Every garden has a story... there are the soil and the seeds, then the shoots and the leaves... and I really didn't intend on that rhyming, but as I'm here... perhaps you grew veg next to the hedge, turned vines into wine, cut blooms for your rooms... and maybe you planted an orchard of trees, together with new friends... your community!

But whilst every garden has a story, not every garden is the Story Garden! Which was our own place of community yesterday evening.

Our wonderful group of Alex, Anne, Cat, Chloe, Jackie, John, Nivia, and Steve met by the Crick, warmed up whilst reciting the alphabet, and swiftly turned on our heels towards the British Library and the green space we'd be helping.

GoodGym has a few tasks that epitomize GoodGym. These include bramble bashing, moving unwieldy objects together, digging large holes, and (as was our task yesterday) filling skips!

Met by the brill Holly - the Story Garden's Manager - we got swiftly to our skip.

One group (Alex, Anne, Chloe, and John) took command of one area, sorting and then shifting an assortment of cardboard, wood, and metal.

Whilst one group (Cat, Jackie, Nivia, and Steve) headed to the garden's far end, sorting and wheelbarrowing an assortment of... cardboard, wood, and metal!

Over an hour, our fabulous group filled the skip under the evening's darkening sky - amazing work, everyone!!

Thanks so much for your company and work, and see you next time!!

This was an extra special group run because it was Sarah Wren's first time leading a session to get signed off as a run leader for Bexley!

And beautifully done it was, with a nice warm up whilst discussing our favourite sandwich fillings. Nothing particularly strange to report on this one although I do find Jenny's love of blue cheese disconcerting 🤢 After a gentle run through the parks, with a loo stop mid way, we arrived bang on time at the Woolwich Common Litter Pick where we battled with our bags and hoops and got to work. Unfortunately there was lots of rubbish left by the last travellers and we were kept very busy picking up all sorts of rubbish, sadly including quite a lot of soaked through nappies. Which will still be here in about 400 years. Well, yes they will most likely outlast humankind then won't they? Ah, this is jolly ain't it? Let's change the tone.

After an hour the common looked much cleaner and we hauled our bags over to the collection point and greeted two potential new Bexley members, come on Bexley! Then there was time for more coffee and onto the rest of our Sundays. Excellent work team and well done to those of you who double deeded with Junior Parkrun this morning!💪🏻

Well done to Sarah, you definitely passed with flying colours and will be a brilliant run leader in Bexley. The first group run is set for the 30th October !

Our next wednesday group run is TBC but will be posted up in the next few days. Until next time!

@GoodGymGreenwich met @CleanUpCharlton to show the streets of SE7 a little love. One hour, three bags, a suitcase, a tripod and something-highly-suspect in a small packet later we'd tackled some patches along the Woolwich Road and discovered Covid-era detrius under the shrubbery at the back of Lidl (plenty more to do there) - three bags duly left for Royal Greenwich Council.

Another highlight was being thanked by lovely 'Lviss' - a nature-loving, eco-conscious local, fellow litter-picker, poet and Insta-influencer! Cat and Fliss now posted and tagged for posterity on @LvissDavid. Do give him a follow! #lovewhereyoulive

We were a blaze of red helping the Friends of Danson Park this morning.

Some of us got a good workout shovelling wood chippings into barrows, wheeling them to the Woodland Path and raking them out to spruce up the trail.

Others flexed their muscles to move logs into a defined edging along the path. 🪵

And we also got busy with secateurs cutting back saplings and brambles to help the trees thrive. 🌳 🌿

There was plenty of chatting between ourselves and with the regular volunteers.

After some final fun trying to set up a group photo using the camera timer, we rounded off the task with tea, coffee and shortbread. What a nice treat!

Well done Team GoodGym!