After a busy away day discussing all things Goodgym, such as how Ed got so good at clipart, why Notion is the most controversial tool ever, and what exactly is a shrink ray, it was time to get to work in the garden.

Calthorpe community garden is a beautiful space where everyone is welcome. Originally destined to become an office block in the 80s, local residents gathered together to save it. Happily, they succeeded and it was turned into a beautiful thriving space which supports people's physical and mental well-being as a sustainable urban oasis.

We zipped up our spanking new jackets, and feeling more on brand than ever before, we got to work.

Nada, Jack and Dave made a clean sweep of it with the help of some enormous brushes, making sure the pathways were sparkling. Jacob and Darren covered litter-ally the whole site ensuring it was rubbish free, while Ed and Kim shifted a table we can only presume was made out of osmium. Meanhile Chalomi was making sure everything was running smoothly while also keeping tabs on all the cats in the King's Cross area and Ivo project managed the mission.

Maybe it was all the GG muscle, maybe the jackets gave us superpowers, but just half an hour later the place was tidy and welcoming.The only way to celebrate a job well done on a drizzly June day? With ice cream of course!

We made our way over to a very fancy ice cream parlour, and that's where the hard work really began. How to choose? Luckily Jacob subtly dropped into conversation that he'd recently returned from Italy so was able to advise, and Ed, Kim and Jacob kindly decided to order all the flavours for us to try. They also came up with an amazing new ice-cream based TV concept, so this time next year we're going to be millionaires.

Great work everybody!

On a brisk Wednesday morning, Islington Area Activator Simon caught up with many many familiar faces from the Goodgym HQ team (often from community missions, group runs or our annual Shindig visits) in Chancery Lane, ready for a special trip out of the office. Our plan for the day (as effortlessly scheduled by Chalomi) was to make our way over to Thornhill Square Gardens, a beautiful resident maintained green space between Caledonian Road and Islington. We set off in two separate groups- a walking crew directed by Chalomi and Kim, and a running team hosted by Simon. Our running squad enjoyed a slightly extended route (just under 5km), passing through Fetter Lane, Bell Yard (Dickensian pubs and churches), Jockey's Fields (and the surrounding lawyer's chambers), Lincoln's Inn Fields, The Post Office Museum and Barnard's Park, before arriving at our final location. We even passed a fellow Goodgymmer on route- Thank you to Martin from GG Luton for saying Hi!

We re-grouped by the communal gardening shed in the centre of Thornhill Square Gardens, and gathered up all of the tools required for a variety of tasks - wheelbarrows, rakes, spades, shovels, brushes, saws and loads of green waste bags. Our first objective was to shovel piles of wood chip into wheelbarrows, and then to transport and spread the load evenly across the many flower beds within the park. Group 2 helped out by picking up rakes, brushes and leaf collecting devices to gather up as much foliage as possible from the pathways surrounding the park. We were looking for the leaves of horse chestnut trees in particular, as leaf mining moth larvae tend to use these fallen leaves as a habitat throughout the Winter. These particular bugs are known damage trees, so we want to avoid this situation as best as possible, while keeping the park tidy! Finally, group 3 had great fun searching and picking up sticks, fallen branches and logs from around the gardens (especially after the strong winds last week). Together, they sawed down the wood to smaller bundles, ready to be used for dead hedging (lining flower beds and spots where bulbs are to be planted in the new year) or for protecting saplings around the green space.

Between all of the groups, we achieved a huge amount of progress within an hour of lifting, shifting, raking and sawing. We actually ran out of green waste bags at exactly the right time! Before dropping off all of our tools back in the shed, Chalomi, Ivo, Ed and Ged wheelbarrowed three large bags of collected leaves outside the house of one of our regular task coordinators at Thornhill Square Gardens, ready for a council pick up tomorrow morning.

Congratulations on an excellent morning of green space maintenence, everyone! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!