A month has flown by and it was time to give the GoodGym flowerbed its monthly check up and help out at the Canbury Community Gardens.

We had 9 enthusiastic GoodGymers this evening so we split into two groups and got cracking.

The GoodGym garden crew noticed that signs were good with some late alliums making an appearance and the salvias still providing lots of colour. Weeds had returned but were not too invasive so Claire and Sabir got tackling those and the dry leaves whilst Luke and Tom gave the laurel a hair cut and got rid of some larger weeds and brambles. A few trips to top up the woodchip and a quick drink for the hydrangea and the GG flowerbed was looking wonderful again.

Meanwhile, back at the community garden... Ben and Hazel got stuck into their first GG task by shoveling a load of mature compost into holding bins ready for when needed. Marie Noelle, Dave & Rachel spent their time trimming pathways and pruning bushes and plants that were over their best.

All in all a very productive and fun task! Welcome to GoodGym, Hazel and Benjamin. Hope to see you again :)

After a few days brake (following the group run earlier this week) we returned to Full Cycle today.

The storage area was desperately in need of a tidy up so we took things up a gear reorganising the space, shelves and various boxes of bike parts. It's amazing what a few hands can do in less than an hour!

Five GoodGymers assembled to assemble

Armed with Alan keys, screwdrivers and glue, we put together flat pack furniture donations from Wayfair ready to hit the shop floor at the British Heart Foundation store

The crowning achievement and group effort was a desk - with multiple different screws, a drawer AND a cupboard - accompanied with a manual which made it very clear that not only should people and weights not be placed on top; but possibly most importantly, no sandwiches.

Tonight was a night of two halves. After our group run to Canbury Gardens we split into two teams. One team stayed in the Community Garden and the other headed to the GoodGym flowerbed.

The GoodGym flowerbed is looking lovely but the pesky weeds keep popping up so Sabir, Claire and Rachel tackled the weeds and brambles from big to small in between the plants and round the edges. Then Rachel started filling buckets of woodchip to keep the moisture in and weeds out which we spread around and Ed came and helped Sabir and Claire out with the watering. It was a great workout and the bed is looking beautiful again!

The ever-friendly Marilyn welcomed the second group to the community garden and set us to work with a variety of tasks. Marie-Noelle exercised her scrubbing power by wire-brushing an old bench while Emma started hacking back an extremely over-grown path next to the vegetable plots. We were only here a few weeks ago and amazing how heavily the grass and weeds have grown since then! Meanwhile, Ed and Dave turned the compost and helped Marilyn fill a couple of old tyres full of soil ready to plant some tomato plants - hopefully they're high enough off the ground so the Canbury chickens aren't able to peck the tomatoes! All hands on deck for the final few minutes with the overgrown path and then we were done. Many hands certainly made short work and amazing how much we achieved in the time. Marilyn sent us all home with some home-grown garlic for our troubles :).

Welcome to Edward and congrats on completing your first task! Hope to see you again soon.

10 GoodGymers headed to Searchlight for our regular Tuesday session to give the kitchen and approach to the building a thorough deep clean.

Searchlight Community Centre is a great facility, used by Mencap and other local groups. With a visit from the environmental health inspectors due, they reached out for our help.

GoodGymer Martel, who frequently volunteers at Searchlight, was able to give everyone a good briefing on what was needed.

Claire, Jana, Jassy, Rachel, Emma and Dave all helped in the kitchen - clearing out and cleaning the cupboards and the fridge, and dusting and scrubbing all the surfaces and floor.

Meanwhile Tom, Jade and Sabir rolled up their sleeves and weeded outside. They importantly also cut back the branches obscuring the Searchlight signage on the main road, so this vital community facility can be found more easily by its many visitors!

A highlight of the evening was congratulating and ‘crowning’ Sabir on achieving 50 good deeds - what a community hero!

Some of us finished off the evening with a group run back to the Quaker Centre - while those who had cycled to the task headed straight for home.

Great to attend our regular task with Brian at Hogsmill. Sabir, Theodhore and Petra used variety of tools the get the hedge under control, making it look nice and neat, in line with the fence. Rachel & Dave took to moving the compost heaps around under Brian's watchful eye. Weather was on our side allowing us to have a little sit down in the sun in the end, munching on fresh pistachios kindly shared with us by Sabir.

It's game, set and match at the British Heart Foundation shop where we set up a sporting window display. Julie, Jade and Rachel met for a shorter group run this week to help build our distance back up. We did a couple of kilometres and met Sabir, Luke and Jana at the task venue.

One large metal crate had already been filled with racquets, balls, and other sporty items, along with a big plastic container filled with trainers and football boots. First job that Luke, Sabir and Rachel started on was to tie all the shoe laces together once they had been paired and set them up in a display. Whilst that activity was happening Jana set about dressing up the mannequins in sporty attire, careful to select eye-catching colours and styles. Julie, Jade and Sabir sorted the racquets so all the tennis ones were together in a wire basket and all the cricket, hockey and squash accessories were in another.

Time went quickly and the area soon transformed! Well done team.

Before we left we congratulated Julie on achieving 50 good deeds - what a superstar!

6 intrepid GoodGymers descended to the BHF basement, armed with allen keys, screwdrivers and chocolate chip cookies, to build furniture donations for sale.

Builds ranged from mirrors and mantelpieces to office chairs (tested with the obligatory spins) - and Theodhor and Sabir tackled a very tricky drawer unit!

It was brilliant to also welcome Theodhor to their first GoodGym task 拾

It was back to Kingsgate Church on Tuesday evening, where our host Sarah had some quite different tasks for us at this valuable food bank facility for local students.

Julie and Sabir were quick to work, sorting out noodles and weighing out bags of 'spicy seed mix', an alliterative combination that Jade, Luke, Rachel and Dave will not forget as they wrote out ingredient labels for the new packets.

Some super scripting solidly served - sterling stuff, squad!

As Tom and Claire checked over some new stock and moved it into crates upstairs, Jade smashed our cardboard boxes into smithereens and Luke finished wiping the fridges.

There’s always a nice welcome after climbing the infinite stairs in the church - we even got name tags and the offer of some spare pots of plant-based non-alcoholic brandy cream - and we’ll be back for another visit soon once the students disappear for the summer.