Four Goodgymmers helped the folk at Russell's Park Hub carry out a risk assessment and a thorough litter pick ahead of their Easter Egg Hunts on Saturday.

Kristina and Patrick joined Gramps nice and early for a litter pick of the area in the park, surrounding the cafe to ensure that there weren't any little things that could hurt any of the scores of children that were expected to join the Hunts.

Later on, Rosa joined them to finish completing a risk assessment and support Euclides run the Easter Egg Hunts

Happy Easter

9 Goodgymmers braved the yellow warnings of Storm Ciaran to lend a hand at the Noel Park Estate for a bit of tree maintenance shenanigans.

So long, suckers!

Our Goodgymmers arrived one by one to Blue House Yard to find out that Gramps - not content with spending two weeks with his feet up getting fat and watching the telly while allegedly in the sick bin - had also mixed up his dates and the task advertised for the evening was not actually until next week. Our Goodgymmers, as always gracious and accommodating, didn't make him feel bad about it and were in fact eager about the prospect of trimming suckers from plane trees in the middle of a powerful storm. 😅

Thankfully, the rain and the wind held out long enough to keep our Goodgymmers dry while they concentrated their efforts on a lovely tree-lined road in the Noel Park Estate. Dave, Sarah, Julie, Raj, Latoya, and Charlie wasted no time and in getting rid of suckers from the mature trees while Clare and Nurjehan took charge of a thorough litter pick of all the tree beds and pavements, including some newly-installed rain garden planters outside the Noel Park school.

It was a smooth operation and within the hour, all trees along the .5 mile long (!) Lymington Avenue had been sorted and the road was looking impeccable. Big shout out to the local residents who came out to provide some light for our Goodgymmers while they trimmed the tree outside their house. They did look at us like we had just landed from a different planet but were very enthusiastic and supportive about our efforts.

Once we were done, we took all cuttings and rubbish back to Noel Park Big Local's HQ and as always, we made time for some selfies, hugs, and high fives.

Boom

Join us next week as we visit Tottenham Green for some bulb planting!

7 Goodgymmers proved they weren't fusspots as they rolled their sleeves up, put some marigold gloves on, and sank their hands into vinegary water to wash plants pots for the Noel Park Big Local.

A Watched Pot Never Washes

Laurie from Noel Park Big Local had set up a handy wash basket chain for us to work on some serious potty washing. After a quick briefing where he explained that the Big Local have been collecting the pots throughout the year for an autumn bulb giveaway but the pots needed to be cleaned of all muck and fungi before they could be given away to residents to keep in their homes, he put us to work.

Our Goodgymmers wasted no time getting stuck in. It will come as no surprise to readers of these reports that #BadGymXtraordinnaire and power tool aficionada Julie took over the power wash duties, and along with Sarah they gave all the pots an initial blast before handing over to the wash chain. 

Nurjehan was in charge of the first bucket, filled with soapy water; Louise was in charge of the acidulant concoction of vinegar, soap and elbow grease, aka bucket number 2; and finally, Charlie was in charge of giving them all one good final soak. Rosa then transported them to a yard where they were to dry and have the final stage of their anti-fungisation - a good blast of sunlight.

Our Goodgymmers are always a well-oiled machine regardless of the task and they moved through the pile of pots at pace.  It was at this stage that Gramps started counting and asked everyone to take a guess at how many pots we would have cleaned and recycled by the end of the evening (Louise 80/ Sarah 134/ Julie 345/ Nurjehan 94/ Rosa 110/ Charlie 117/ Laurie 87).

After around a good hour under the rain, both natural and artificially-created by Julie, we called it quits and it was time for selfies and dancing but not before Gramps revealed the winner of the pots guessing comp. With a very respectable 95 pots washed and saved from the landfill through our efforts, we crowned Nurjehan our champion of the evening. Not much difference, I suppose, as she seems to stroll through life as the champion of the world. #Winning

It was getting chilly by then, so everyone set off on their way home/ pub/ delete as appropriate and Gramps stayed behind to help Laurie with the clearing up.

Boom.

Tune in next week for more fun and games.

6 clinical Goodgymmers carried out some amateur tree surgery as they visited the Noel Park Estate in Wood Green.

We're Suckers For Good Puns

In what was a really lovely summer evening, our 6 Goodgymmers walked, ran, and hobbled to Wood Green to lend the Noel Park Big Local crew a hand in maintaining some of the trees on the Estate.

Armed with secateurs, shears, and other sharp things we walked down the long avenues in N22 in search of trees struggling for water in the heat with an explosion of suckers in their beds. Before long, we had located them and we got on with some tree surgery 101.

It was hot and steamy work but very rewarding as we made quick progress. Halfway through we were approached by some young and very grateful residents who pointed us towards the tree outside their own house and with a little bit of their help, we gave it the trendiest of haircuts.

Our work was temporarily stopped by the arrival of an ice cream truck but by 8pm, we had left half of the trees on Lymington Avenue N22 looking super.

A lovely night.

Finally, big shout to Sarah and Niamh for today's photos and puns. And to Dave, who came simply for the lolz and the ice cream <3

Join us next week for more fun.

4 determined Goodgymmers toiled away in the penumbral light of a beautiful summery night creating a flowerbed for the heavenly Floyde's Garden in Russell Park.

"Hey there, foxy lady, do you want to buy a fox?"

You had to be there for that one. Feel free to ask Julie all about it next time you see her 😅🙈

You've made your bed, now lie in it

Our four Goodgymmers were in need of a lie down indeed after last night's task. The good folk at Russell Park want to create a natural sculpture using the trunk of a tree that fell during the storms last year. To make it stand as a feature, they wanted a flower bed around it to pack full of colour with summer bulbs.

GGHaringey to the rescue!

First order of the day was clearing the growth around the tree and our Nurjehan wasted no time arming herself with secateurs and shears. Soon, Julie and Charlie were turning the ground around the trunk using ** check notes ** erm pick axes and forks, while Gramps started wheeling over the new soil for the bed. It was hard, honest work, reader. And our Goodgymmers grafted.

By 8pm, the tree trunk stood proudly from a freshly-made flower bed, ready to be planted with bulbs this weekend and completed with logs as a natural edging.

Boom.

Join us next week for more fun and games!

4 artistic Goodgymmers put their brushes to good use as they painted the night away, helping out at Floyde's Garden in Wood Green.

."Everything is temporary... if you wait long enough"

In what turned out to be a cosy and intimate affair, our four Goodgymmers ran the short distance to Floyde's Garden in Russell Park for a spot of fence painting.

Floyde's Garden is an area of the park that was claimed by a member of the community years ago and transformed into a lovely accessible community garden. Since then, the community has been looking after it and this year they are giving it a makeover and they asked for our help with Phase 1 - fence painting.

Our Goodgymmers were very excited to find out that we were being provided with boiler suits for the evening and we wasted no time coming up with a few ideas for our post-task photoshoot. But first, the little matter of completing the actual task.

There's no much to say here other than it was a big fence and we painted it. Oh, yeah, we painted it alright. Along the way, Sarah regaled us with stories about the tits in her garden, Niamh harangued cats and humans alike over the fence as she painted, Julie turned into a textile artist halfway through the task and redesigned the back of the boiler suits, and Gramps... erm... we're never sure what Gramps actually brings to the party. But he was there too. All the while we had a lovely and much needed check in and catch up.

Finally, we completed the aforementioned photoshoot. And we all headed out into the evening a little bit lighter. Sometimes an intimate fence-painting-cat-haranguing-tits-tittering session is all you need. <3

Join us next week as Leyla at Luos has pressed the 'help needed' button and we're heeding the call.