After a week of Water (loo) falling from the sky, we were grateful for a calm, dry day today, when Love Shined a Light on 5 goodgym-ers, meeting the Friends of Charlton Pet Cemetery for a multitude of tasks. Eins...Zwei...Drei...Go 🎵

One Step In rather than Out of Time, one group used scaper tools to clean the borders between the paving slabs, while others followed, sweeping away lots of dust & general debris. The high-powered hedge trimmer singing its Lonely Synphony created swathes of foliage for us to clear away too, giving Edward Scissorhands a run for his money!

Our final task involved cleaning the stones set into the pathways, commemorating the much loved and missed 4-legged friends remembered in the Cemetery. The impact was immediately noticeable, making the inscriptions much clearer after a good scrub and hose down. A reminder that You're Not Alone.

Photo time, and time for us Children of the Universe to move on, after a great community mission. In hectic weekend of cup finals & song contests, it's Just a Little Bit refreshing to be involved with tasks like these. Thank you all until next time! 😊

How many Goodgymers does it take to pick litter in Charlton on a Sunday morning? Eight, apparently.

Armed with our litter pickers we tackled both sides of Anchor and Hope Lane, rescuing rubbish from bushes, hedges and pavements alike. By the end, bus stops along the route were proudly displaying a collection of bulging bin bags of our catch.

This week we were joined by Heather, a seasoned Goodgymer but a first-timer with Goodgym Greenwich. Welcome, Heather! Now that we’ve shown you the glamorous side of Sunday mornings in Charlton we hope to see you again soon.

And of course, no litter licking session is complete without post-task refreshments. This week we had even more reason to celebrate, as JC arrived fresh from completing his 200th task. A great milestone. Big congratulations, JC!

7 GoodGym-ers met Liz and the team today at a new Community Mission venue, The Pet Cemetery on Shooters Hill, by the Charlton Lido & Hornfair Park. Our mission was a very long way from a Stephen King movie though, with a lovely spring sun shining down on us.

The venue has lots of history, part of Charlton Village Conservation Area. Originally the Blue Cross Quarantine Kennels at Shooters Hill, the site was acquired to house the dogs being brought back home by returning soldiers and families after the first world war. Nowadays, it's looked after by the Friends of the Pet Cemetery,  who work to maintain this as a tranquil space and respectful memorial to the 4-pawed friends buried there.

Lots of volunteers meant we got plenty of tasks completed, including removal of a huge number of Sycamore seedlings, which we were assured would have turned the area into a Sycamore forest if given the chance. Along with this was weeding the beds around the edges to give the flowers more space to thrive, cleaning the wall plaques, sweeping away debris from the tall trees around, and clearing tiny plant growth from between the paving slabs. 

Helped along by a 4 pawed friend, Otis the cockapoo, we were soon out of time but could see we'd made an impact. Thanks all & Have a great weekend ☀️

Wow! A record 16 litterpickers turned out for Clean Up Charlton's monthly pick... with 9 GoodGymers included. Our 16 bags of rubbish were a bit lighter than usual as they seemed to be half full of cigarette ends - maybe the stress of a 2:1 loss for Charlton Athletic yesterday? And Ivar was on shocking form as you can see...

With such a big group we powered round Anchor & (no) Hope Lane, Bugsby's Way (plenty of MacDonald's litter there) and Woolwich Road before meeting at M&S for the usual celebratory coffee. Today, the team was really the perfect blend.

Here's a great joke from one of our sparky junior litterpickers: "What did the egg say to me when I told it a joke?" ..... wait for it.... "You crack me up!". He's got a future as a GoodGym report writer!

Thanks team for making SE7 a lot nicer. Love you a latte.

Remember that bright and shiny thing in the sky that we haven’t seen in a while? Sun, I think it was called? It was out today, greeting Felicity, Ivar, and the rest of the volunteers at Oxleas woods, showing the area from the best possible side halfway through March.

Today’s task was to resuscitate an old dead hedge, and for the Goodgymers that meant taking shovels and removing all the leaves and mud that had gathered on the road next to the old hedge. As in an archeological dig, we excavated and found the ruins of the old hedge, and the mud was thrown over the ruins and into the brambles on the other side. Many a worm got a ride on Spade Airways* as we flung the mud over, and once we were done we had made a neat line for the new hedge, and regained quite a lot of the road.

*no worms were harmed in the writing of this report.