3 GoodGymers – Victoria, Steve, and Alex – caught an hour of green-fingered volunteering today!

Sat on a tree-lined road in Primrose Hill is a care home that's made for a Sunday afternoon drama.

Rathmore House has character and space, and it makes a suitably restful home for 20 older residents.

The three of us jumped to work in the garden, which deserves to be safe and accessible for everyone.

Victoria trimmed the vines back from a box seat, pruned the rose bush (readying it for summer blooms), and pulled oodles of weeds from nooks and crannies!

Steve started with a patch of vines and moved onto sweeping and raking, collecting pile-upon-pile of leaves from the pathways and lawns!

And Alex attempted to keep up with Victoria and Steve!

Thank you, both!!

You are going to think its all about the famous clothing brand or for the less younger generation the famous 70's film with Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider and Fernando Rey. None of that! As I was working in GG Camden territory for the last 2 days, decided to sign up for a Friday after work mission near my work place. As I finished earlier than planned, I rang Ms F and asked if she didn't mind me doing her shopping earlier than planned. She was delighted and said to come in 20 minutes as she had 2 doctors at hers doing a checkup. On arrival, I took the stairs to the fifth floor where Ms F opened the door and said welcome and thank you for an earlier shop as she wanted to go out to the park and enjoy a bit of sunshine. She said previously on the phone that she did not do the shopping list, but we would do it together : team work!! We both sat down and Ms F started writing some items down and explaining : then she said your name is French which I replied yes. Ms F then started speaking to me in fluent French. Found out that when she was younger she went to France for an internship and became a lawyer which helped her a lot when coming back to the UK. She loved her period in Valence and enjoys speaking French when she gets the opportunity like today and said "Merci de votre gentillesse Stephane" (Thanks for your kindness Stephane). Ms F wrote some items on her piece of paper, then took some items from the kitchen which I took pictures to add to the list and most importantly gave me her Waitrose loyalty card for her active coupons so she could get her discounts. She also gave ne the cash, too much but said better have too much than not enough. She was very specific with her items and said dont worry if you can 't get them, but please try to get them and mainly wanted her Buxton water which the last shopping trips did not get as run out so had different brand. I set off to the local store and as not my usual store had to go up and down the aisles to find the products : do good, get fit - more steps in!!I got everything Ms F wanted apart from one small item as no more in store but i did not want to disappoint her so rang to see if she wanted a different item. She replied, not to worry as still had some and did not want another one especially that none of the replacements were organic. I returned with my bag of shopping and a 6 pack...of 1.5 litres of water. Rang the intercom and Ms F was having issues with it and could not hear me or open the door. I tried again and by miracle it opened just before Ms F was going to put her shoes and come down to open the door. I was back in the flat and Ms F said that they are having more and more issues with the intercom and that the management company are dragging their feet to fix them. She was "Heureuse" as I got her all the items she wanted, all coupons used and got an extra discount on one of them...saved nearly £4 on her shopping. We kept chatting in Francais of course. Time to leave and we both took the tiny old lift to go outside. I helped Ms F with the recycling of bottles as she was going down to put them in the recycling bin then walk to the park. Walked a little with her and we went our separate ways but we said our "Au revoir" and a "Bientot".

7 GoodGymers weathered the heat and the hills to make a wonderful difference in Waterlow Park!

High up in the heights of North Camden sits a very special green space – Waterlow Park's meandering pathways are filled with trees and flowers – and it's a blissful haunt for everyone who's lucky enough to know about it.

Our fabulous group – of Alison, Jackie, John, Lydia (on their first good deed – welcome!), Steve, and Tom – assembled next to a wheelbarrow filled with spades, forks, and clippers.

The task was a classic for GoodGym – a good ol' dig-up + re-use.

Jackie, John, Steve, and Tom grabbed forks and energy and made miraculous work easing oodles of flowers from a patch that will soon be replanted!

Meanwhile, Alison and Lydia prepared a new patch (watering and digging holes) and then planted the recently dug-up flowers!

In short thrift, one patch was cleared and tidy, while another was prepared and planted. This team made the heavy work look light.

Thank you, everyone!

Took us a minute to work out which way was up but once my covol got screwing, we were on a roll.

Ms I was very grateful for the time we spent although she didn’t find the finished product very comfortable! We chatted throughout.

As we left we noticed some rubbish which needed taking out and we also broke down the packaging for the sofa to dispose of it.

10 wonderful GoodGymers made a HUGE difference... amidst the beats of a city festival!

Regent's Park is usually a sanctuary of peace – there's green and trees, flowers too – and you can often escape the sounds and bustle of nearby Camden.

But last night... we arrived to beats and drops and cheers... as well as three hefty security people guarding our entrance to the (wonderfully hidden) tool yard!

Pete – all round Camden nature hero – soon smoothed the way and we arrived at a yard that was desperate for a little GoodGym TLC :)

Our special group – Alex, Caitlin, Emily, Jackie, John, Michael, Natalia, Pete, and Steve – swiftly split into groups:

Michael and Jackie started by sorting and folding the pile of garden sacks – the holed sorted from the non-holed, and everything tidied and ready for use! And they then picked brooms and swept the yard to shine!

Alex and Natalia grabbed shears and tackled a Jumanji-esque patch of vines – they cleared everything and it was wonderful!

Caitlin, Emily, John, and Steve made light work of a pile of wood (keeping the larger bits that can be used for poles or building), before raking and sweeping and bagging a mountain of leaves (sifting the plastic trash from it as they did!)

And Pete was here and there and everywhere coordinating everything!

The yard looked liked a different yard at the end – a huge difference – even if we didn't quite get the peace we'd envisaged!

Thanks everyone!

Another fascinating afternoon's conversation with Mr T either side of doing the shopping (which was trouble free this week and it was a delight to see the Chicken Legs back on the menu) - we covered a lot of ground starting with his cross word of the week ("Paladin"), through to the art of butchery (of pigs and sheep), before we got into the challenges of bagpipe tuning...and a lot more in between. Friday afternoon's have never been so enlightening.