Taskowners Emily and Margaret greeted us on approach, at Approach Gardens - a lovely community food garden in the heart of Bethnal Green, home to bees and frogs. They helpfully divvied up the various tasks that needed doing between our large group. These included:

• Beautifying the area round the pond (home to at least 3 tiny frogs), trimming the hedges etc
• De-weeding various areas within the garden and along the borders outside
• Giving the greenery a 'haircut' around the outside edges
• Clearing the path leading to the beehives

This was a task where we split into little sub teams, working away in our own areas, wheelbarrows full of foliage going back and forth throughout the hour. It was only at the end we could stand back and appreciate how much had been achieved. Well done all!

A big shout out to Emma for completing her first Goodgym task!

We also said goodbye (for now!) to Kat and Asad, as they move to the Chilterns. Some of us headed to The Camel post task to toast them with a drink. You will both be very missed (un-frog-ettable some may say...) but I'm sure our paths will cross again soon.

This Sunday morning, we headed to Epping Forest (home to 55,000 ancient trees!) where we were met by the brilliant Robyn, Conservation Officer at Epping Forest Heritage Trust. This was no usual gardening task. Instead of shovels, trowels, and rakes, modern gardening equipment was forgone and we went back to basics. The weapons, I mean tools, of choice, were big sticks. As we made our way to the task site - a large open area dense with bracken - we kept an eye out for the best ones. Robyn advised they needed to be reasonably long, and sturdy, but not too wide, so that they could be wielded in a whip like fashion. Where bracken grows, not much else does, so our task was to bash as much as we could to give other plants a chance.

Big sticks acquired, we set about, in a somewhat zig zag direction, clearing all the bracken we could. Many different bracken beating techniques were employed - everyone seemed to have their own unique style:

• Hilary found a back-hand most effective
• Chloe put her golf skills to use and struck the ferns as if on the tee.
• Fiona aka Fiona Woods
  
• Emily entered a flow state - the stick became an extension of self
• John employed a choppy, efficient technique
  
• Anna held the stick like a sword, comfortably swiping from multiple angles
• Jack's moves were really a sight to behold, resembling a Wu Shu martial artist at times
  

This was such a fun, (and cathartic!) task - a lot of bracken was successfully bashed, and no-one got hit by errant stick swipes.

Post task, Robyn led us to Ambresbury banks, an Iron Age hill fort, thought to be constructed in 700 BC. Legend has it that this might be where Queen Boadicea fought her last battle in the uprising against the Romans...We stopped to have a picnic lunch here before setting off through the woods towards Chingford.

Shout out to Emily for completing her first Goodgym task!

A hot day for gardening. Was welcomed to Ms S's house by her daughter and shown the garden which was full of clematis, honeysuckle and bindweed. So much so that it was blocking access to the back gate which could be needed in an emergency. I cleared the paving slabs of weeds, cut back the lyme tree and cleared a bit of rubbish. Ms S gave me a couple of cool glasses of water and I was on my way.

it was the May edition of the social gardening club at St Margarets House and GoodGymmers Chloe and Sam showed up ready to tackle a thick ivy bush out on the front road. We snipped away and had to avoid being showered with dust as we the older inner roots came down. A focussed hour of work saw us fill 10 sacks of green waste! Come along next time for this regular midweek mid-afternoon task.

Here are the dates for the next four months:

Tuesday 23rd June, 4-7pm Wednesday 22nd July, 4-7pm Thursday 20th August, 4-7pm Wednesday 23rd September, 4-7pm

Sunday started early - VERY early. 7am at Aid Station 4 on the Hackney Half Marathon Route (just by Broadway Market!). There were plenty of bleary eyes, but thankfully the sun was already shining as we arrived ready for the day ahead.

Our first mission: water station setup. And if there’s one thing permanently burnt into our minds now, it’s the maths of the tables - 20 by 8 cups on each layer, 5 layers high, over and over and over again. Tables after tables after tables. Somewhere between the endless cup stacking and chatting away, the morning flew by! The best part was meeting so many brilliant Goodgymers from all over London - and, naturally, we even ended up recruiting new members whilst we were at it!

Then the motorcade arrived and the first runners appeared… From that point on it just never stopped for the next 2–3 hours. Thousands of runners streamed past as we handed out water as fast as humanly possible, cheered people on, tried to decipher names scribbled across bibs, shouted encouragement at every fancy dress costume we spotted, and kept our eyes peeled for our fellow GoodGym runners amongst the crowds. There were even a few famous faces mixed in too. Some runners just wanted a sip, others their bottles filling, others wanted us to throw a cup of water over them!

It was loud, sunny, exhausting, and genuinely brilliant - such a fantastic community vibe. Before we knew it, the runners had passed through, the cups had disappeared, the tables were packed away, and by around 1pm we were wrapped up after an amazing morning.

A huge well done to everyone who ran, volunteered, organised, cheered, stacked cups, handed out water, and kept the energy going all morning long!

Until next year! And who knows — you might even spot some of the people handing out your water this time swapping volunteer bibs for running bibs and taking on the 13.1 miles through the streets of Hackney themselves…

This Monday evening, we headed to Ocean Youth Connexions in Limehouse. Task owner, Kamal greeted us there after we rang the small, but very mighty doorbell. Many thanks to Kamal for hosting us after a last minute cancellation. Before starting, we gathered in a the shape of a digestive which was apt, given that we soon introduced ourselves and our favourite biscuit. Bourbons, jammie dodgers, ritz, ginger nuts, hobnobs, Biscoff, French raspberry jaffa cakes, malted milks, Choco Leibniz, and others were mentioned. Great biscuit preference diversity within the Goodgym demographic.
As usual, there was a range of tasks to occupy us:

• Simon and Kim headed upstairs to tidy the offices there. Tidy seems too small a word as what they accomplished was a changing-rooms-esque transformation (without any tears).
• Darren, gave the front of the building a makeover. A lone worker at first, by the end this was where the party was at and he was joined happily by several others
• Jack, supported by Sam (and a ladder) got to work giving the backyard hedge a trim. This task came naturally to Jack given that his mum is a professional hairdresser.
  
• Kirsti , Ciarán, Chantal and Chloe did a mix of weeding and rubbish clearing in the back yard.
• * John and Jack got to work clearing the back-backyard.

An array of equipment was used to aid clearing: from litter pickers to broomsticks (the latter not just getting a mention here so that the report title makes sense...)

Shout out to Chantal for coming to her first task and getting stuck in the weeds, in a good way!

Congrats to Chloe for recently completing a milestone 10 tasks (this being her 11th)! A keen tennis player, Chloe has quickly established herself as a familiar and valuable member of the team - one could say she has 'set' the bar high for new joiners, always on the 'ball' and 'game' for all goodgym tasks.

This was a productive evening with many bags of rubbish cleared. Group photos taken, and a record number of shout outs and announcements announced, we said our goodbyes and went off in different directions.

Until the next time!