The weather was kind to us as nine GoodGymers gathered at Doynton St Community Garden for an afternoon session to get the space ready for spring. We were working alongside the team from Growing Green who got us set up with gloves, shears, and shovels ready to do what GoodGymers do best - chop loads of stuff down!

We spent a bit of time exploring the area which had a bit of a Secret Garden vibe, then got stuck in. Lots of dead wood and branches were condensed down and tidied up. The pile then grew steadily for the next hour as we cleared the space.

A couple of dead trees were demolished, and a very well established bramble was taken care of to let in lots more light and make the garden safer to use. Paths were cleared to improve accessibility, with ground covering ivy being given a hair cut. A mural which had seen better days was carefully packed up for repair or reuse, and the whole garden received a good litter pick, despite some more unusual finds!

We had lots of visitors through the session, including a couple of cats, a frog, a member of the local constabulary, and a few friendly neighbors keen to see what we were getting up to. Welcome to all the new GoodGymers who joined the session, it was wonderful to meet you!

Growing Green were delighted to have the extra hands on deck - we're looking forward to seeing them again in March.

Which of course is the punchline to "A man goes to see the doctor and tells him he thinks he's a pair of curtains...and the doctor says..."

It's admittedly not a great joke, but we spent a long time discussing curtains and carpets today as Mr T realised that the ones in his flat were last renewed 15+ years ago - I commented that actually they didn't look too bad, albeit the curtains were a little uneven, but seemingly effective in the doing their job. He admitted he'd put down the current carpet himself, having got the roll from a market stall friend of his on the Edgware Road. I said the internet was probably his best bet these days to find cost effective replacements, and in that brief exchange we both realised how much the world had changed!

Fortunately it was back to old school ways for today's shopping, a quick trip to M&S, Tesco and Lidl, and Mr T was well stocked for another week - I left him contemplating his carpet...

A quick one in the winter sunshine. Pulling weeds from the front garden, dug out some of the tougher roots and swept the front steps.

Six GoodGymers braved the damp and cold to make a difference this Wednesday!

This wonderful group — of Charlie, Jackie, John, Kathleen, Steve, and Alex — turned up at Cecil Sharp House for our first visit of 2026!

There has been a bunch of building work at the house and our task was to clean things up — cue...

❤️ Jackie's wonderful leaf collecting and litter picking, turning the lawn and surrounding areas immaculate :)

❤️ One marvellous human chain making light (and swift) work shifting a true mountain of bags!

❤️ Gritty effort sweeping and raking and collecting all manner of building rubbish, leaves, and weeds!

Thank you so much, everyone!

It’s Ms F’s birthday tomorrow so gave her a small gift from my travels. Otherwise a standard visit. New item this time was roasted almonds.

Fortunately a family friend of Mrs M was on hand this evening to explain to Theo and I exactly what furniture needed moving and where, so that sufficient space could be cleared in the living room to allow Mrs M to be discharged from hospital.

We started with the sofa and after a bit of huffing and puffing we had it partway up the narrow staircase, and then got very stuck...an extra inch of space was all that was needed to get the sofa over the bannister and through into the bedroom but we couldn't manoeuvre it in any direction to free it. Past similar sofa shifting experience proved invaluable at this point, as I reached into my bag for a screwdriver and removed the four feet, giving us the essential two extra inches of clearance we needed to finally get it to its final resting space.

After gathering our breath, we were able to then move a couple of cabinets and a folding table up the stairs, up another set of stairs and park them in the spare bedroom/laundry room, and our task was complete for the evening.