A very pleasant hour spent with Mrs D in the back garden doing some tidying and planting out a few pots to make them easier to water.

We’re back into bramble season, so there were a few creepers to cut back, some miscellaneous plants that were past their hay day to be removed, and then a lavender, a geranium, and something “good for the bees” to be planted out in their place.

We had a lovely chat about our family history and the local wildlife population, inspired by the little flattened area of greenery that seems to have recently become a fox’s bed.

Too much digging and chatting, so a photo of the neighbours washing in the sun and my muddied gloves 🌞

One of the most comfortable "furniture building" missions ever completed as the item in question (a rack for Miss V's CDs) was compact (...!) and I had a chair and table to work on, whilst Miss V watched TV. I soon had it completed and ready to be filled with music and so Miss V and I had a long chat about other tasks that GoodGym could do for her before I left her to rack up.

The sardine shelves were completely bare at M&S this afternoon - I'm sure there are reasons that people far smarter than I can explain. Fortunately everything else was gettable at the usual haunts for Mr T and I was soon back at his with trolley in tow. We sat to watch the snooker whilst putting the world to rights for another week, and just as I was leaving he kindly handed me a bag of potatoes and carrots - another good friday indeed.

9 GoodGymers nearly attend a Camden country and western gig!

The Greenwood Centre in Kentish Town is tucked away. The railway line rumbles behind. And the Kentish Town Forum is usually far enough away to be completely unnoticeable.

Usually...

But not on Wednesday evening! When the Forum's queue snaked far and long, so far that it stretched in front of (and beyond!) the Greenwood Centre!

Amidst a mass of stetsons and cowboy boots, this lovely group — of Gary, Giulia, Helen, Lydia, Pritika, Siobhan, Steve, and Thierry — arrived ready to make a lovely difference for this communal green space!

And they did a bucket load!

💚 One (pretty huge) compost bin was emptied, washed, and aired, leaving the fertile mulch ready for use!

💚 One bay tree was delicately trimmed and pruned ready for spring and summer to come!

💚 Countless weeds were cut and scraped, leaving healthy wildflowers free to thrive!

Thank you, everyone! See you next time!

David and I arrived at Mr G's ready for a bit of furniture construction - Mr G showed us a very large cardboard box and explained this was a reclining armchair - the box stated that it weighed 45kg, so we were on the cautious side when it came to lifting it and removing the contents.

In spite of reading the (sparse) instructions on how to attach the base and back together, and peering in all the parts of the base, we couldn't find the important wires that would allow the base to connect to the back section, or to allow connection of the remote control. We explained all this to Mr G, and said he should contact the supplier to explain to them these critical wires were seemingly missing and that the chair wouldn't function properly without them.

Mr G was happy though for us to attach the back and base together, such that he would still have an armchair, albeit one without all the functionality it was meant to have. He then asked if we could also build a desk chair for him, which we were more than happy to do - even though this one had even sparser instructions, and one page completely missing! Fortunately no wires were required on this one just lots of turns of an Allen key, and we soon had it completed.

A lovely stroll through West Hampstead with the sun shining soon lef the way to Mr P who had asked for GoodGym's help with organising his kitchen drawers and a bathroom cupboard.

Mr P explained that he is registered blind and as a result it can be a challenge to navigate parts of his house, remembering where things have been placed, keeping them organised and staying on top of expiry dates.

Together, we soon set to work emptying a drawer into one empty bag and then I would describe the item to Mr P to help him identify it and decide whether it was an item he wanted to keep and if so, where it would in the freshly emptied and clean drawer. We had another bag to hand for disposing all unwanted items, rubbish and expired medicines and food.

Some items were a puzzle to us both and I would have to explore my own lexicon to find the appropriate words to describe the item in front of me, whilst guiding Mr P to explore the textures of the item and together we were able to identify them all!

It wasnt long before a rhythm had been established and we cleared through 2 drawers and his bathroom cabinet and filled up an entire bag for disposal. Mr P was incredibly grateful for the support offered by GoodGym today and knew how to request for our help again in the future should his drawers need another sort.