This evening we were back in those flower beds at Alexandra Rec, helping out their delightful friends group keep on top of those pesky weeds.

First up we met in The Bridge House and shared our names (novel) and favourite fruits (bananas, mango, raspberries, tinned peaches, watermelon, kiwi and strawberries FYI). We were joined for the first time by Zoe 🎉🎈✨🥳 for her very first GoodGym sesh - Lovely to have you with us!

Then we set off. We were in a bit of a rush because the Crystal Palace Fun Runners were about and we wanted to show them who's boss - we even managed a speedy warm up. It's a short one to Alex Rec where we met Lou who showed us our task.

Armed with trowels and forks and a wheelbarrow for mulching, we got to work. Zoe was tackling the prickly rose bed, Rosie and Cat were barrowing mulch, and everyone else was in another bed wrestling with dandelions and bindweed.

After a solid half hour we threw in the trowel, took a few snaps, played a quick game of 'squat, squat, goose' and headed back to base.

Well done everyone!

Another good deed done. ✅

Ria and I needed to improvise after we made our way to Cator Park for a gardening session this morning, only to discover that the task organisers were away on holiday! Despite us being full of GoodGym energy and raring to go, the mix up meant we couldn’t access the tools needed for the planned task. So instead we paid a visit to the living willow arch constructed by a volunteer team last spring – this is growing rapidly and any stray shoots need weaving into the lattice of branches to maintain a neat green archway. Then after a spot of litter picking, it was back home for an extended Sunday lunch… better luck next time!

We had a lovely dry start to our evening's Group Session. Unfortunately it didn't last... but no matter! We got a good deed done and a solid chunk of exercise in. 💪

5 of us met at the Bridge House including brand new to GoodGym... Gabriela!! Lovely to have you join us :) We ran through our names and favourite dance moves (in preparation for a potential raindance...), did a quick warm up and then headed down to Cator, with a cheeky wallsit (plus Macarena) on the way.

We met up with 3 more GoodGymers (Ria, Hannah and Linda) and Gill, Lou and Millie, the fab three from the Friends of Cator Park who were already getting stuck into various tasks.

Today's main aim was to pull up weeds and stop them coming back.

🌱 Hannah, Ria and Linda were working on one of the beds, removing grass and weeds so new shrubs can be planted.

🍂 Stephen, Gabriela, Catherine and Clare were on mulch duty, filling up a couple of wheelbarrows and emptying them around the young trees and holly saplings we planted a few weeks ago. This stops the weeds growing and taking all the nutrients before the trees get a chance to suck it up.

We were treated to a few bursts of rain shower before being thoroughly drenched when we left.

Nice one all you amazing people.

This evening, 8 beautiful souls (I guess) met for an evening's jog and a good deed too! 6 of us met at The Bridge House. 4 of those ran whilst the others walked and then we met 2 at the museum!

We've been at it for a little while now, but the museum is finally opening the door for the public to view Brunel's old water tower base. The top was knocked down in the war (on purpose - so the baddie planes couldn't tell where they were) and since then the plants in there have run wild.

Our task for the evening was to clear the entrance as it's a bit precarious anyway...

🌱 We pulled out weeds and scraped moss off the bricks

🪵 Sami was yanking dead branches down

🧱 We cleared rubble out the way

🧺 And took it all out of the tower to leave a clear pathway.

Afterwards, we took a quick snap (coming soon...), played a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, did some press-ups and tricep dips and even managed some sprints to finish. 😅

Solid effort everyone - see you next time!

A delightful morning for cutting some tree circles, we met at Valley Primary School to lend a hand to some pretty new tree saplings. The grass around them is taking all the water from the soil, so our job was to carefully cut around the bases, removing the grass, so the trees grow big and strong.

It was toasty work but we successfully managed to get all the trees freed! Nice one team!

Great teamwork in Alexandra Recreation Ground meant we had no trouble meeting our goals for today’s gardening session: tidying under the length of the newly planted hedgerow, clearing weeds (some of them monstrously big after recent rain), checking the saplings all have space to sprout, and wheelbarrowing into place a thick layer of mulch to stop the soil drying out as the weather gets warmer. Shout out to James for completing his first good deed and for providing an ace pun. Also to Bromley GoodGymer Claire who stopped by to hand over the beautifully designed sign she has been busy making for the Friends volunteering organisation – this will be displayed at the Bug Hotel in neighbouring Cator Park, replacing the original sign damaged by vandals.