A whole NINE Goodgymmers met at Blue House Yard for tonight's task. We welcomed first timer Asan. He and Mark walked to the task, with Sarah leading a running group by a slightly longer route.

At the task we were met by Luke, with Milo the dachshund.

The school garden has come a long way since we first started going there, and out was lovely to see daffodils in full bloom, and tulips about to burst open.

Luke had a few tasks lined up: first of all lifting a big heavy tank into the food growing garden. This was accomplished so quickly Sarah didn't even manage to get a photo.

There were also a couple of climbing plants to move, a large number of trees to plant to create a new tiny forest, some soil to backfill the holes and then the whole lot to be watered in.

The team managed all of this in time to finish by 8pm and melt away into the starry night.

8 Goodgymmers choppy-choppy-choppied their way through the night as they lent a hand to the Friends of Green Spaces of Noel Park with a bit of tree maintenance

Kudos Corner

Everybody make some noise for Yann, who joined us for his first outing with Goodgym. He brought a calm, steady energy to the choppy choppy choppy proceedings and worked very hard through the hour. Hero! Come again...

Choppy Choppy Choppy

We had started this job a couple of weeks ago and it was time to tackle what had been described to us as the most problematic trees in the estate. When we arrived, the suckers on the beautiful London Planes were indeed out of control and were blocking safe passage through the pavements.

This was enough invitation for our crew of urban lumberjacks who armed themselves with all kinds of cutting tools and began hacking through the over-exuberant tree growth with gusto. So much gusto that halfway through the task, Julie broke out in spontaneous song with a rendition of her debut song astutely titled 'Choppy choppy choppy'. Like the legendary Sex Pistols debut in the common room of St Martin's School of Art, this instant classic only played to a handful of lucky punters but it's no doubt destined to join the annals of modern British high culture. In true punk style, Julie even finished the evening in a bin. Rock and roll.

By 8pm, we had cleared all the pavements in the area we had been asked to clear, we had done a litter pick along the way, and we bagged all the detritus and transported it to the park to be picked up by Veoila first thing in the morning/

A good job well done, if I say so myself.

Five runners ran 1.5 km to help hydrate the orchard at Chapman's Green.

We avoided the main road, and took some side streets, that despite having run round there plenty of times before, got Dave a little turned around. Still we made it in plenty of time!

Last time we shocked the park volunteers by how much we were able to do in. But this week, with our illustrious leader laid low, and a couple of members off chasing the moon round Battersea Park, there were less of us. Spoilers, we still managed to get a shocking amount done! Beth and Ellie made it for the third week in a row, so Dave unilaterally declared them to be regulars now The trees there have had a rough summer, and despite the recent grey weather, there's not been much rain. So the little water they get, gets guzzled up by the grass. Our ongoing mission, is to dig up the turf around the base of these trees, to allow the water to soak down to their roots. This turns out to be quite the arm work out, and by 7:50 we were starting to flag, and moved on to an apple tree at the back of the meadow. But tough times can be good for fruit and volunteers. The apples were super concentrated and sweet, and we powered through the turf in record time!

There was chat about upcoming races, but no-one can beat Chis Hadfield's 28,800 kilometers per hour (aboard the ISS).

Good luck at your Half Neil!

See you next week