This afternoon we joined The Bee Conservation Trust, Discover Welling and Southeastern Trains to plant a host of bee-friendly plants at Welling Station.

With Ivar taking charge of the drill to create holes deep enough for the larger plants, the rest of us worked with trowels and a dibber to settle the seedlings into their new home.

We can't wait to see everything in bloom next spring and summer, when the flowers will be a brilliant source of forage for bumblebees 🐝🌼!

Coming up...

Wednesday 4 November – Putting up the Welling Sparkle stickers

Promoting Welling's Christmas market.
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/putting-up-the-welling-sparkle-stickers-063d0797-a0a8-4e07-be10-06c420f143d9

Saturday 7 November – Clearing brambles, cleaning railings and coffee treats at The Exchange

Helping out at Erith's wonderful community venue.
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/clearing-brambles-cleaning-railings-and-coffee-treats-at-the-exchange

Sunday 8 November – Lending a hand at Crossness Pumping Station

Helping to maintain this wonderful hidden gem of a museum.
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/lending-a-hand-at-crossness-pumping-station

It may be the last day of October, but someone forgot to tell the weather, as it was still feeling more like late summer than spooky season! ☀️

Eight of us, plus Arthur, joined forces with our friends at Mycenae Gardens for our monthly volunteer session. We soaked up the sunshine, enjoyed a good natter and got stuck into some gardening. It was a fang-tastic way to spend the morning. 🧙‍♀️🌿

Some of the team got their hands dirty weeding, clearing grass and tackling the alkanet to get the space ready for planting lots of lovely new plants next month. Others got busy lopping down overgrown trees, bushes and dead plants and dragging them over to the dead hedge that we've been adding to over time.

A special welcome to Leonor, who joined us for her very first GoodGym task. She certainly didn't let the grass grow under her feet, tackling her lopping task with gusto! ✂️

A great morning, topped off with some hauntingly yummy cake from Virginia and a coffee in the cafe.

Lovely to see you all - until next time 😊

*Coming up *

On wednesday we'll be litter picking in woolwich: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/woolwich-river-litter-pick-57deb427-7033-49e5-85fc-c8010e88f8ef

Next weekend, as well as the parkruns we have:

• Saturday 7th November: Maintenance at Westcombe Woodlands: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/maintenance-at-westcombe-woodlands-b989e989-3623-4bdc-9700-3324f9db4748

• Saturday 7th November: Litter picking and Wildflower planting at Maryon Wilson Park: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/litter-picking-and-wildflower-planting-at-maryon-wilson-park

Last night, 10 intrepid GoodGymers traded stories of the fantastic beasts we've discovered on our various travels across the globe, or what we've witnessed vicariously through others 😁 Answers ranged from cheetahs, tigers, a leopard family, a herd of reindeer, to riding elephants, running with bulls and almost being eaten by a crocodile. What a fascinating bunch we are!

We ran and walked the short uphill distance to Glyndon Community Centre where Andy awaited us with an indoor and an outdoor task so we split into two groups and got underway. The indoor group went down to the gym where we apologetically walked through the gym-goers (one recognising Ashton from a Lesnes Abbey task) and got stuck into tidying up the storage room. It was jam packed with a mixture of gym, church and kids equipment and so we spent a happy 20minutes shifting tyres, bikes, drums and having a general sweep up and we left it much clearer with lots more space for extra storage. Then we venutured outside to join the outdoor team who'd been weeding and having a tidy up of the car park and back garden. Sweeping featured in both tasks and earned the session it's name - a clean sweep indeed and lots of time left for chatting and hahem hill runs, aka a short run up the hill to the pub!

We were publicising This Girl Can's 'Let's Lift the Curfew Campaign' to raise awareness of night safety exercising concerns for women now that we've got dark evenings back for a while. Last year GoodGym launched some night safety training for men to support with making people feel safe when out exercising at night. You can read about it and complete the training here: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/stories/women-night-safety - and thanks to Aman for doing the training 😊

Good work everyone! On Saturday we have a group run to Mycenae Gardens: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/maintenance-at-mycenae-gardens

Next Wednesday we're litter picking by the river: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/woolwich-river-litter-pick-57deb427-7033-49e5-85fc-c8010e88f8ef

Until next time!

Rachel