Winter has truly arrived. How do we know? Well there are the leaves, the GoodGym tasks in the dark, but mainly: the return of Anna’s signature sleeping-bag coat, ready for many months of constant service

She was soon joining forces with Tom (once he’d found us), Lobo and Mile End Emma, carefully sifting earth from holes in the concrete ground, in the style of the BBC’s ‘Time Team’. After rehousing several worms, they replaced the earth with new concrete, freshly mixed by Lucinda, who was adding another skill to her cv

Elsewhere Ilana, newly-Eastern Emma and Kevin were using paint to bring new life to some sad-looking chairs. By the time they’d finished, the chairs were transformed, two of them a pleasing shade of green and another now bright light blue

At the other side of the estate, Josh, our new signing from Liverpool, climbed ladders with Chris, Rohan and Ryan to work on a large tree, trimming numerous thinner twigs and then many thicker branches, using loppers and saws, to prevent any pedestrian-tree confrontations, while carefully preventing any debris landing on a car parked under the tree. Four wheelbarrows were groaning under the weight of our detritus, and two huge white bags were considerably over-filled

No-one seemed keen to leave, and we stood nattering for some time before deciding we really ought to get going, or we’d miss next week’s trip to Cranbrook. See you there: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/the-big-monday-night-task-november-garden-clearing-challenge-at-cranbrook-community-centre

“We’ll give it a go, and we’ll get a lot done, but we won’t clear all of it” was my opinion. The task was to dig out a deep, wide load of soil from a planter - which got firmer and firmer, the deeper we got - and shovel it into large bags and wheelbarrows

Others were more optimistic, and I should have dug deep into my memory to remember the many times we’d achieved such an objective in the past. And it was the whole team who dug deep into our physical resources to complete the task – including demolishing and disposing of the planter - with fully ten minutes to spare!

Star of the task was Tom, who’s speedy shovelling of huge amounts of soil had to be seen to be believed. But everyone was on top digging form – and a similar exercise was going on the other side of Rocky Park

The good news is that friends-of-GoodGym Margaret and Ash have somehow raised enough money to build the last of their new community garden beds, with improved accessibility. So we’ll be back in December to help them with that!

Meanwhile, join us on Sunday at 10:30 to help our old friends Catherine and Liam, at the allotments just off Roman Road: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/improving-allotments-near-roman-road-2c26b74e-d164-411a-946b-406aeb52aebd

And next Monday night we’re back at the Parkview Estate: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/the-big-monday-night-task-painting-and-gardening-on-the-parkview-estate-be901ab4-f1c1-495c-9758-1ba4ddd819cd

Tom, Louise, Alex, Yuxi and myself were given a variety of tasks to help with setting up this ImpactSOS concept shop in Shoreditch BoxPark. As this was the last session before the grand opening, it was a furry of activity - trying to get everything completed to a strict deadline. Some of our activities included: Louise wrapping up soaps, Tom and Alex doing some DIY and me shopping and sweeping the floors and watering the plants. The popup will showcase a variety of products from local charities based in Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Haringey and Waltham Forest - try and head over there if you can and show your support for your local community!

• Disclaimer - I did not make up the pun.

One of the nice things about follow-up sessions is to see the progress of the project.

The different rooms are starting to take shape, things falling into place step by step, almost ready to be fixed in place.

This evening more little bits of prep to be done:

• Kareem joined Kat in rolling up more of the wrapping paper
• Tom joined Finn putting together stools for the cinema room
• sorting bottles, cleaning re-purposed floor tiles & folding sports towels were my contribution

More sessions to follow this week - grand opening from 12.30 on Saturday.

P.S. anyone know an available DJ for the opening event?