On Monday evening, Area Activator Simon caught up with a top crew of runners (Katie, Rob, Jacqui, Nurjehan and Patrick) for an unseasonably warm September night! Together we set off for a really lovely run over to The Rose Bowl Youth Club in Canonbury, while passing through the gorgeous Whistler Street alley on Drayton Park, and through Highbury Fields. We even passed Goodgym Islington legend Ernestas on route, with his beautiful baby in hand- it was wonderful to see you!

We approached Ramsey Walk, and Dawn, the awesome volunteer coordinator at the Rose Bowl spotted us from the balcony (the red t-shirts were a give away!). She was super appreciative of our assistance on this particular evening, as we were working on a cleaning and tidying deadline for tomorrow morning.

Our main task for the evening involved collecting up some large piles of cardboard (mostly boxes and packaging from food bank supplies over the Summer break), and to then break them down and separate them into recycling bags or rubbish sacks (depending on whether the elements had gotten to them or not). AA Simon took on the primary role as "snail saviour" 🐌, picking off the little guys and relocating them somewhere safe!

During the proceedings, Benedict also lent his artistic skills towards filling in the intricate brickwork on a newly painted mural on the main play area. 90% of this wall had been painted last week, but the last little bits needed a steady hand and an eye for detail! Smashing work.

As we wrapped up just after 8pm, Dawn invited us all upstairs to the newly decorated upper courtyard of the Rose Bowl. New seating, tables and garden boxes have been installed since our last visit, and the whole place is looking smashing! We will certainly return very very soon.

On our return trip to The Emirates Stadium, a handful of our team joined AA Simon for some delicious Thai food and refreshments at the Tollington Arms to celebrate our September social.

NEWS

POSTPONED GROUP RUN- Caledonian Park Trail Building

We have made the decision to postpone our scheduled group run to Caledonian Park until Monday September 26th instead, to accommodate for the National Day of Mourning.

Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/group-run-cally-clocktower-park-trail-building

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Canonbury Square Gardens Volunteer Day- September

Area Activator Simon will be joining Beatrice and the lovely resident gardeners in Canonbury Square for a few hours of green space maintenance. Saturday 17th September starting at 10am (perfect after parkrun!).

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/friends-of-canonbury-square-volunteer-morning-september

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London Open House Festival with Goodgym Islington

Levitt Bernstein Architects have invited Goodgym Islington for the Open House Festival (hosted as a street party along Thane Villas, off Seven Sisters Road). On Saturday 17th September from 2pm - 5pm, community groups and businesses will be celebrating their projects around Islington.

To promote Goodgym Islington to new potential runners and participants, Area Activator Simon will be hosting a 4 mile sightseeing run around the borough, passing some of our current task locations.

Tufnell Park Plant Nursery

Caledonian Park

Market Road Gardens

Thornhill Square Gardens

Freightliner's Farm

The Emirates Stadium

Open to runners of all abilities, and we would love to have a crew of Goodgymmers on board!

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/group-run-open-house-festival-goodgym-tour-of-islington

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Crouch End Open Space (CREOS) September

We will be returning to one of our favourite community missions with Glenys and the Friends of Crouch End Open Space on Sunday 25th September. Lovely morning of forest path building, often followed by a picnic with neighbours!

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/crouch-end-open-space-creos-volunteering-day-september-2022

Our host phoenix cinema offered us a discounted night to see Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

A few GoodGym members all over the country decided to clear up the local streets and parks by doing litter picking in the month of May. well done to all those that took part are awesome pictures of their efforts.

let’s do it again next month.

A few goodgym members came together to help at the Tiny Forest near Henley‘s Corner. The Tiny Forest Barnet is a newly planted green space for recreation, education, and engagement through citizen science. With the aim of developing an appreciation of what a unadulterated planting of trees and bushes does for the local environment. As usual we gathered at phoenix cinema numbered up and suggested a favourite restaurant to enjoy. (Please add in the comments) mine was Dishroom in King’s Cross. What was yours? We warmed up with a gentle jog down the High Street doing side steps through the tube and into the quiet streets of East Finchley. Upon reaching Littleton playing Fields we did some power skipping through the grass. It’s amazing how exhausting 200 m of skipping can be! Well done all! Particularly John who had recently fallen off his bicycle and suffered some rib injuries which caused him a little discomfort. We then took a little detour through the big and little wood to see the bluebells magnificent for sight and smell! We soon reached the Tiny Forest and set about our task which was to number up the slabs and carry out a survey of the ground insects under each of the six slabs. This data was then entered into the Earth watch portal for collation at head office. Interesting to say the first colonisers were ants! Hopefully overtime more varied insects will be seen. (See photo) The injured Cloud had joined us so we walked back to the little & big wood to view the bluebells again. I’m getting addicted! We then ran back to the Phoenix with the option of a short sprint. Thanks for coming and doing some citizen science!