It was great to welcome Diana for a first GoodGym task, Charlie for a second, Šana who's no stranger to GoodGym, but new to us in Newham, and Kirsti, visiting from GoodGym Tower Hamlets and swapping choir practice for a spot of Crisis management.

We set off from Freaks and Geeks with Graham, Adam, Kirsti, Charlie and me, running down to the warehouse in the somewhat industrial part of Canning Town. We met Šana there, followed by Diana, while our host Chris was delayed in the logistical challenge of getting stock distributed across Crisis’ London shops. All was forgiven, though: Chris is such a passionate advocate for the amazing and much-needed work Crisis does, and his enthusiasm for the cause is infectious. It was a good reminder that, behind all the bags, cages and warehouse logistics, there’s a bigger purpose to what we were helping with.

Tonight’s task was getting Christmas stock ready to go out to the shops. That meant keeping up the proud (and occasionally questionable) GoodGym tradition of moving things from one place to another and then moving them back again. We moved a mountain of bags from one big pile into lots of separate piles. Then we moved some of those piles into cages. Then we moved the piles back again. Job done, and the warehouse is a little more ready for the beginnings of the festive rush.

With the bags sorted and the stock suitably shuffled, we called it a night. A satisfying bit of teamwork, some useful lifting, and another contribution to the work Crisis does supporting people experiencing homelessness.

We’ll be back on 24th November, and there may even be a bonus task or two on 28th November at a Crisis pop-up event on Savile Row. Apparently, donated designer clothing helped raise around £100,000 at the last event. It’s hard not to wonder who buys it all, apart from other celebrities and wealthy people. Perhaps the same designer jackets just do laps of the same circle of wardrobes...

If the pop-up task goes ahead, we could be helping load the fancy stuff in Canning Town, with a separate team on hand to unload it at the other end. Watch this space!

A big well done to everyone who came along and helped get those bags moving. Join us for the next round? See what else is coming up with GoodGym Newham — there’s always room for another pair of hands (and legs).

A welcome return to see our host Taiwo at the Greenway Orchard, who had forewarned us that we'd be doing a lot of digging out of roots this evening to try and stop the brambles and everything else that we've spent the summer successfully removing from the flower meadow, growing back anytime soon, and had borrowed some more forks specifically for the job in hand.

It was also a warm welcome to Rebecca, who joined Hilary, Adam and Nick on the 3km run from Freaks and Geeks and admitted her last GoodGym session had been quite a few years ago, and to Kyra, who met us at the Orchard and for whom this was her first GoodGym mission...and conveniently local. Welcome both, and hopefully you'll be able to join us on more tasks around the neighbourhood over the coming weeks and months.

Armed with gloves and forks and a few other instruments of plant torture, we quickly got to work on root removal, realising that with sunset at 7.15, it would also start to get dark pretty soon - we're clearly back into headtorch season once again.

A huge amount of effort was applied by the team to remove as many of the roots and plants as we could, some proving more resistant to removal than others, and requiring a combination of forks, hands and sheer grunt to get them out of the ground. Adam proving that even the hardiest of forks was no match for some of the embedded root networks...

With darkness now upon us, and with aching backs and tired hands, we called a collective stop at 8pm, leaving behind a patchwork of disturbed earth and a healthy pile of uprooted brambles and plants to be added to the compost heap.

We plan to be back again at the Orchard at the start of November, with lanterns and spotlights, and hopefully not too much regrowth in the intervening weeks...

Weeding, Wrestling & Winning 🌱💪

On Tuesday night, Graham, Adam, Ben and Christiana met at Freaks and Geeks before making their way over to Barnard Grove, where Rosa joined the group ready for an evening of gardening.

As always, task owner Carol was on hand with an impressive array of tools, plenty of instructions and the reassuring knowledge of exactly what needed doing. We got stuck into the planters, tackling an impressive amount of weeding and filling several bags with weeds in the process. By the end of the evening, the planters were looking considerably tidier and we’d made a noticeable difference.

The highlight of the evening, however, was continuing our battle from our last visit with a particularly stubborn tree stump. After some determination, teamwork and probably more effort than the stump felt it deserved, we actually managed to get it out! 🌳🏆

It was also a big welcome to Ben and Christiana, who were both joining us for their first ever GoodGym. They were thrown straight into the gardening action and hopefully weren’t put off by the weeds, the bags or the surprisingly competitive tree-stump removal. We hope to see you both back again!

A productive evening all round, with plenty of weeds defeated and one tree stump firmly removed from the equation.

Next week, we're back at Crisis — sign up if you can make it and see you there! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

After canceling our last planned visit in June to The Greenway Orchard due to the heatwave, we were pleased to get back there this evening to see what had happened on the growing front over the past 2 months and catch up with task owners Taiwo and Eleanor...and it's fair to say quite a lot, as we soon discovered that the brambles and bushes that we'd successfully hacked at and removed on our last visit had grown back, not quite to square one, but we were definitely encountering roots and branches on the ground that we'd met before...

Paul, Brad, Adam and Nick met at Freaks and Geeks, and ran the c3km, using as much of the open parts of the Greenway as we could - a shoutout to Eugene who joined us just after 7 having left work in Romford, got home, changed, caught his breath, and then run to the Orchard - true GG dedication in every sense. With this determined gang of 5, plus Taiwo, and armed with a wide selection of cutting tools and thick gloves, we got to it.

Yet again it's amazing/impressive to see what a group of motivated individuals can achieve, as by 7.30, we'd made a real dent in the undergrowth, and created a correspondingly large pile of brambles and branches behind us. Determined to press on (almost to the hospital) we kept at it, and soon found blackberries (but no unexpected wildlife) hiding in the undergrowth. It had been a warm one, and after returning tools and gloves, we set off on a slow shamble along the Greenway before finding our feet/breath and running back to F&G, where we stopped for well earned light refreshment and a debrief on the evening's entertainment.

We'll be back at the Orchard in September (date tbc), as we definitely don't want to leave it another two months...

A cracking evening at one of our favourite spots — Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground, which always delivers on the rewarding session front.

We had a nice little group run: Nick, Rue, John, Adam and Brad joined me in setting off from the Aquatics Centre, jogging up the canal in glorious evening light — about as lovely a warm-up as we'll get. We were joined by Chloe, Joke and Paul at the playground, and got a warm welcome from task owner Ange.

For the record: a Newham task, held in Hackney, with Chloe, John and Rue over from Tower Hamlets. Three boroughs, one sandpile...

The task itself? A mound of sand to shift. Not just any sand — this had been donated from the London Stadium long jump pit, freshly dug out after Saturday's Diamond League meet. Our job was to move what we could over to the sandpit part of the playground.

Cue a shifting and spreading production line: shovels flying, wheelbarrows trundling back and forth, and plenty of teamwork as barrow after barrow were ferried across, with only a small number of mechanical and loading issues.

A couple of surprising things - first, that the stadium needs brand new sand every single time — and second, just how much of it there is. But actually when you think about it, world-class long jumpers probably do cover a fair bit of ground, so the pit must need to be pretty deep to land in safely. A quick google afterwards confirmed it: a competition long jump pit needs somewhere in the region of 6–9 cubic metres of sand. Worth retaining that for when it comes up in a pub quiz.

By the end of our session, we'd made a visible dent and felt like we'd had a workout. Huge thanks to Ange for having us. And a brilliant turnout — it genuinely made the difference, because these tasks simply don't happen without people showing up. So thank you to everyone who came along and we'd love to see you all again soon 💪