Five Goodgymmers gathered at the Phoenix for the short run to the Fuel Land Allotments, where Brigid and Les were already at work on the Finchley Charities' community allotment.

But before we got started, it was time for a takeover! Beattie and Rachel brilliantly stepped up to lead our warm up as part of This Girl Can's Move for 10 campaign. Our 10min warm up started with some gentle jogging on the spot, before getting into: * lifting knees and kicking backsides * jump twisting * hip joint warm ups * sprinting on the spot * imaginary stick breaking over the knee * and skipping up the side road then back down

As we did so, they gave us two icebreaker questions for the evening because women have to work twice as hard to succeed! No arguments there! Our questions were: * When was the last time you had a girl boss? * When have you experienced nature 'in tooth and claw' (i.e. the scary side)?

With our brief answers in mind and our muscles warmed up, we set off for the Fuel Lands with Sheela back marking, hearing about all the great bosses we'd had and that time I hit a hornet with a skewer, or the two mice Rachel found nesting in her boot over the weekend (and which Beattie had mysteriously passed to her to put on without disturbing them moments before, but she definitely didn't put them in there herself).

At the gates, Sheela let us in and we made our way to the community plot, where Brigid and Les set us on a number of tasks. First there were some logs to carry. Then we tried and failed - possibly fortunately, for health and safety reasons - to lift the lid on a well cover, to see what was going on. Beattie managed to spy through a corner what was going on - mud, no water, not a lot of excitement - which was sufficient to tell us to delve no deeper.

Sheela and I then helped sow wildflowers as part of the Finchley Pollinators' plans to sow 600 mini-meadows this year. Richard helped Les move some of the paving slabs we'd dug up earlier in the summer, then was joined by the others to help move a large, empty water tank to nearer some beds. Brigid was busy chopping up comfrey leaves to fertilise trenchesa around a bed, and told us the history of the variety - bocking 14, which is a sterile variety developed in the village of Bocking, Essex. It's apparently as nutritious as manure for the soil.

With the daylight fading, we started tidying away tools, but at the shed at the back we still had a pile of sticks they'd dragged from the side by the fence, which needed sorting. So, with 10 minutes left of the session, we decided to snap all the smaller branches off and put them in the wheelbarrows, so the larger branches would be easier to move around.

No promises, but the sticks may end up fuel for a barrow fire in late October, when we go back (with headtorches) for one last session.

(Also! I can't remember any of the puns people were coming up with for the report - something about wells? Post in the comments if you remember!)

3 Goodgymmers joined 4 locals and Daniella, the unofficial Apple Queen of Barnet and organiser of the community harvesters, for a pick on Lodge Lane. There was only one tree in the garden, but it was a biggy!

With 8 fruit pickers we gathered 3 crates in under an hour. Two crates are for food banks and the other we sorted for people to take for cooking compote, pies and dehydrating, as they have bruises or other kinds of damage. There's plenty more up the tree for residents with many of the lower apples not yet ripe, so an easy pick for a moderately tall person / good jumper.