You may be aware that the one-time Bishop of Stepney – whose patch covered Tower Hamlets – was recently appointed Archbishop of Canterbury! So what’s that got to do with GoodGym? Well, the local mitre has now passed to the Venerable Rod Green, who’s visiting our favourite Lady at St Matthews Church, Bethnal Green today - so an urgent tidy-up was required!

Nearly every possible weather had been present in London yesterday in quick succession, so who knew whether the afternoon thunderstorms would return while we were engaged in the task? So full marks to those who were prepared to brave the elements, despite this being our third group session in as many days. A special welcome to Theodore, embarking on his first ever Good Deed!

Rather than set us to work in the now-swampy planting area, Lady Andrea decided that our most effective tidying operation be to tackle the area in front of the church entrance, where numerous pesky weeds had emerged from between the paving stones. In this respect, the rain was our friend – it had softened the usually resistant roots, making our task rather less hard on the wrists. After an hour and a bit, the area was entirely cleared of weeds and muck, looking so much tidier – fit for a bishop in fact! Even Barry the dog helped, with some jaw-based litter-picking

It only remained for our super sextet to navigate the puddles of E2 and return to the more predictable environment of their fireside. And don’t worry if you missed all the fun – we’ll be back there on Monday!

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…