Well it was an hedgucation for me tonight as it was my first time leading a group run without Mark's supervision but luckily I had 12 awesome GoodGymmers to rely on for moral support. After a run down of our favourite ice creams (why do other countries always have cooler flavours than the UK?!) we made our way to Alexandra Recreation Ground to meet Linda and the other Friends of the Parks volunteers.

Big shout out to Hannah for leading the walking group, Stephen for backmarking the runners and Jing who was attending her first session and bravely accepted the challenge of running the long way round up the hill to the task!

Once we got to the park, Gill and Linda had us pulling out weeds that were diverting nutrients from the hedge saplings planted earlier in the year. Many hands made light work of this task and we had cleared most of the bed within 40 minutes before taking the shorter route back to the Bridge House for some post-run stretches.

Nice work team!

Fresh off the back of England's defeat at the Euros, our incredible nine-up were shaking off the blues with a good deed for Penge's Salvation Army.

It was lovely to have Charlie back from injury, but very sad to be saying farewell to Nick who is headed off to tread new ground.

We kicked off with our top players from the match. I agree with Kelsey and Catherine that Jonny Longlegs was on top form. Then we split in two.

Cat led the run there crew whilst Charlie, Hannah and I took a stroll to the Sally Army building.

We were met by Becky who had tools and bags-a-plenty, and a jungle of burr-covered weeds to tackle.

Harry took a corner. Clare took our breath away (literally, with mozzie spray). And Catherine dismantled a wee tree - no way it can come back from that.

The rain was due to pour, but fortunately we played a blinder and managed to finish in half-time.

What a team!

We promptly followed this up with a celebratory beverage in honour of Nick.

A nice little crew, part GG, part Friends of Betts Park got together to tackle a few tasks.

First up we freed some space on the steps down to the canal, chopping back brambles, pulling up weeds and Kelly did an ace job eking out the grass between steps.

Then we took a wheelbarrow of logs to a little wooded area to line the paths - cute.

Finally we spread some wildflowers in one of the community planters, hoping to bring some new life to them.

We even found some potatoes growing there. Dinner sorted.

For tonight's task we headed to the delightful Betts Park, home of the last remaining section of the Croydon canal and a lovely new obelisk "dedicated to all the people who never get memorialised".

A few weeks back the council did some work chopping down some dying trees but they just left a couple of piles of logs and ivy. Our job was to sort the logs from the ivy, building up the "compost heap" and leaving the logs - maybe they will be a path edge one day?!

It turned out ivy was stubborn as hell but we did manage to free it all from the big logs eventually 💪

Whilst all this was happening, Molly was on a solo mission to de-weed the entrance to the shed - I hope those splinters have come out?!

Lovely stuff everyone, and I can't wait for our knowledge exchange event! 🙌

We were up bright and early on Saturday to help Jo and the Maple Road Market team set up for their first market of 2024. Leaonie, Kate and I packed van loads of gazebos and tables at the storage locker with Simon and Tyrell while Charlie waited on site with the rest of the market team ready to help unload the equipment. Once all of the equipment was on site, we set to work putting up gazebos for stall holders and (after some initial head scratching) quickly became pros. Our community mission was wrapped up by 9.30am and we celebrated having done a good deed in the sunshine with coffee and pastries at a local cafe. What a lovely way to start the weekend!