It was a lovely balmy evening on 1st September as six of us returned to Chelwood Primary school. The last time we were here, in January, was to line some planters and plant some herbs as part of the sensory garden, so it was great to see straight away how these herbs and tactile plants had grown. And with them, even a few surprise self-propagating begonias, and some rather sizeable lockdown weeds (which were later whisked away).

After a warm welcome from the headteacher, we set to work on the, as ever, beautifully organised list of tasks, including:

• Raking the sandpits • Weeding the planters • Removing dead plants • Edging the pathways, to uncover the 'hungry caterpillar' • Tidying the woodchip pathways • Weeding the log patch • Sweeping the playground

Thanks to the lighter evening, this time we were also able to admire the updates to the playground of a new treehouse platform and even some tellytubby style mounds that have popped up in the last few weeks! A few of us remarked how it would be quite nice to be five years old again, if just to play here...

Following a spot by Sam and Jacqui of some protruding nails in the paving, once they had been highlighted in chalk for the handyman, a photo opportunity could not be missed - you nailed it Sam!

After tidying up the tools, we realised there was nothing more on the list, except to perhaps enjoy one of the kindly provided biscuits & a quick cup of something warm.

Looking forward to seeing the updates from Chelwood as they go back to school on Monday!

It was the first group run in what felt like forever that it wasn’t raining!! But it was still windy, can’t win them all I guess.

A quick warm up of trying to make sure we didn’t get blown away and we began to make our way to Chelwood Nursery School which is mostly uphill...but that means it’s downhill on the way back!!

We were met at the task by a couple of GoodGymmers sheltering from the wind in a classroom, near the bananas and Kit Kat’s!

There were some big tasks to get stuck into, these were: - Raking the sand pit and checking for buried treasure - Moving the sand from the giant bag to the sand pit and spreading it out evenly - Wheelbarrowing a giant bag of bark to various points in the playground - Removing Velcro ties from the railings

Everyone got stuck into the tasks and it was great to see all the giant bags of sand/bark reducing in size and being delivered around the playground.

Emma was enjoying moving sand from a very large bag with 2 very tiny spades (or shovels) so much that I thought I’d have to leave her there to finish the job...until a larger spade was found for the task!

Before I knew it, it was time to finish up and we headed inside for a group photo which looked rather like a school photo!

On the way back I asked everyone to have a chat with someone they didn’t know to find out an interesting fact about each other and the most exciting would win. There was no prize but I didn’t say that and got to hear some very interesting conversations on the downhill run back to Glassmill.

Good luck to everyone running the Big Half at the weekend and like I said if you want to forward plan by a whole year then because we live in a borough it runs through and volunteer with GoodGym then we usually have community places available for £10.

Otherwise in less than a years time there’s volunteering options at the Hackney Half in May and plenty of missions - check out the website for more details.

A huge well done for everyone braving the rain last night and it had luckily stopped by the time we were due to set off! We had a quick round up of Lewisham news (Cross Country, 10k races and January Challenge) but mainly every seems to be off out on long runs in preparation for the Big Half in March.

An uphill run over to the task and we arrived at Chelwood Nursery to be treated to bananas, kit kats and hot drinks (and Amber, Nykolette, Stephen and Jacqueline keeping warm in one of the classrooms).

There were a selection of tasks to be completed:

• untangling a beaded curtain which Amber turned out to be very very good at, there was a little bit to do when it was time to leave but they could still be there now as they were determined to finish it!
• removing cable ties from the fence
• sweeping the sand away from the drain
• carrying 30 bags of (Irish) compost from car to school
• stapling the membrane to the newly built planters
• filling the planters with compost
• planting the herbs that had been donated

After refueling and dividing all the tasks depending on preference and who was feeling strong to go back and forth with the huge bags of compost, everyone got stuck in.

From what I could hear the stapling was rather a fun task and possibly more stapling went on than necessary because it was so fun. Better to be more stapled than less stapled!

Before I knew it, I was giving 10 min warning and it was lovely to see the difference in all the tasks that were going on. The planters were looking amazing and the stray soil was being sweeped up so it was ready for the teachers and children arriving Tuesday morning to began planting more herbs and plants in the remaining planters.

After checking no tools had been left in the planters by accident, especially the sharp tools and all counted back in, it was time for a group photo which I'm not going to lie, took a bit of coordinating (read: me eventually moving people into place)!

We had a downhill run back to Glassmill as a reward for the uphill run there, we arrived back at Glassmill ready for a stretch and chat about next weeks task.

We had a couple of tourists this evening from various areas, I hope you enjoyed yourselves in Lewisham and we look forward to seeing you again if you're ever in the area on a Monday evening!