There was to be no mulching at Columbia Road this time, the mulch heap having been removed by the council after a fire, an indication of the drought conditions endured by Londoners at present. So there's a hosepipe ban, but plants still need irrigation, which is where GoodGym come in...

A very healthy turnout of 19 GoodGymers soon grabbed a surprisingly adequate number of watering cans. They boosted their daily step-count while strengthening their muscles, returning again and again from the water tap in the storage area, to the bushes and plants on the other side of the estate. Doing good while keeping fit!

Ed and several of our crew seemed to have abandoned the task, but never fear, we found them using an alternative tap, unhelpfully situated behind a fence, but more handily situated for the bushes and trees on that side of the estate

Special mention to Lucinda and Chris who were prepared to stay in the confines of the storage area in order to serve a constant stream of GoodGym “customers”. Actually, they probably had the right idea, it was a bit cooler in there…

So tonight’s big question was – could we manage Fiona’s Cemetery Park task without her “expert guidance” and her Google-Maps Pin? Somehow we managed it; well we did have Nia and Anna, whose names rely solely on letters in “Fiona”

We originally had a healthy number signed up, despite warnings about covering arms and legs against nettles in heatwave temperatures. But gradually, the numbers reduced. Three people sent their apologies, another was held up helping the new PM with his Cabinet, or something, and two people who remained signed up, must have got lost on the way...

Of course we did have task owner Ken, who explained why the Friends of the Cemetery Park had embarked on a THIRTY-YEAR plan to improve the site. He also explained the effect of the dry summer on plants – they produce less flowers overall, but bloom early, to save water

Further, he told us that were everyone to leave the gardens alone, the hogweed would take over. Therefore our efforts tonight were focused on the “common hogweed” which produces its seeds at the top, like an umbrella, all ready to drop or be blown away. Which are things we didn’t want to happen, as the other plants would have less chance to thrive, such as the nearby aromatic stone parsley, which can be used as a substitute for nutmeg

Ken showed us how to snap the stalk, just below any branches, so any seeds dropping off would go straight into our buckets along with the top of the plant. And before we knew it, we’d de-seeded a whole chunk of the gardens. But there’s always more to do, and we’ll be back in September!

After the recent warmer conditions, it was a pleasant (but very welcome) surprise to be met by a cool breeze blowing across the Fields this morning - it made Rue and Nick's job of setting up the course easier, albeit the wind was definitely not in a co-operative mood as it seemed determined to blow over the start/finish sign and parkrun flag...

It was great to see Anna and Lobo also appear this morning to help out - Anna was keen to don the tailwalker hi viz with the added foxtail, and Lobo did an excellent job on token duty (both Finish and Sorting) - Rue was on barcode scanning duty, which proved for once to be a bit more challenging than usual, and all this assistance made Nick's job as today's Run Director a whole lot easier.

A good number of first time visitors to the Fields swelled the pack as we discovered that Highbury Fields junior parkrun had been cancelled this morning due to an event. Our first finisher sped round in a super speedy 8 minutes, closely followed by the remaining largely breathless pack - Anna brought home the final walker, who was doing just her 2nd ever parkrun, in just over 20 minutes, and so event #378 came to a successful close for another week.

Same time, same place under the Big Tree next week for more fun at the Fields.