Meeting as usual at the Bridge House, all beaming from the sunshine, we had a brief chat about our favourite DIY tasks, which ranged from just the pure satisfaction of completing any job, to the complicated rewiring of electrical things (hot tip - take a photo of how it looked before you touched it!)

We jogged off for a little loop round the sights of Penge and back to Anerley, and peered in at the frogspawn in the little corner pond of the St Hugh's community garden.

Mark had already collected some willow stems, and some of us set about planting them to make a living hedge (which you can weave together once it's a bit more established). The rest of us had a heavy little workout shifting railway sleepers and pallets from the front of the garden to the back, where they'll make more raised beds and other garden features for locals.

All in all a lovely productive sunny evening :)

David and I had a nice run from base and Charlie had made his way from Sydenham station, but unfortunately our task tonight wasn't able to happen 🥲 More railing scraping for us to do next time!

Luckily we found a nearby pub and brainstormed a few ideas for GG socials 💡

A fab five went up the hill ⛰️ to Upper Norwood tonight to help Sabine at the Central Hill Estate get some gazebos 🎪 and a table ready for an Easter Egg Hunt 🐣 she's organising on Saturday.

We had perfect weather ☀️ to motivate us to higher ground through the Crystal Palace Park, which we can now enjoy as it's light again! Speaking of, tonight's question was "Name your favourite part of the Park". From the dinosaurs ☀️ to the maze to the transmission tower, it's an iconic place. As we headed into the entrance by Bridge House, we spotted some lovely annuals in the planter and stopped for what might be the earliest run photo ever? 😂

We met Sabine at her lock-up, collected the bits to take across the estate and headed over to a fellow resident's house on the other side nearer to the planned event space, who will mind the kit for the week. Props to James for moving the really heavy gazebo!

It was a quick task but will have a major impact, helping the estate residents enjoy Easter as a community 🙂

We had our first WWF X GoodGym Workout for Nature session* this evening and what a lovely night for it!

After discussing our favourite UK place to be in sunny weather (thanks for the question Clare!), six of us ran the 3km to Dorset Road Allotments where we met Jeannette and co. Over the last year we've been helping to dismantle a HUGE chicken shed which hadn't been used for a decade so was full of brambles. This has finally been demolished so our task tonight was to clear the foundations so that topsoil and grass seed can be added. The eventual plan is to turn the spot into a picnic area, which will look out over a flower-covered hibernaculum made from the leftover rubble from the chicken shed. Very environmentally friendly!

Over 40 minutes we made good progress, with Colette being in charge of scouting out bits of broken glass and plastic, David trying out the pickaxe to get rid of tough roots, and Clare, Catherine and James digging and raking over the earth and shuttling wheelbarrows of top soil from the compost heap while I worked with Jeannette to get rid of any pesky bind weed roots.

We finished off just as the sun was setting (so nice to be able to do tasks in daylight!) and before setting off on the run back the team gave me their best chicken poses in honour of our long departed friends.

Great job team!

*Between 7 April and 4 May 2025, WWF (the wildlife people, not the wrestlers) and GoodGym are collaborating on hundreds of sessions to celebrate Earth Day. Each session will involve a Workout for Nature - a physical volunteering activity which will benefit local green spaces, and give our own wellbeing a boost. You can find out more here

Lovely to be able to run to, and complete (almost) a whole task, before it got dark. We started off meeting at the Bridge House, talking about the change of season as the clocks changed this weekend. Votes were mostly for spring and new life, blossoms, bugs, flowers, and how we're more likely to see new and returning people out on tasks now that evenings feel longer. We took a mini detour across Crystal Palace Park, watching people, dogs, and birds making the most of the weather, then arrived panting at the top of Anerley Hill to meet John and our other GoodGym taskers at the museum entrance. After pondering over whether Brunel might have tagged his work somewhere in the tower, we split into little groups - weeding, sweeping, digging and sorting rubble and rubbish from soil which can be used on local gardening projects. In fact, we learned how some soil from this water tower was used for a raised bench area in South Norwood Country Park recently. We all agreed that the best tasks (and to be honest, most of our tasks!) are the ones where we can immediately see the difference we've made in a short time :)

Crystal Palace GoodGymmers made their way to Alexandra Recreation Ground this evening to carry on with the task of scraping off the old flaky paint on the railings around the children’s play area, ready for a fresh coat once the weather’s a bit drier.

Given how close the park is to the Bridge House, we took the scenic route there via Sydenham. Unfortunately I managed to fall foul of two of the hazards I’d pointed out in the pre-run briefing (poor lighting and uneven pavements!) but luckily I was well supported by lots of concerned GoodGymmers and my well-stocked run leader first aid kit. After a quick break to check for injuries, we ran on to meet up with Millie from the Friends of Cator Park and Alexandra Recreation Ground who had an assortment of tools and protective equipment ready to help us remove the old paint and lichen (and some pesky slugs). My personal favourite was the double action scraper brush tool - watching all the paint flake off was very satisfying!

We worked and chatted for about 40 minutes and made some decent progress in that time. We’ll be back at the park on 21st April to continue the task (hopefully without the need for a first aid kit or head torches!). If you want to try out the scraper brush tool for yourself, you can sign up here

Rail-ly great work tonight team!