After a day of heavy rain, the clouds parted to allow the Gurnell Grove Community to host their lovely Winter Wonderland and four GoodGymers were up for getting involved and helping out!

With lots of stalls, crafts, cake, mulled wine and even an ice rink and snow machine, there were loads of fun and free activities for residents to get involved with.

Jenni and Samar did some wonderful baking to add to the cake stall while myself and Beth helped on the craft stalls getting kids to make decorated paper gingerbread men and iced biscuits.

It was great to see the community come together and enjoy this lovely festive event!

"We're passionate about building community on our estate with the aim of bringing people together to socialise, have fun and make new friends. Everyone is welcome." - Gurnell Grove Community

Our enthusiastic group set off to help the Grove community at Heron House. The 6 of us was lucky enough to have a dry run through Cleveland Park where we were welcomed by a wonderful view. As we reached to the Community garden, we spotted a potential task that can be done. This was a broken door which could hurt someone if open incorrectly. But it seems like this was not going to be one of the tasks destined for us today. The Task organiser Matt who use to be a Youth worker now pastor set us up with some nice gardening task. Chris volunteered to get rid of the bramble. It seemed like easy work for Chris who is prepping for a marathon. Jenni highlighted her Gardening skills by letting the group know what plants were good and bad. Lesson of the day is that there is a plant that keeps away plants. Jenni and Michael were de-weeding the plant pots as well as de-weeding the strawberry patch. Alex, Mathilde and Samar (who joined us at the task) de-weeded the big patch in the middle of the garden. I can tell Liv left me with a tough team because even though the clouds decided to make it rain on us, it never deterred us from finishing the task. Michael, Jenni and Samar came prepared with waterproof jackets while the rest of us embraced the wind and water elements. Everything was cleared just in time for us to leave. Before we left, we had to make sure we felt like we did a workout. It was a mix of core exercise’s that included planks, mountain climbers, leg holds and dips. It was a dry journey home with a bit of pace and sore abs.

*Don't forget we have the GG Olympics this Saturday. Even if you have not signed up, feel free to come down and support the team.