4 Goodgymmers hankered after welly boots and head torches as they lent a hand in the dark at George Meehan House for a spot of lawn surgery.

The Beast At The Gates

Our four Goodgymmers arrived at the gates of George Meehan House for an early start to meet Luke from GrowN22 who needed a hand sorting out the flower meadow in the Wedding Gardens of George Meehan House. They arrived, all smiles and high fives but that quickly changed.

Enter The Beast.

Mylo, a Cerberus trapped in the body of the cutest Dachshund you have ever seen, guarded the gates and his human Luke with tenacious care. He barked and barked as our Goodgymmers settled into the task for the night.

It was a very muddy affair which made it very slippery underfoot but a lot easier to get rid of the top layer of grassy soil from the wildflower meadow in readiness for the 150 sunflowers, currently being lovingly grown in Luke's flower nursery somewhere in N22.

Very soon, we realised Mylo's barking was simply him trying to tell us he wanted to get involved, and before you knew it, he was digging along with Clare, Julie, and Charlie as Gramps stood around pestering our Goodgymmers for photos.

At around 7:30, and having lost the one source of light we had to low battery, we decided to call it an evening.

We all took turns at getting Mylo to do tricks and give him treats and call him a good boy, and he even joined in the high fives at the end. What a rock star.

Come next week! It's another early start but always fun as we visit Traid on Wood Green High Road.

7 Goodgymmers shovelled and raked, helping out at the Wedding Gardens in George Meehan House.

Celebration Corner!

Big up to Louise 'Once A GGHer, Always a GGHer' CW who took a break from her library duties and crossed the river northwards to celebrate her 200th tasks with us. Absolute rock start. Oh, and Happy Birthday too! :)

And 'see you soon, don't be long' to our Nurjehan who's taking a little break for a couple of weeks. We will miss you and come back asap <3

Rake It Till You Make It

We ran to the always lovely George Meehan House to meet with the good folk from GrowN22 to look after the wedding gardens.

Tonight we were helping Luke and the crew to create a brand new wood chip pathway through the wildflower section in the gardens.

Dave, Julie, and Sarah were in charge of transporting the wood chip from the driveway all the way back to the garden, while Louise and Nurjehan were in charge of raking it and shaping the path.

While they were at it, Charlie and Gramps were in charge of moving a big pile of logs to the compost area.

It was a nice, lowkey night apart from a spot of dog-biting, tree-crashing, and freezjump photography shenanigans - but I guess you had to be there for that.

And you can be next week as we visit a community garden for a bit of a facelift.

6 GoodGymers made their way to George Meehan house to meet up with Luke from GrowN22 and a mountain of sweet-smelling pine wood chips.

It had started to rain by the time we got to the task, and it seemed to get progressively worse through the night. But that wouldn’t stop us, and Dave had some extra layers to keep some of our GoodGymers warm and dry(er).

Yes we conifer!

Luke asked us to lend a hand shifting the pine wood chip to SPRUCE up the driveway and reduce weeds and add nutrients around the trees.

We shovelled, raked and filled up trug buckets to spread out the wood chip. Then we kicked and shuffled our feet to ensure the mulch was spread under all the trees and bushes.

Drenched, but still feeling PINE, we called it a night just before 8pm. We ran through Wood Green’s puddles all the way home to dry off.

We chipped in

A big shout out too to both mini Gramps for completing their Sports for Schools challenge and raising lots of money for a good cause!

Seven Goodgymmers ran to lend a hand at the municipal heart of Haringey Council as they prepped George Meehan House for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

Celebration Corner

It's not all doom and gloom so everybody make some noise for our very own bona fide rockstart Nurjehan who has been putting the Khan in inKhandescent for GGHaringey since 2018 and who celebrates this week smashing her way through the big door marked Club 50. Happy Birthday, Nurj - what would we do without you?

A Roaring Success

George Meehan House is the municipal centre point for Haringey Council and over the weekend it saw the Leader of the Council and the cabinet come together for the proclamation of the new King.

All the foot traffic meant that the gardens at GMH needed a bit of TLC ahead of next week's funeral for the Queen and we were at hand to help.

Luke from GrowN22 placed us in the lovely named Wedding Garden where we were tasked with pulling up some heavy duty weeds and ridding the hedges of an incredibly overzealous ivy.

Our Goodgymmers are nothing if not prodigious at pulling and they got on with the job at hand with gusto. While ivy pulling, some kids in the neighbouring park playfully confused our goodgymmer's efforts with the work of some unidentified monster crew and our Goodgymmers obliged by engaging in a rather ear-splitting game of roaring at random kids. Needless to say, the kids had a wonderful time.

Along the way, Niamh found the time to topple poor Rosa onto the ground and Louise and Toyo discussed the logistics of digging their way to Australia.

By the end, it felt like a proper autumn session, with the light quickly deserting us and one solitary head torch doing a lot of heavy lifting for the group as we tidied up.

Fun times!

8 jubilant Goodgymmers commemorated this most special of weeks (Volunteers Week and Global Running Day on the same evening!) by royally strutting their stuff right down Wood Green High Road to a brand new task at George Meehan House.

Who Brings A Trowel To A Spade Fight?

Our noble band of heroes assembled on the grounds of George Meehan House (the municipal home of everything Haringey Council) where Luke from Grown N22 greeted us with a number of tasks.

A belated change of plans meant we couldn't get access to the private gardens at the back of the House so Luke had arranged a number of tasks out at the front of this imposing building. Not having access to the back also meant that proper tools were short in supply but, luckily (and, perhaps, worryingly) Gramps doesn't run anywhere without his trusty backpack where he carries anything and everything - including a set of trowels, countless pairs of gloves, jumpers for chilly goodgymmers, treats and sweets, and the occasional [redacted].

So, once Gramps had emptied most of the contents of his backpack on the drive of George Meehan House, our Goodgymmers wasted no time in attacking the list of tasks for evenings.

Luke handed us six potted rhododendrons that needed planting, and through a lack of spades, our Goodgymmers proceeded to dig the deep trenches needed just using their little trowels. Reader, it was hard work. Did they complain? Not even once! Instead conversation included the merits of Andy Weir's ouvre after The Martian (patchy, apparently, if you'd like to know), the wildly differing levels of desire among Goodgymmers to celebrate the jubilee, and there might have been some lighthearted ribbing about some minor royal indiscretions.

Louise, who like Gramps runs everywhere with her own set of secateurs, fulfilled her need for shearing by taking care of a bush out front before leading a small team in a more trowel-appropriate planting session on the circular flower bed right in the middle of the drive.

We were all then sequestered to the east side of the estate, where we did some weeding and some daisy planting before calling it quits for the evening.

A proper Royal Rumble, you'll agree.

Join us next week for more fun and games as we visit our friends at Chapmans Green.

Get on the beers, Lizzie - you deserve it