A really solid turnout for a Monday evening as 10! of us went gardening in Stroud Green. Quite a few ran from the stadium which is particularly impressive. Eslam was on good form as he talked through all the recent activity in the garden. It was a case of divide and conquer here as half the group shoveled compost into a wheelbarrow while the others offloaded it into a new heap. We got the task done with time to spare which is testament to the turnout. A good mix of old and new.

Had a lot of fun chipping in at Graham Street Park with some composting. It's a lovely park of town by the canal. Nice to see some familiar faces as we worked as a close knit team to work away at the two small compost heaps. We had a little bit of a scare early on as we were threatened to be kicked out by a park keeper but we managed to negotiate a bit more time to finish the job. A proper workout with plenty of forking and shoveling to be had. Thanks Eslam for having us and I'm sure we'd happily return if there's more to do in the coming months.

We were back at Sunnyside Community Gardens to finish off last week's compost turning. Taking inspiration from the recent Winter Olympics, we applied avalanche rescue snow-removal techniques to moving compost: using a "V" formation with three rows of diggers passing dirt back to the next, forming a nice efficient chain effect.

Great team effort - we were able to complete the compost bay that had totally defeated us last week.

Now it's over to the worms to do work their magic...

Nice to see Ms F again after a few weeks away. Had an extended chat about all sorts. I’m about to start a new job so we lit a candle to celebrate that. I’m a well oiled machine at Waitrose now and know her preferred substitutes. Was asked to get a box of 80 tea bags but the 160 was on a significant discount so only 50p more. Always a nice part of town to go to and walk around and also popped into some new rooms at the British Museum.

For one last time as a Goodgym Area Activator, Simon met at the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road to meet a huge group of keen runners, ready to help at Caledonian Park this evening. It was truly a joy to see familiar faces from years gone by (including awesome folks who attended Simon's first session 6.5 years ago at Mildmay Community Centre - I'll find the link!). Also thank you to Astra for attending your first Goodgym session- I heartly recommend attending more sessions soon- we have wonderful people in this community!

After a short (but necessary) warm up, we ran together up McKenzie Road and the Market Road slopes to the wonderful Caledonian Park Clocktower, to meet up with Miriam and Gail, our local task coordinators.

Our objective for the night (with our 26 volunteers on hand!!!), was to shovel piles of crushed rock fines into wheelbarrows, and then transport the loads over to the forest pathways on the West side of the park. This is a lovely wooded walk, that is often frequented by children, families and wheelchair users, and we want to keep this area as accessible as possible during the Springtime months.

We separated into multiple groups to cover the whole area. Team 1 shoveled the ground fines, Team 2 pushed the barrows across the park and Team 3 raked and flattened the ground around the amphitheatre (carefully avoiding the grassed surfaces and paved sections). We also had a 4th team on hand to transfer soil from builder's merchant bags, ready for Spring planting later this month.

This is a massive task, and our crew did an smashing job over the 45 minutes we had available. 26 hands, all working in tandem, really makes a huge difference. Well done!

As we closed up our evening, Area Activator Simon lead a running group back to the Emirates Stadium, while Emily and Louise lead a walking group to The Tollington Arms on Sobell Road- a great local pub that serves incredible Thai food. Together, we celebrated Area Activator Simon's final fixture as a leader, but not his final Goodgym adventure for sure!