Having shopped for Mr G many times, I pride myself on being able to gather his items without needing to refer to the (very helpful) set of labels he provides.

Today, I was just about to press "Finish and pay" at the checkout when I remembered he'd asked me to add a Chicken Korma to the list. A brisk (but careful) jog across the store and I was able to grab one and get back to the checkout before the store attendant was alerted to intervene.

Mr G's other two chicken products were not in stock, necessitating close substitutions, but Mr G was grateful as ever for the GoodGym support in getting his food supplies for the week.

After a five month gap, Sevan returned to help Ms A dispose of a collection of rubbish bags. A lot of other GoodGymers had been to help in the meantime and Sevan was keen to see if anything had improved, with Ms A or the building where she lived. After different medical issues, Ms A wasn't able to move the bags long distances herself, so needed assistance from GoodGym.

Ms A had helpfully brought all the bags into the hallway, so when she opened the door, they surrounded her legs. Sevan took the heaviest of them down first, then came back for a short chat that turned into a long update of how Ms A was doing. One of the problems that she was having was that her neighbours were disturbing her sleep as, according to Ms A, they were being loud at all hours of the day. Overall it turned out that neither the building or Ms A was doing better than last time but also not worse, maybe.

Eventually, Sevan managed to break the chat and pick up the next set of bags, getting on with the main task of taking them to the communal bins. After that, there was one more run and he was done, leaving Ms A's hallway clear for another week or so, until the next GoodGym mission.

Deep in Walpole Park lies a mulch mountain underneath a thick blanket of fallen leaves. Our job? To dig deep and mine for gold! Or - rather - to dig deep and mine for dark brown mulch, otherwise know as ‘the good stuff’! This nutrient heavy mulch was then to be taken to the kitchen garden to be used as food for the plants there.

First, in the dark and the rain, we climbed the mountain and with spades tossed the leaves aside; Sevan and Kash were first to the top! We hacked at the leaves causing wet (yet also incredibly dusty) avalanches - but we persevered and soon we reached the darkest and tastiest mulch. We filled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow and Steph took charge of taking the mulch to the kitchen garden.

If you didn’t know, mulch mountains contain all sorts of unexpected obstacles- rocks, weird fumes and logs bigger than you or I - no problem for Kash who dug the logs out and launched them aside.

Finding the ‘good mulch’ was quite a challenge as there were so many layers of wet heavy leaves and half cooked mulch and so, when we did - Amy declared it her favourite task ever.

Surprisingly none of us sunk in the pile and needed to be rescued but also - none of us came away with dry shoes!

Today was our monthly visit at Bixley allotment and as usual we always learn new facts from Jason. Today Jason introduced us to a special tomato : the litchee tomato or lychee tomato which grow inside a spiky, papery husk that peels back when they're ripe. We all tasted one and it was yellow inside with lots of tiny seeds, a bit like a raspberry or a kiwi. Tricky name as its not a tomato nor a lychee.

We then tackled weeds and grass on some of the parcels in order Jason to lay down some tarp or membrane to prevent the weeds to come through. We then moved logs from the path to below the willow. We will be back next month and we will probably learn something new.

VIsiting Mr T on a Sunday afternoon as I was away yesterday. He was watching rugby and normally he puts the volume down but not today and we chatted while watching the end of the match. He watched a few yesterday and some boxing too. Time went by quickly and I will be back next week for another chatty visit.

Do you remember August 2025, when GoodGym cleared a brambly meadow for grazing animals at Horsenden Farm? You may not, as the group's composition has changed a bit since then.

Do you know what happened afterwards? The brambles grew back. But so did our group.

The newest addition was Lara, who had joined GoodGym only the night before. Like many other GoodGymers, she swapped screen time for getting active outdoors, meeting new people and making a positive change. She finally had a chance to rediscover her long-forgotten skills and did a brilliant job, quickly identifying and tackling the most important tasks.

The Saturday morning session started with saying hello to ponies Trixie and Charlie, who were happily grazing in their new paddock. Yes, that's the same paddock GoodGym had cleared in recent months! It's always encouraging to see the results of our work come to fruition.

Next, we made our way to the familiar (at least to a couple of us) meadow, which needed another bramble bash before adding new fencing inside the existing enclosure. The current boundary along the public paths wasn't deep enough to stop enthusiastic visitors from feeding the ponies, so Trixie and Charlie wouldn't be allowed into the new meadow until a new barrier was in place to prevent them from getting used to treats from strangers.

We got into chopping work with loppers and shears, distracted only once by friendly goats Alfie and Yogi, who came over to greet us. We didn't meet the cows on the day, but from looking what's been laying on the ground, we knew they had been to the meadow recently - so we had to watch our steps!

The stubborn bramble patch that had sprung back since last year was much easier to deal with this time, giving us more time to focus on clearing a corridor through the virgin bramble jungle further up the slope. Who knows when that ancient blackberry land was last touched?

"I don't know what we would do without you!" said Elsa, a Friend of Horsenden Farm, when we returned from our chopping quest.

Lastly, it was time for pizza, which sparked conversations about the top-notch ingredients needed for the world's best pizza and 90s martial arts films (hint: one of the Horsenden Loaf pizzas is called Jean Claude).

It was the perfect way to start a cool, misty morning: a good dose of exercise, followed by a well-deserved lunch and a little sunshine in the afternoon!