On the last day of September some of the usual Elephant & Castle suspects took a beautiful run along the river Thames around to the amazing Lollard Street adventure Playground.

It was a game of two halves: enjoying the last of the day's sun, Tam swept the paths to perfection, as Lena and E&C newcomer (but long time goodgymmer) Audrey made the firepit beautiful. At the more sharp-tool-intensive end of the spectrum, Jorge took care of a stray branch, and Manuel reunited with our old friend the buddleia and some not at all menacing shears.

We headed inside to straighten out the awesome music room and library - Jessie in her absolute element helping Lena & I bring order to the games area.

We'll be back! And it'll be headtorches especially if we want to schedele in a few minutes of crucial free play at the end :D

After a jog down for a lush couple of laps of Kennington Park in the evening sun, we assembled to help set up for the regular food bank at Draper Hall - where in recent times they have increased their frequency to offering foodbanks for the local community twice a week. Chalice from Draper Hall shared some of the history of the centre, where alongside foodbanks, they provide a wide range of activities for the community - ranging from sports groups to knitting circles, providing a space where people come to connect and catch up.

The team got straight into a real flow state, setting up a mighty amount of bananas and all manner of fresh fruits and vegetables, alongside a world of legumes, lovingly sorted, and boxes, lovingly crushed.

Many hands made for pretty quick work and so after an hour we cathartically jettisoned our recycling and headed out - some dispersing into the night, and some of us taking a couple kilometres loop around the quieter streets to end the evening and cool down. Great to have Ben with us for his first GoodGym session - and to have such a lovely gang to show him the ropes!

Thanks all for another great E&C task - we'll definitely be back.

On Wednesday the Elephant & Castle team met at the Castle Centre and jogged (via a quick sneak peak at next week's location) down to the amazing Walworth Living Room - a charming community space offering a warm, welcoming home-from-home for local residents.

We got straight to it - Jorge and James steaming the sofas right into a new lease of life; alongside Dominic, Manuel and Lena between them setting the garden up for the new weekend events hosting a local market; and lovingly cleaning the approximately 2000 toys available for the kids; and finally Charlie and Jessie deep cleaning and "setting up a system" for the kitchen, before heading out to flyer for the weekend events.

We took a lovely quiet running route back to the Castle and all celebrated another great week at the Four Quarters (with some excellent reinforcements thanks to Jorge!)

What a ride!

On Wednesday evening, fourteen humans and one pup headed down to the UK's oldest adventure playground with strict and clear instructions to "have at it"...

We had Chris stoically sweeping basically the whole site, a dedicated squad clearing out the "pit of doom", and our expert gardeners removing a rogue buddleia that was impeding play (after double checking it was the right plant to remove - an occasional risk in the exciting landscape of the adventure playground!). And of course particular props to watering team for embracing their iconic tools of choice - winning the week's style awards in the rubber-ducky-chic category.

Great to have Stephen, Amy, Ashfaq and, with thanks, co-backmarkers Eloise and Anna for their first sessions! And of course our first E&C canine joiner, Max.

We did note with some pride as they ran off that Amy chose to join us at E&C after Chris had been talking up GoodGym for years! Let's go!

The Community Healing Garden are holding their big summer party next weekend, so needed all hands on deck for party-prep. Luckily, Goodgym-ers descended from all across London to boster numbers - Julian, Marta and Khai from Greenwich; Tracey from Wandsworth; and Manuel all the way from Elephant and Castle!

Head Gardener Hugh started with a tour of the garden and it was great to see the planters thriving despite the endless dry spell - the residents have done a great job with the watering efforts!

The main task of the day was to shift piles of poles, planks and pallets from the central party zone, to the far corners of the garden. Many hands make light work, and by setting up a production line we efficiently lifted and shifted everything in sight. Our efforts were rewarded with a well earned cup of tea and a cookie - but the real celebration will be next week's party - Sunday 6th Sept 12-4pm, all welcome!