A little bit eerie, a mysterious warmth in the air, head torch lights bounding along pathways, ten heads poking about, breaking cobwebs and disappearing around corners and popping back out on the main road again... Such was our return trip to litter pick at Petersham Common. So much more had been chucked from cars in the interim that by the end, we had bulging bags that should never, ever have ended up in nature.

Tonight’s GoodGym adventure took our group in two directions - to Canbury Community Gardens and Latchmere Park.

The Latchmere Park task was quite straightforward - fill 5 planters with compost. Just a small matter that the compost was in 3 1/2 ton sacks about 100m away from the planters! Emily, Ken, Laura, Petra and Dave donned their gloves and proceeded to fill and empty countless wheelbarrows. the time flew and the task completed with 5 mins to spare. Off to the pub!

Slightly more involved at Canbury Gardens with compost to turn, an elderflower tree to tackle, watering to do and gardening to squeeze in before darkness descended.

Claire kicked things off with an excellent briefing, particularly impressive given the jet lag from her recent trip to Korea! Rachel then provided an unexpected highlight by confidently picking up one of the resident chickens. Despite never having held a chicken before, she looked like a natural, comparing it to picking up her three-legged cat. The chicken seemed perfectly content! 🐔

Luke, Saber and Jonathan got stuck into turning the compost, while also attempting to secretly sign Rachel’s birthday card without her noticing.

Meanwhile, Jana and Marie-Noëlle gave the dead elderflower tree a giant haircut. Marie-Noëlle wielded the enormous loppers on the larger branches, carefully avoiding the tomatoes below, while Jana tackled the smaller ones. Saber later took over with a saw and ended up up the tree, prompting a few concerned looks as we watched his balancing act! 🌳😂

Claire tracked down the wheelbarrows and collected water from the river with Rachel, who later became our human lighting department as daylight disappeared.

Jana then tackled one final job, digging a hole for a donated berry bush, which we just about managed to get planted and watered before darkness took over. 🌱

With everything wrapped up, Claire entertained us with tales from Korea.

Compost turned, tree dramatically restyled, water collected, bush planted, chicken cuddled and birthday card covertly signed, another productive and slightly chaotic GoodGym evening! 💪🌿🐔

To the tune of Mambo No. 5

Ladies and gentlemen, this is GoodGym Three Pigeons

One, two, three, four, five The rest will meet us there, so come on, let's stride To the sponsored plot around the corner The AA wants some more squats And we really all wanna Red top like I had last week I must squat deep because talk is cheap We got Adam, Lucy, Sam, Manuela And as we workout, you know they getting sweatier (uh)

So what can we do? We love to show you, To us is doing good is just like a sport Anything fly, it's all good, let me sort it Please set in the trumpet

A little bit of Manuela in my life A little bit of Susannah by my side A little bit of Lucys all I need A little bit of JPs what I see A little bit of Steph & Ken in the sun A little bit of Lizzie all night long A little bit of Cathy, here I am A little bit of Adam and then Sam (ah) Mambo Three Pigeons (ah)

Eight GGers were tasked with providing a litter bit of help on Petersham Common on a somewhat chilly summer evening.
Both Jade and Sam were led by Adam from the Taps Tavern and ran to the task with Chris cycling on ahead.
We met the the task owner Ken who supplied us with the trusty litter pickers and bags and were soon joined by Monika, Lucy and Sam.
Finds included a hammer, which we were able to nail, while the usual suspects wrappers, cans and bottles were litter-ally very predicable.
Overall we were all very satisfied that we could offer a litter bit of help!