A very active task to start the week. Half the group wheelbarrowed woodchip while the rest of us emptied some compost bins. Algae removed from the pool too. We all came together towards the end to finish building the compost heap. Thanks for having us Eslam.

On a warm Monday evening, 13 keen Goodgymmers arrived at the idyllic Olden Community Gardens, just opposite Drayton Park station. This beautiful spot is could be easily missed when walking by Arsenal Stadium, but there are hidden allotments, butterfly gardens and neighbourhood connections built on an area that was dedicated for gathering WW2 debris in the past!

More information about Olden Community Gardens can be found here: https://www.oldengarden.org/

Welcome to first time Goodgymmer Lisa - Thank you for joining us!

We had a variety of tasks on offer for us, stretching between the main garden entrance, past many fox dens, and over to "the bridge gardens" (which expand over a working railway bridge for National Rail services).

- Task 1

Together, we helped to shovel 2 full builder's merchant bags of mixed compost from the main entrance (the only vehicle drop point for gardening material), over to a more convenient location. At least 6 of our crew filled portable tubs of compost, before carrying this material by hand. By the end of the session, we came together to lift the final bag of mulch safely and carefully to the intended spot. Great job all!

- Task 2

Our team helped with preparing the gardens for the potential heat wave next week! We located all of the available water points for hose pipes and watering cans, and set about dousing as many of the plants and saplings as possible. This was a difficult task, as Olden Community Gardens is set on a hillside, and we needed to stretch the hose pipes around awkward corners and down slopes to effectively cover as many beds as possible. Between us, we did a smashing job within an hour of problem solving and teamwork!

Following our session, we enjoyed a trip to the Highbury Library bar and bottle shop to celebrate former Area Activator Simon's 800th good deed! A great way to close up a quality evening of Goodgymming- well done all!

This week's task was led by fellow GoodGymer, Paul, who had signed up to the Surfers Against Sewage Million Mile Clean - equipping us with some professional litter-picking garb and turning us into bona fide citizen scientists. The mission? To clear (a corner of) Finsbury Park of litter, and play a bit of brand bingo - submitting data on which brands were littering our park.

Steph Ducat, Louise, Da Marcus, and Mehmet ran down from Arsenal Community Hub together, meeting the others at the South East gates of Finsbury Park to get started on the task.

Since becoming a run leader, I've wanted to re-start the old warm-up ritual of doing a register, each person saying their name and then answering a random question. Finally, it began last night - and with a question that turned out to be more apt than I'd realised: "what's your favourite drink?".

Paul, who's preferred tipple is JD & Coke, managed to find not one but three (sadly empty) bottles of Jack Daniels littered around the park's borders; and Louise, who favours Strongbow Dark Fruits, also hit her jackpot, as did Da Marcus with a can of Iced Tea. Sadly I didn't find any kombucha bottles littered around Finsbury Park... 😆

We were treated to an incredible red sunset, and even attracted some questions from other park users about how they could get involved and host similar litter picks in their areas.

Altogether we collected 5 sacks of litter, collectively walking 5.6 miles as we picked - in Paul's words: "legendary stuff 🙌🏻!"

There was lots of excitement for next week's session building paths in Caledonian Park - see you there?