An excellent turnout on the volunteer front to support 46 enthusiastic junior runners this morning at a still muddy, and slightly misty, London Fields - but thankfully the rain stayed away. The slippery conditions underfoot didn't seem to trouble our first three finishers, who ran as a pack the whole way round, and only the finishing sprint down the home straight separated them by just a few seconds...exciting stuff. Lots of (slightly breathless) happy faces then followed them into the finish funnel, setting 9 PBs between them - great work.

Twelve first timers joined us this morning on what was our second biggest attendance of the year, and thankfully our team of 16 volunteers, which included GoodGymmers Rue, Hilary, Bea, Louise, Sarah, Chandrima and Nick, did a great job of ensuring everything ran smoothly for another week - thank you all.

Same time next week under the big tree for more fun at the Fields.

Ilana, Ciaran, Kevin and Kareem turned up for the continuing gardening task. When we first started here, the space was so overgrown that you could barely walk through it, let alone see what was hiding at the far end.

Now after many sessions of clearing, digging and hauling we are nearly there!

As it happens when clearing a garden that’s been left wild for a while, a few unexpected treasures appeared along the way. Among the discoveries were a Lego figure, some unsettling large bones and other random things like lighters. It kept things interesting.

Kevin took the initiative and planted cherry and apple plants, which will hopefully become a a nice feature of the garden in time. He also spent time fixing and tying up sections of the fence.

Kareem took on what seemed like a manageable root… which quickly turned into a battle. After 15 minutes of determined digging, the root held its ground and he eventually had to concede defeat (for now)

Ilana tackled a stubborn patch of weeds and overgrown plants and helped with the cleanup. She also lent Kareem a hand afterwards to fill in the impressive (but totally unnecessary) hole left behind.

Ciaran cracked on with tackling stumps and helping clear out the huge bags of garden waste that had built up. As if the earlier bone discoveries weren’t unsettling enough, he topped that by uncovering a mysterious vertebra!! (ranks alongside the dead bird found during a previous session)

Finally, Ms A is really happy to see the progress. She thanked us and said how much she appreciates the time and effort we have been putting in to bring the garden back to life. It’s been great for her to see the transformation taking shape bit by bit and she is really looking forward to enjoying the space once everything is finished :)

We will be having one more final session to do a sweep up of the garden and tie up any loose ends - please join us if you can!

Back to the garden at St Michael's Church and it's sunny for the third week in a row(!). We must be doing something right.

Good progress was made, and the soil is looking more and more ready for growing season. The attached photos show before and after, with much of the weeds now removed.

Ivo and I arrived ready to tackle Mrs S’s mission: relocating a collection of boxes from her living room to an upstairs storage spot. The boxes didn’t stand a chance. We made light work of them, and Ivo even applied some advanced structural engineering to the stacking situation- stability was achieved, gravity was respected. Next up: An unwieldy mattress needed persuading up the stairs, while a couple of its mattress companions took a one-way trip down to the basement. There were twists, there were turns, there was strategic angling… but the stairs were conquered. After a final check with Mrs S to make sure everything was exactly where she wanted it, we said our goodbyes- leaving her with a gloriously clutter-free living room. As we headed off, the sun even made a brief appearance. Clearly, even the weather approved. 🌤️

An almost GoodGym takeover made life easy for this week’s junior parkrun at the Fields.

With a full house on the roster, and newcomer Kim joining the ranks, the team made swift work with the set up.

Simon, Harvey, Sooz and Kim set about laying the course on one side of the fields, whilst Sarah completed the opposite side.

Sooz led the warm up and welcomed a lot of new parkrunners!

As timekeeper, Louise counted down 3-2-1 and they were off - heading up the opening straight to Lucinda then onto Harvey. Sarah, Simon and Kim kept the runners going all the way round both laps with lots of encouragement.

40 incredible youngsters made it round today including 13 newcomers and setting 4 new personal best times. Thanks to all the GoodGym volunteers for making it happen!

Another lovely morning of weather for gardening at St Michael's Church in Stoke Newington.

The resident volunteer gardener, Manda, and I picked up where we left off from last week and continued to dig out stubborn brambles from the soil, and generally tidy up. We also made handy use of an abandoned buggy in order to transport some paving slabs to their new resting place...

There is more work to do, but the garden is gradually becoming ready for growing produce in the spring time.