I joined Madeline and some regular volunteers 6 of us in total for their monthly gardening session at The Oasis community Garden in Herbert road. This lovely little garden for the community is run by volunteers and funding they have received, to try make the garden nicer for the local area.

It was my first time here and I'm not the most confident with gardening one of the volunteers it was her first time also and she works as a gardener she paired up with me to show me how to plant daffodil bulbs using a fiskars tool to help dig out holes for the bulbs, I never even knew what this was. We had to clear some of the weeds and litter from surrounding areas first, the area where we worked on would become a wild garden we had some wild flower seeds to sprinkle also. We didn't get round to planting the tulip bulbs.

After the session got under way I got a bit more confident with what I was doing and even used one of electric cutting machines to try and break up some of the harder pieces of mud. This was a really good session I gained bit more knowledge of planting and getting to know different plants but it also pushed me out my comfort zone.

The session runs every third Saturday of the month there is always plenty to do but if you don't fancy the gardening side of things there is always litter picking as this corner gets lot of litter, there is something for everyone 😊

When we arrived at Holy Trinity Lamorbey Primary School, Jane, the vice principal, had two fun challenges waiting for us in the school hall.

Johnny, Alice and Martin got stuck into some serious recycling activity. They carefully removed the legs from a collection of old blue plastic chairs and then screwed the seats onto reclaimed pallets, transforming the unlikely collection of materials into colourful little ‘buses’ for the children to enjoy in the playground. Who knew old chairs and pallets could have such an exciting second life?

Meanwhile, Sarah and Lisa took on a completely different task: assembling a flat-pack canopy to shelter the entrance to the school’s reception area. Sounds straightforward, right? Well, not quite! The instructions were less than helpful, and at several points we decided that what we really needed was an octopus with at least eight arms to hold all the various bits and pieces in place while we tried to screw everything together!

Despite the questionable instructions and our distinct lack of tentacles, the time absolutely flew by. Before we knew it, both jobs were done and it was time to take a couple of team photos to show off the fruits of our labour.

We never quite know what Jane has up her sleeve for our monthly visits — a spot of DIY, a creative challenge, or perhaps another job that requires more arms than we have! Why not come along next time and join the fun? Who knows what will be waiting for us when we arrive!

It was my first time joining the volunteers and seeing Charlton House & Gardens, everyone was very welcoming and asked what task I'd prefer to do.

We split into two groups with Aidyn joining the bulb team and me and few others cutting back ready for the next lot of bulbs to go in on the other side.

Time went very fast and it was already 11am tea break, we had already got quite alot of work done "Many hands make light work as they say" We was joined for our tea break by the resident cat Casper. We returned to finish tidying up for the last half hour, it was a really good session.

Christmas might still be two months away, and we haven't even made it to Halloween yet, but that didn't stop GoodGym from getting into the festive spirit a little early!

We were out and about on the streets surrounding Danson Park, delivering leaflets in support of Mind in Bexley and their upcoming Mental Elf Fun Run. Whilst most people are still thinking about pumpkins, trick-or-treating and Halloween costumes, we were already turning our attention to advent calendars, tinsel and given the slight chill in the air, some Christmas jumpers would not have gone amiss.

Mind in Bexley does brilliant work supporting mental health and wellbeing across our borough, and their Mental Elf Fun Run is a wonderful opportunity to bring the community together, get active and raise awareness of the importance of good mental health.

With plenty of houses to cover, we certainly got our steps in along the way, and good company and chats in between doors made the time fly by. A productive leafleting session for a brilliant local cause, proving that when it comes to supporting our community, it's never too early to lend a helping hand!