5 Good Gymers joined Team Clean Up Charlton to tackle a bad patch on the Woolwich Road near Selco, and a usual favourite grot-spot down Anchor & Hope Lane. With 9 of us it was almost a scrum to chase that litter down! The youngest member of the team showed amazing talent for searching out clean recyclables - we got two bags of bottles and cans between us and 11 bags in total in just an hour.

As usual Ashton was the first behind the bushes and down in the ditches - we know he puts Sarah and Ivar on a pedestal but maybe this was taking it too literally. We might love a fair but there's no excuse for dumping the signs behind the shrubs - there's no hiding your trash from us, Blackheath Fun Fair!

As usual the approved bags are left for our friends at Greenwich Council to collect. Thanks to everyone who came along!

Today we were back at Maryon Park community garden, a wonderful space that has been lovingly run by Edna and Tim for many years. Coming here has always been a favourite task for Good Gym Greenwich and it was nice to be back. The tasks today were manyfold; the garden having become quite overgrown in places and a gap had opened up in the orchard that needed to be plugged to make things safer.

So to work, and two of the team worked to plug the gap using some old pieces of fence (with some masterful manoeuvring needed to get said fences to the orchard), two of us set to trimming overhanging foliage and the rest of us set to removing copious numbers of weeds.

And karma was kind to us: despite a terrible weather forecast the rain held off for the whole session and after an hour’s hard work we were done. As usual Tim and Edna had generously provided snacks and we also benefited for some lovely leftover cake that Cat had prepared for her book group (thanks Cat, it was lovely).

Tonight's task for GoodGym Greenwich brought us back to St Richard's Church in Charlton, where we're working on a ongoing project to make the outside area, formerly a weeded wilderness, a more user-friendly, comfortable area for the community.

For anyone following this project, we've battled rebellious plant life, embraced our inner cave people by fashioning our own tools for staple administration, and turned mountains (of woodchip) into molehills.

So on a lovely rainy breezy sunny evening in June, 7 goodgym-ers got to work continuing with this process. First the cardboard had to come up, which has helped restrict weed growth, then it was back to our routine we've got going now of digging, membraning and spreading the pine-scented woodchip, and with lots of chatter, the task time flew by. Time for a quick group photo and update on plans for the area, before our ways parted until next time! Thanks all & have a good week 😊

On a chipper Saturday morning in May, 3 goodgym-ers made their way to St Richard's Church in Charlton. Good Gym Greenwich have been working on a project here, and today's task involved the next step, which proved both slightly daunting at the start (that was a big pile of woodchip!) and rewarding to see the progress we had made.

St Richard's is a local community church, with a very weeded outside area, which the team are keen to turn into a more usable community space. During past tasks, we've cleared weeds & laid down a membrane base. Today we were greeted by a freshly delivered hill, made up of pine tree wood and leaf chippings (which smelled amazingly like Christmas trees...!) and it was our mission today to spread this over the membrane layer. Spades, rakes, and buckets at the ready, we dug straight in to move that mulch mountain from A to B, C and D. Our time flew by with much chatter, some helpful supervision from honorary Good-gym member, local cat Freya, and the path really looks like it's taking shape now. Thanks to all involved & have a great weekend! 😊

Wednesday was no ordinary session. Firstly we had two newbies join us, big welcome to Ibrahim and Bobby - it was great to have you along!

Nadirah brought her team of students to film their documentary on an interesting run club- thanks for picking us!

After a quick interview, we introduced ourselves and shared our best binge worthy shows (books for those who don't watch much telly) and then did a little warm up and headed off for our run. We did feel rather important, with Nadirah sprinting ahead to get some action shots of us all. Now we know what it's like to be chased by paparazzi.

At the garden, Annie got us to task, with Robert and Ibrahim watering the trees. Shout out to Sarah for managing to open the padlock, we wouldn't have got far without the hose! The rest of us got to work weeding and cutting back the grass while chatting away and the crew filmed the lot. A lovely evening in nature and a good reminder of the positive impact of exercise, community and doing good- it does us so much good too!

After a group pic, Bobby headed back with Annie to take the wheely bin back and the rest of us headed back to Charlton House for a little stretch and a few shots of us walking away at the end of the session.

Well done team. It makes such a difference for 10 of us to do a load of work at the garden and Annie's always so grateful.

Next weds we're back at Charlton house for a run to Brooklands to do more soil shifting!

Until next time,

Rachel