An intrepid group of runners left Glass Mill a bit earlier than normal for our longest run of the year to Baring Road Allotments which are being converted from rubbish strewn abandoned ground into community allotments. We met Clare and Louise at the task.

We were issued with gloves and wheelbarrows which were skipped down to far end of the site, past sunflowers to collect rubbish, wood and bricks then trundled slowly back with the barrows to split into metals, wood and stone with the rest heading into the skip. We filled around a dozen barrows. It was a lovely task, in a beautiful location with plenty of wildlife (fox cub and loads of parakeets; Lindsay even had time to brush up her archery

Tonight's task saw 12 Greenwich GoodGym-ers meet for a de-brambling session at Vanbrugh Pits in Blackheath.

Talk of favourite shops, past and present, got us through our relative journeys, and we were just about to walk on by, when suddenly, and without warning, there was this Partial Eclipse of the Sun! It got slightly dark, and there was this strange humming sound, like something from another world...🎵

OK, so that's actually a line from a Little Shop of Horrors song. Thankfully, the brambles we had to tackle weren't carnivorous like the one from the musical, but were pretty prickly, so we made good use of the tools provided, including loppers, forks, and mattocks, hacking & twirling and digging out roots. After a few trips to pile up the cuttings for collection by the local council, our time was up, and the "after" photo shows what a dent we made in the overgrown area. A total Eclipse of the Bark indeed!

Thanks all & see you soon ☀️🌙

We had a busy night in store at the Albany, as while the lovely gardener there was away, they'd sent a wonderful video showing all the things that they'd like us to in preparation for a summer jamboree!

We needed to make sure their party went to plan! First timer Michael quickly got to work with several other moving a large pile of paving slabs to the side of the building. There was plenty of choice with the tasks with moving woodchip to a path, moving a large compost bin, along with the regular task there - litter picking. Everything was done plus a bit of pruning along the newly chipped path.

We had a lovely evening and hope to see Michael again soon! We were able to pose by the sunflowers, we had cleared and prepared the ground for them earlier in the year.

Something we discovered after the session was that the visit to the Albany completed an incredible 100 month streak of group sessions for the amazing Vic (pictured second left on the group photo).