongst the rubbish!

Until next time!

Rachel 😁

Another warm morning dawned but 6 Goodgymers and a local volunteer joined 'Clean Up Charlton' for the monthly litter pick in the streets of SE7. Fresh from the World Cup quarter final victory of England over Norway (commiserations to the lovely and fun Norwegians - we have our own tame Viking at Goodgym Greenwich!), and as one of today's work team was Mexican, we talked football and had an impromtu game of 'get the beer can into the litter hoop'. Zero goals! Let's stick to running, walking and doing good deeds maybe guys?

Of course what you really want to hear when litter picking is one of the team saying "I have found a bag with something dead in it and don't know what to do"... !!! Pretending to be brave we investigated and found slowly fermenting chicken drumsticks - now safely bagged with our other 6 general waste bags and 3 bags of dry recycling ready for Greenwich Council to collect. We left the waste collection team a little thank you message - can't be fun collecting rubbish all day in this heat! Thanks to everyone who turned out to clean the not-so-mean streets of SE7 - iced lattes all round at M&S to cool off afterwards...

Yesterday, there were only two volunteers signed up to help distribute food this evening. Without more helpers, the charity was about to cancel. Goodgym to the rescue!

Thanks mainly to Goodgym Greenwich, we were able to rustle up 7 helpers to assist Jas, and we were able to go ahead.

Today there was veggie rice, bread and biscuits to hand out. And because of the heat, the standard hot chocolate and coffee was replaced by milkshakes to cool everyone down in the heat.

We made a great team, and managed to hand most of the food out while chatting to the crowd that showed up, and each other. Within the hour all food was gone and we packed up and dispersed to catch the England kick off!