And one by one our little group grew tonight, until there were no fewer than 13 GoodGymers working on the new hazel fence at the pretty St Leonard's Priory Park up in Bromley-By-Bow.

We said hello to first time GoodGym-ers Gurprit, Anton, Anna, and a warm welcome to Tower Hamlets to Anna!

Starting with four teams (one chopping hazel, one weeding, one digging fence-holes and one repairing our less-than-perfect previous hazel fence), it was definitely a case of learning on the job as we pruned, stripped and chopped; weeded and wove, blitzing multiple jobs at one time.

With the team working flexibly, rotating out of one task to another, particularly as time sped on ("Hazel! We need more hazel!"), it was a busy but sociable evening, with the countdown to sunset well and truly on.

A decent workout was had by all, whether digging up weeds or sawing tough branches.

It was after 8 before the team were generously stacking up the kit, and wheeling barrows to the back of the park.

With Kareem providing decent tech assistance, the all-important group pic remained in tact, despite the lack of light.

A great effort, everyone - and a final shout-out to Charlie, who came up with tonight's belter of a pun.

Next week

...we're back to Hollybush Gardens, for our first visit of Autumn with Margaret and Ash.

Until then.

A brilliant little squad showed up tonight to help Margaret and Natalia tidy the well-used garden around Patriot Square.

This small garden area aligns both sides of the path leading off the square. Used as a useful access to Russia Lane and neighbouring Old Ford Road, as well as a popular dog-walking spot, overhanging rose and blackberry bushes can mean the path gets a little congested.

Last month we headed to join the team to tackle the worst of the branches, returning this evening to finish the inside and bag up last month's stash.

With Natalia on Operation Strimmer and Margaret joining the pruning team, it was down to Oliver and Lucinda to tackle the bulk of last month's waste.

As luck would have it, we were joined relatively early in the proceedings by Cameron, also part of the neighbourhood gardening team, who kindly brought us the team's new supply of sturdy gloves, which helped matters no end.

It was a lovely evening to watch the sunset and join this productive, welcoming team for a spot of gardening, getting the week off to a really great start. Well done everyone.

Next week, we join Larry back at St Leonard's Priory Park, for our first visit of 2024!

Until then.

Emma and I nearly had a "specsavers moment" (other brands of eye tests are available) when we got to Mrs E's lift lobby to start today's mission...one lift was definitely out of order, and the other seemed very quiet...fortunately it was working, and when we got in we discovered it was of the extra large variety too.

Mrs E was so very grateful for our help - especially as she's currently sleeping on one of the armchairs in her living room, and only once we'd removed the sofa could she get her new one delivered which would make her life more comfortable.

After a bit of the usual furniture Tetris, we got the sofa out of the (wide) front door, into the lift and thanks to a helpful man on the door, out into the disposal area. We returned quickly to take the one remaining armchair down that Mrs E wanted rid of, said goodbye to her tiny kitten, and wished her well with her new furniture.

The deliveroo man in the lift was probably surprised to find himself sharing the space with an armchair - we were just both very glad we weren't taking the stairs...

Weeding garden for Mrs K. Removing brambles and weeds with a spade by scraping it along the flagstones. Weeding quite easy getting brambles into bag quite hard. Job 2/3rds done. Very nice to meet a neighbour.

This was our first task with Ocean Youth Connexions (OYC), a Tower Hamlets-based provider of youth provision, over at their new base in E14, alongside Tower Hamlets Community Transport, a small charity based in Limehouse, set up to provide transport to voluntary and community groups in Tower Hamlets.

Kamal, tonight's task owner, greeted us with brand new equipment and a choice of jobs: outdoor gardening, or start the paint job?

The team opted for the outdoor clean-up.

We spread out all over the outside yard, pulling up weeds, chopping back branches, sweeping and bagging leaves, and collecting large amounts of rubbish.

The 'after' pic was certainly a stark contrast.

This was a brilliant start to our first task, here with OYC at the Community Transport Hub.

This clearing and decorating activity, both today and planned for the coming weeks, means that:

• The Community Transport area will be ready for when services are up-and-running on a larger scale.

• Both indoor and outdoor facilities have benefited from a bit of a makeover, enabling the organisations to focus on delivering services, existing and future.

Super fun day with the felix team! My first time volunteering and I really enjoyed it 😊