It was hot in Richmond tonight!

Joining the national football hangover after the country shared a crazy late night/early morning to watch England make the World Cup quarter finals, we took a very sensibly-paced run over to East Twickenham to St Christopher's Fellowship. They have had a huge cutback in the garden since our last visit which means it was less about hacking and taming and more finessing. JP set about mowing the lawn with the new mower, Chris tackled the front hedge, Africa went for the brambles that have shoots everywhere, Manuela focused on clearing the back patio area and Liz got stuck into clearing the pond.

All-in-all, another team effort to be proud of for the crew in red and white!

A bonus mission for Richmond GoodGym took place on Sunday morning, as the Friends of St Margarets Station welcomed 7 GGers to help in their ongoing work to improve the appearance of the station.

2 years ago we had installed 2 planters on the London-bound platform, which were still looking good even if their plant content was struggling in the hot weather.

We met at the station entrance and all donned fetching pink construction worker tabards. We then worked as a team to move the wooden blocks from Platform 3 over to the site where a new planter was to be built. Most of the group then got going on construction, hammering pegs into the blocks and stacking them according to the instruction booklet.

Meanwhile task leader Maddie was filling watering cans for Sabina and JP to carry over to Platform 3 to water the banked flower bed. We then had a discussion on the feasibility of installing planters on that side, where the platform is narrower and sloped in places. No clear way forward there, unfortunately.

The new planter neared completion. After the final course of regular wooden blocks was in place, we measured out and cut the waterproof liner and pegged it into place, before adding the coping blocks and all climbing inside to celebrate with photos!

Seven was the lucky number of GoodGymmers out to help Lynde House Care Home on a balmy summers evening.

We had a lovely outdoors task prepared for us in the garden; sanding down benches, cleaning said benches, and then painting the benches!

We got to work with the sandpaper, & Liz showing us what a proper sand job looks like, before a wipe down and an eager Chris raring to go with the paintbrush.

As we coloured the benches a dark deep brown, the gang were given an education on the Bristol Stool chart. If you know you know, and if you don’t then you should have been at this task! Sometimes sit happens, especially when it comes to outdoor seating!

Minds expanded, benches painted, the task was finished, just in time for the end of the Brazil vs Japan game. I promise JP did work hard, and wasn't watching the football all evening! A big welcome to Rahul for coming along to his first session, hope to see you again soon!