It was a short stop to visit MsS after work this evening. The already dismantled garden table was moved along with the rusty bike to the front garden, ready to be collected by the council’s bulk waste collection team in the morning.

A group of us gathered on a still warm October eve to help Ken with some bulb planting. We worked in a small area of the cemetery park and planted over 250 crocuses. These will flower in the new year and enhance the wild beautiful look of the park.

A light mist descended on us as we took up our trowels and starting digging deep (as deep as the trowel to protect those bulbs from hungry squirrels)! It was dark as we started, but we were equipped with our headtorches and spotlights, diligently gardening among the grass and graves as the bats flew overhead. Some worked so ferociously that even the tools were no match for their pure strength!

A big welcome to Jo and Beate joining us for your first task! It was great to have you there and an enjoyable Monday evening. Hope to see you again soon!

Four intrepid GoodGymers rose early this morning to help Chris and the rest of the lovely Friends of Arnold Circus and wider volunteering crew for the annual Autumn Plant Fair. The usual grab and carry action ensued to ensure nurseries could get their vans unloaded and produce on display atop predominantly hessian covered trestle tables around the band stand.

Some time was spent attempting to help green-thumbed stall-holders find what proved to be limited parking options.

I'd like to welcome Grace who joined after everything had been set up but left a favourable first impression with Chris who said she was friendly and keen to help.

I visited MsS for the third time this afternoon and met a fairly decent portion of her family who had travelled far to visit her for the weekend. Whilst her family cleaned and tidied the house, I got to work in the back garden. I finished pulling the thigh-high plants, swept up broken ceramic pots, filled up six garden waste bags, dismantled a bench, removed a precious handle-bar bell from an incredible light blue folding bicycle and finally joined MsS in her kitchen for a catch up and to help her schedule a bulky waste collection for the end of next week.

🌍 Northeastern Run Club x GoodGym #2 This was the second run done by the Northeastern Run Club in collaboration with GoodGym.

We all meet outside of Devon House where everyone got acquainted before we got into our warm ups lead by the club captain Pieke. The route started on Tower Bridge into Aldgate. From there we turned into Commercial Road which set us on a straight road with a lot less people traffic. From there, we ended up on mostly residential roads before finally reaching Wapping.

The route past Wapping Station is a iconic route on the Big Half Marathon route. A route that is very lively on race day, but also very challenging due to the path being full of cobblestone. We ended up back at Devon House realising the route was a bit under 5km, so I told everyone we'd run up to the end of the road and back again to finish the distance. I said they could do this last bit as fast as they want and they definitely rose to the challenge. I run just fast enough to stay behind them at a pace of 4:18 km/h, so speed definitely isn't a problem for a lot of team.

Another successful run done, and we'll be back next week.

REPORT BY NAZIFA

St Matthew’s Gardens had certainly accumulated its fair share of leaves, so it was time for the GoodGym crew to get involved! 🍂

The task was mainly focused on clearing leaves from around the garden and churchyard, with a little bit of litter picking thrown in too. There were* A LOT* of leaves to tackle, but everyone got stuck in. We picked, swept, gathered and bagged them up, with plenty of bags being filled along the way

I made sure everyone had bags to collect the leaves in, and it was great seeing everyone working together to clear the paths and tidy up the area. There was definitely no shortage of leaves, but we managed to make a good dent in them!

It was also my first time leading a GoodGym session, so I was really happy with how everything went. As Emma would say, I can’t “be-leaf”it was my first one!

A big thank you to everyone who came along and helped out. It was a really good experience for my first time leading, and I think we all did a great job