This week we gathered at the Old Royal Naval College and shared stories of our worst jobs before a run up maze hill towards the lovely St Richard's Centre in Charlton.

This was our first task at the church and there's loads we can help out with here, from weeding and painting to sanding and varnishing the lovely old doors.

Owen met us with tools at the ready and the rain held off right to the end of our task which was a nice bonus. The task tonight was weeding down the side of the church, a spot that needs a bit of tlc to make sure people stop dumping rubbish there! 7 hands make light if not prickly work with some hidden brambles - our head torches came in handy. We made it quite a way up the path and will continue at our next session.

Next week we're leafleting for the Woolwich foodcycle: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/group-run-fun-session-tbc

Until next time!

Rain, sieving soil and rolling stones summarises this week's task! We were back at Dee's childcare to collect loads of stones for stage 2 of laying a roundabout for Pieter's son to bike around.

It's always wonderful to come to this nursery and its incredible garden, even in the dark and the rain. After a soggy run from Woolwich, Dee showed us to the piles of soil. The task? Sieve the soil to get as many stones out and into a pile as possible! Have you ever sieved soil? Well, if not, it's pretty hard work. Or so I hear having avoided that part. My technique was picking the stones out and eventually coining the avalanche technique to loosen as many as possible while Kerry perched at the bottom collecting them all!

After 45 minutes we'd collected 4 big crates- enough to lay out around the roundabout and back we'll come for another stage in a few weeks time! After managing to straighten our backs out, we ran back to Woolwich and onto the rest of our weeks. Sore arms reported the next day 🤪

Well done team. Next week we're at St Richard's Centre in Charlton. Tomorrow we're helping out at Danson park https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/working-on-the-woodland-walk-b7aa6989-3b3f-4ac5-a866-0de30a9a1086.

Until next time 👋🏼

Tonight's GoodGym mission saw us racing against a (frankly beautiful) setting sun as 11 GoodGym-ers headed to the gardens outside Trinity Hospital in Greenwich, with the aim of helping tidy this area by the Thames Riverside.

Our tasks included a lot of weeding of plant beds, clearing away fallen autumn leaves, as well as a good pruning session to chop back overhanging trees/shrubs including the aforementioned Buddleia. A tough battle was fought but all too soon, the setting sun gave way to a Harvest Moon, signalling our task was done for the evening and we could head to the pub!

Hopefully we had a positive impact on this lovely area by the river. Thanks all!

Next week we're at the Prince Maritime Collections Centre. Until next time!

Winter is coming. There was definitely an autumnal feeling in the air as four Good Gymers convened at Charlton House for Wednesday’s group run. Tonight, we welcomed a guest in the form of Steph from our Ealing Chapter. Welcome Steph, we hope you enjoyed the task tonight.

The task tonight took us to Charlton Manor Primary School, and after a gentle jog through Charlton park in glorious sunshine, we arrived at the school to be met by the amazing Joe, one of the teachers at the school, who now has the responsibility for looking after the garden. The school used to have a full-time gardener but this is no longer the case and sadly their lovely garden has fallen into some disrepair. The task had been set to be painting benches but the afternoon’s rain had put paid to that so we were directed to the raised beds to attack the weeds. The beds were certainly overrun with all sorts of undesirable growths, but many hands make light work and soon the beds were looking a lot clearer and it was time for the short run in the cold back to Charlton house. We can certainly see now the improvements that two Good Gym visits have made at the school and with a few more trips I’m sure we’ll have the garden looking back to its best.

Next week we’re back at the gardens outside Trinity Hospice and there will be fun down by the river for anyone who wants to join us.