On a crisp winter evening, GoodGym Barnet met at the Phoenix Cinema before a sociable 2km run to the local gem that is Stephens House & Gardens — the beautiful 1870s Italianate house set within its much-loved pocket park.

Our task was to polish the house’s unique original pine staircase, crafted from timber believed to be over 300 years old. Armed with beeswax and cloths, we spread ourselves along the steps, carefully feeding the wood and bringing it back to life. It was warm, satisfying work — and a meaningful way to help reduce maintenance costs for the charity. Mel p advised us how to work with beeswax and cloths.

Some runners joined us at the house, and we were very kindly rewarded with tea and coffee before heading back to the Phoenix.

Stephens House is a real Barnet treasure, hosting everything from Sunday lunches and seasonal fairs to exhibitions and summer theatre. Do support them — whether by volunteering, attending events or visiting the café.

Huge congratulations to Subham on his 50th good deed 👏 and Gavin on his first GoodGym run. Give him a cheer.. Great to see Scarlett, and lovely to welcome visitors Theo and Peter Hale.

Thanks to everyone who came along to support this fantastic park and house!

A few GoodGym members came together to do online yoga.

Yoga talk Holding a posture engages the muscles, fascia, and nervous system, stimulating mild stress that builds strength and stability. But unlike many workouts, yoga follows this with a deliberate release — a moment to soften, breathe, and recalibrate.

On Friday I joined the wonderful regular volunteer team at Stephens House & Gardens (Avenue House), 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE — a friendly and welcoming group who meet every Friday from 10am–12pm.

It’s a beautiful historic house set within a peaceful park right in the heart of Finchley — a real hidden gem.

The volunteers couldn’t have been warmer — and yes, there was tea and biscuits afterwards! ☕

The highlight for me was planting a Redwood tree. It was proper, satisfying work — digging the hole, carefully transferring the potted tree, guided expertly by Noah and Helen. Hard graft, but meaningful. Hopefully it will grow tall alongside the older Redwoods already standing in the park — a small legacy contribution for future generations.

We’ll be looking to list and support this Friday gardening session over the coming months, and it would be great to see some GoodGym faces join in when available.

Even if gardening isn’t your thing, please do come and: • Visit the café ☕ • Walk in the park 🌿 • Support this charitable community space • Consider hiring rooms inside the historic house for events or meetings

It’s a special local asset worth supporting.

🌱 If you’d like to join a future Friday session, let me know — I’ll be adding more dates soon.

Three Goodgymers made their way to Cultivate Colindale, a fantastic community project in the eponymous location, where a group of staffers and volunteers are hard at work turning a corner of Haybourne Park into a thriving community space, with allotments, gardens, green houses and outdoor classrooms.

We were welcomed by Anna and Azalea, who got us working right away weeding a bunch of plant beds. We were amazed with Anna's encyclopaedic knowledge of all things weedy! She was reeling out names from her enormous brain store!

The weather was not exactly epic, but we were kept thoroughly entertained and pulled weeds out by the barrel-full. We weren't exactly singing, but we were definitely weeding in the rain!

Thank you to all the wonderful people of Cultivate Colindale for welcoming us to their space.

For our first indoor session of winter (I know right?!), Barnet Goodgym brought their energy and gusto to St Mary's Church in Finchley Central. Following a bit of a storm, a ceiling cave in and half a year of rain management, the church finally had the gutters fixed and roof patched. All that remains to mend are the pews.

Goodgym to rescue - nine of us in all! Five of us braved the bleak rain, gathering at the Phoenix - Beattie arriving first, as usual - for a run up the East End Road, including Amir who popped over from Brent. Lucinda and Subham took up back marking, though Subham kindly took the lead as we neared our destination, steering us to a lovely car-free route around the back of Stephens House - a run leader in the making!

Arriving at St Mary's Church in good time, we were met by our host, Helen, and Paul, Kirsten and our honorary mascot, Gus. Soon after Amanda and Theodore rocked up and we got to work.

The task involved waxing down damaged pews with steel wool padding, leaving them for a few minutes, then polishing them hard with tea towels. A fairly simple task, but one that turned into a good work out. The polishing was the real energetic work, requiring a lot of pressure to smooth out the hardening wax. But with so many of us we made light work of roughly 8 pews in the morning prayer section. The pews are used on a daily basis, so they were really glad for the work.

After, Helen gave us a quick tour of the church and a brief history of some of the older parts and decorations. Maybe we'll be back to do a bit more work, as the other pews might be in need of a bit of TLC anyway.

Then, with that lovely, satisfying feeling in our chests, we headed to the nearby pub to round the evening off by slaking our thirst and sating our bellies.