Probably the best organised skip filling ever! Since the project was completed a couple of years ago, RUSS have accumulated a lot of rubbish that they needed to get rid via a skip. They also needed people who skip and do heavy lifting, there was only one team who could help - GoodGym Lewisham!

First, in went a large quantity of unusable wood. Then, what seemed like, several thousand plastic plant pots were put into columns. Some people - Oli and Steve, excelled at this, some people have poor at spatial relationships and were less good - yes that’s you Paul. The flower pots were placed at the bottom and then the skip and a couple of dozen bags of builders’ rubble more or less filled it.

Meanwhile, Lindsay and Julian bagged up copious quantities of well rotted compost.

Tea and biscuits wrapped things up at the end of an excellent evening.

RUSS is a volunteer-led Community Land Trust dedicated to providing homes that remain affordable in perpetuity. There is more about them here. https://www.theruss.org

What a lovely day today was! Most of us met during Junior Parkrun where Linda, Julian, Khai, Aman, Marta, Ivar and Louise cheered, tokened and high fived all the kids round the 2km course before heading for coffee at the Old Cottage cafe.

We then had a walking group and a running group who headed to Mycenae Gardens where we were met by Mayuri, Arn and the Friends of volunteers who introduced us to the tasks at hand. These included sawing down branches for the dead hedge, raking and clearing ivy and brambles.

An hour of clearing and getting scratched by brambles (particularly in Louise's case) we stopped for cake which was scrumptious before a few of us went to another cafe to top off the morning! Because you cant have too much sitting down and chatting over something yummy can you?

Great to see you all and until next time.

On Wednesday we're meeting in Woolwich for a task at Dee's Nursery

And next Saturday we're back at Maryon Wilson Community Garden.

Busy Saturday evening on the Strand and today 4 Goodgymers joined forces to serve frsshly cooked pasta with veggies. 2 of the goodgymers went bananas!!!Guess who? Yes today we had bananas and apples to be given out. To top this we also handed out bread 🍞 and water bottles. Another great session with Gurseva and loads of happy people with full stomachs.

We were back at the Community Hospice, helping Head Gardener, Jason, with his masterplan for transforming the grounds for patients and their families to enjoy.

The session got off to the best possible start when Ivar, our very own star baker, arrived with some totally delicious carrot cake cupcakes 🧁, complete with fondant carrots on top 🥕. Fully-fuelled for the task ahead, we collected shiny new blue trugs, secateurs and loppers from the shed and got busy in the warm sunshine.

Some of us settled into weeding the long border, pulling up unwanted growth gently with our hands to avoid disturbing the soil too much.

Others set to cutting back a rather unruly pyracantha hedge. Also known as firethorn, we worked very carefully to avoid the spiky thorns! Eventually the hedge will be tidy and low enough to allow a view of the woodland beyond.

The time whizzed by and, before long, it was time for a quick bit of silliness in the children's play area, before returning the tools to the shed. Then it was back to Ivar's cupcakes for a yummy finish to the morning. 😋

We'll be back again next month - we can't promise cakes but if you see that Ivar's signed up there's a very good chance!