This morning a Goodgym volunteer cycled to one of Barnet parkrun to Oak hill to run 5k.

The weather was chilled and the run started with a short walk to the start line. There was 2.75laps all flat, no hill just you against the time. Easy peasy and at the end of the run felt fairly heated.

First time running on this location so PB was guaranteed 🤣

A big thank you to Lucy for hosting the Mindful Street Wisdom event at Brunswick Centre!

A group of eight came together to explore and discover the world around us through a more mindful lens.

It was a lovely opportunity to pause, reflect and share meaningful takeaways. During our wrap-up, we explored how consciously shifting our attention can help us notice the little things we often overlook in our busy daily lives.

The biggest lesson? Slow down, look closer, and find wonder in the ordinary.

A wanderful reminder that sometimes, the most meaningful discoveries happen when we simply take our time and pay attention.

Thank you, Lucy, for guiding us on this thoughtful and inspiring journey!

George and I were asked to help clear a garden so a single mother could enjoy it with her son. The space had become overgrown and overwhelming. Using loppers, shears, and rakes, we managed to clear most of the area, placing the cuttings at the back of the garden to compost. By the time we finished, the trampoline was accessible and the garden ready for use. It felt daunting even for us, yet it was deeply satisfying to complete the task.

George kicked off the run with a question about gigs, inspiring Rachel and Beattie, two stalwart GoodGymers, to give this report a slightly musical theme.

Beattie took a walk on the wild side with Patricia, while the others set off running, with Victoria as back marker. Richard went past like a flash—ah-ah!—and George once again wondered whether Richard had ambitions for leadership.

All the leaves were brown and the sky had a greyish tinge as the GoodGymers set to work for a while on an autumn day.

We raked the leaves with abandon and bagged them up, then tucked the bulbs into the soil, leaving them “dreaming Spring”. We pictured a host of golden daffodils to come, taking a moment to look up at the stars.

We made these memories for ourselves, with Theodore capturing our usual photos.

Finally, we laid down our tools and returned to the cinema, where we celebrated Richard’s 400th outing with pizza and popcorn.

On Wednesday evening, George, Paul and Victoria headed to the Phoenix Cinema to join local community members for a screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing, an event that GoodGym Barnet helped bring to life.

The People’s Emergency Briefing is designed to be shown at community screenings, encouraging conversations between local residents and highlighting how much people within these communities care about the climate emergency. This screening sold out, bringing a full house together for the climate conversation.

Several Barnet-based community groups, including Barnet Friends of the Earth, Finchley CND, Chipping Barnet Foodbank, Barnet U3A and many more, attended the screening and took part in discussions afterwards, sharing their reactions to the film, their concerns about the climate emergency, and ideas for addressing the challenges ahead.

Afterwards, much of the group headed to The Bald Faced Stag for drinks, further conversation, and a bit of community building. George and Victoria even shared their thoughts to help Dave McCormick - who compered the event with Silvana Kohon - write a report on the event for The Archer.

Delayed by the rain last week, Pauline's pickers were at it in fine weather this week, joined by myself and Daniel. Fortunately (I guess??), someone had got to our target streets first, so we had a quick re-routing, heading down the High Road to Summers Lane, then to the back of Summerside School, back up to Sandringham, then as far as Kenver Road then back to the High Road.

One of our trusty pickers had spotted a very bad dump by the Granville Road bus stop on the High Road, so we quickly popped back there so Daniel and I could crawl into the bushes and clear the patch. Then, job done, we head on our merry way with the sunshine still beating down, stopping only briefly to snap some fly-tipped furniture on the corner of Churchfield Avenue.