You know that autumn's here (even if the thermometer is trying hard to convince you otherwise), when evening group tasks involve (a lot of) leaf sweeping, and so it was for Graham, Eugene, Hilary and I once we'd convened at Ange's place, aka the Hackney Adventure playground. Armed with brooms, rakes, spades and a bag big enough for a small family to shelter under, we quickly got to work clearing the basketball court/football pitch of leaves, branches and other deposits...

We'd like to say there was some method applied to how we went about the task, but that would be overstating things somewhat, although our biggest challenge was staying ahead of the gusts which blew inconsiderately and kept depositing more debris onto the playing surface just when we thought we were winning, but after 45 minutes of pretty vigorous sweeping, piling up and bagging, the court/pitch was once more ready for play, and it would've been rude if we hadn't given it a try out...suffice to say we're clearly better suited to sweeping than we are at hooping...

It was the Gang of Four who pitched up at the Hackney adventure playground this evening to see what Ange had in store for us. Early arrivers Paul and I were delighted to see that the remaining tree trunks that we had shifted during our last visit had now all been moved, so we thought it was unlikely we were going to be in for another session of heavy lifting…and so it proved, as Ange pointed to yet another large mountain of bark and wood chipping by the entrance and said she’d like it moved to the far corner under one of the A frames to provide a soft landing for any young aspiring circus acrobats.

With each of us armed with wheelbarrow and shovel, we got to work loading, walking, emptying into mounds, and retracing our steps for more of the same, but helpfully accompanied by an eclectic playlist of tunes blasting out from the speaker near the shed, which definitely kept us moving. Whoever was in control of this evening's playlist is definitely missing a trick as a part time DJ at the weekend...or as the next Joe Wicks.

With darkness now fully set in, Team Leader Graham gave us a call of “5 minutes more” (or two more wheelbarrow trips), and once done we parked the ‘barrows, tidied up the spades, leaving just a small pile of woodchip still to be distributed, and bade Ange farewell. A short group run back to the Olympic Park, and another highly satisfying and productive evening at the playground was complete for another week.

A very delayed report due to technical issues.......computer said no and then on a tech free holiday

Another wonderful visit to see Ang at Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground and a classic GG task for the night.

A very large pile of mulch to be shifted.

Lots of shoveling,walking and spreading and we had the area under the zip line full of mulch ready for the children the following morning. We even had time to put a good layer under the large swing area.

We will return to see Ang again in October.

We made out way to see Ange at Hackney Marshes after double checking she would be there after missing her last time.

They had a delivery of some very long poles which had a mixture of letters on or had been left blank.

Ange told us about the up coming building projects to replace so of the well loved equipment.

With clear instructions of where each pole need to go Adam Paul Nick and Kevin got to work on moving the poles.

I had an extended catch up with Ange who took me to see the project the older children are building with a local group,they have designed and are now helping to build a climbing tunnel and jump platform.....sadly not as high a s the children wanted it to be but Ange has to follow H&S law.

The guys did an amazing job and meant lots of poles ready for the children to paint.

Next week its a visit to Emmanuel Church and this time we will actually get started on the flower bed

We arrived at a slightly damp, but locked up Adventure Playground.

The playground has been gearing up for their Summer scheme and having some building work, we had unfortunately been forgotten!

Apologies were passed in and new date to be confirmed for a visit in August.

We do love a visit to see Ange at Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground.

We welcomed Priscila to her first GG Newham group run.

Ange had a couple of tasks planned for tonight, a GoodGym classic moving wood chip and digging and hole ready for a wooden installation next to the pond.

Kevin and Priscila took on the task of digging a meter deep hole which was made more difficult due to the amount of rubble that is buried on the site, the joy of the playground be built on an old blitz dump.

Hilary and I took on the task of re-wood chipping one of the swing areas within the playground.

We finished the evening tadpole spotting in the playgrounds pond.