Tonight’s task was a bit of a heavyweight — helping an isolated older person clear out an old, broken fridge from her second-floor flat so it could finally make its way to the bins. There was some initial uncertainty about quite how enormous this fridge might be, so we were relieved to discover it wasn’t quite the monster we’d imagined! That said, getting it down two flights of stairs still required a fair bit of teamwork, careful manoeuvring and, ultimately, a good old wrestle with the fridge. Once we’d negotiated the stairs and got it safely outside by the bins, the job was done. Our task owner was incredibly grateful for the help, and we were very pleased to have been able to help her.

Why was there a discarded chicken leg? Why was Nick holding it? What role did it play in the fridge removal operation? Frankly, we have no idea. Some questions are best left unanswered.

Great to be back at Emmanuel Parish Church for another evening in the gardens, Paul, Graham and I taking a gentle jog over from Freaks and Geeks.

Given the recent dry weather, the ground is currently too hard for any planting, so we concentrated on giving the gardens a good general tidy-up, with plenty of litter picking and leaf sweeping. We made a very satisfying difference to the garden — a good bit of tidying can go a long way!

A particular thank you to Paul, who went above and beyond this evening and helped us out with some of the less glamorous aspects of the task. 👏

And, as promised, Sybil and the Emmanuel team gave us a very warm welcome with the usual supply of post-task refreshments. 😋

We'll be back soon, hopefully after some rain allows us to do some autumn planting!

A welcome return visit to see Chris at the Crisis Warehouse this evening, and as always he had just the job for us - after a quick H&S brief (how heavy is this bag?), it was into the warehouse for our intrepid gang of ten, which included first timers Ieva and Steve, and straight to work, as there were a lot of bags of clothes to be shifted, sorted, counted and repacked in the various cages, so as to make life much easier for both Chris and his delivery drivers when they come to transition the range in the Crisis shops on the high street from Summer to Winter wear.

With a rough plan drawn up (tallest to the front...try and avoid an avalanche of sacks), it was then a chain gang effort to get the mixture of bags from all the different shops across London out of the storage cage, sorted by location (Hackney, Camberwell, Elephant & Castle, Hackney, Streatham, Hackney, Kilburn...did I mention Hackney...), identified either by the colour of the cable tie at the top, or more helpfully where the shop had written the source on the label.

The second half then involved counting the number of bags for each shop, and returning them back into their respective correct cages, stacking Jenga style where required, ensuring labels were visible at all times. After an hour of pretty intense manual labour, and with blackened hands to show for our efforts, the final whistle was blown with all bags in their respective cages and the totals marked and taped above them. Yet again Chris awarded us the honour of "Best volunteers of the day", and after a quick tidy up, we ran back to Freaks and Geeks for some welcome, and well earned, refreshment.

Next week we're at the Emmanuel Church helping Sybil and her fellow volunteers to tidy up the garden, and there might just be some post match refreshments to enjoy too...

Weeding, Wrestling & Winning 🌱💪

On Tuesday night, Graham, Adam, Ben and Christiana met at Freaks and Geeks before making their way over to Barnard Grove, where Rosa joined the group ready for an evening of gardening.

As always, task owner Carol was on hand with an impressive array of tools, plenty of instructions and the reassuring knowledge of exactly what needed doing. We got stuck into the planters, tackling an impressive amount of weeding and filling several bags with weeds in the process. By the end of the evening, the planters were looking considerably tidier and we’d made a noticeable difference.

The highlight of the evening, however, was continuing our battle from our last visit with a particularly stubborn tree stump. After some determination, teamwork and probably more effort than the stump felt it deserved, we actually managed to get it out! 🌳🏆

It was also a big welcome to Ben and Christiana, who were both joining us for their first ever GoodGym. They were thrown straight into the gardening action and hopefully weren’t put off by the weeds, the bags or the surprisingly competitive tree-stump removal. We hope to see you both back again!

A productive evening all round, with plenty of weeds defeated and one tree stump firmly removed from the equation.

Next week, we're back at Crisis — sign up if you can make it and see you there! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

If it's possible to have a warm, but cooler evening, then tonight was it - the recent hot weather has certainly re-calibrated the comfort scale, especially when it comes to running.

We all looked forward to a return visit to Wild Green E13, Plaistow's most lovingly cared for community garden, and our host Fleur was on site to welcome us when we arrived - Hilary and Graham had run from our usual meeting spot at Freaks and Geeks, Nick from Plaistow, and Bea arrived in one piece on her bike.

Once we'd got the container unlocked, it was clear this evening's task would be watering to try and keep the young plants, vegetables and all the contents of the wooden planter boxes alive. Our biggest challenge soon proved to be having enough water to get everything done as their giant water butt was running low and it had been a while since there'd been any top up, either via mother nature or from the local fire brigade.

However, low water wasn't going to stop us and we soon had a production line running to get watering cans filled and roots watered as best we could. As Graham stood over the tank eeking out the very last of the drops, it was apparent we had exhausted this particular task, but as always, Fleur was very grateful for our efforts. We'll be back here again in September, by which time there will hopefully have been a rain shower or two to give the plants a drink.

We set off on a cooler run back to our start point, and diverted into the pub for some well earned refreshment - this time not needing to rely on the last drops from a water container to rehydrate us...

Next week we'll be helping out on the planters at Barnard Grove - join us if you can, those plants really need our help!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/maintenance-of-planters-on-barnard-grove-19198e61-72a0-4c49-8904-5a150c05553a

After canceling our last planned visit in June to The Greenway Orchard due to the heatwave, we were pleased to get back there this evening to see what had happened on the growing front over the past 2 months and catch up with task owners Taiwo and Eleanor...and it's fair to say quite a lot, as we soon discovered that the brambles and bushes that we'd successfully hacked at and removed on our last visit had grown back, not quite to square one, but we were definitely encountering roots and branches on the ground that we'd met before...

Paul, Brad, Adam and Nick met at Freaks and Geeks, and ran the c3km, using as much of the open parts of the Greenway as we could - a shoutout to Eugene who joined us just after 7 having left work in Romford, got home, changed, caught his breath, and then run to the Orchard - true GG dedication in every sense. With this determined gang of 5, plus Taiwo, and armed with a wide selection of cutting tools and thick gloves, we got to it.

Yet again it's amazing/impressive to see what a group of motivated individuals can achieve, as by 7.30, we'd made a real dent in the undergrowth, and created a correspondingly large pile of brambles and branches behind us. Determined to press on (almost to the hospital) we kept at it, and soon found blackberries (but no unexpected wildlife) hiding in the undergrowth. It had been a warm one, and after returning tools and gloves, we set off on a slow shamble along the Greenway before finding our feet/breath and running back to F&G, where we stopped for well earned light refreshment and a debrief on the evening's entertainment.

We'll be back at the Orchard in September (date tbc), as we definitely don't want to leave it another two months...