An ace team of litter-pickers tackled the Woolwich Road near Charlton station today! Someone was obviously making exotic drinks today but that pineapple top was soon dealt with. It's true that the people of Charlton like a party - two big bags of cans and bottles today were included in our 8-bag total. And, as usual a nice cuppa at M&S afterwards - we'll wait until later for the cocktails!

On Wednesday we were a merry trio on a trip to clean some staffroom cupboards at the lovely Brooklands Primary School. Julian and I enjoyed a mild 4km run over and Ivar walked from home, beating us there. After a while trying to get in the building with our ineffective fob, the cleaner thankfully spotted us and let us in and we got to work, clearing out the cupboards in the staff room which were full of all sorts of wonderful surprises including an instant rice packet which was crawling with flies... We thought the ick factor probably outweighed any nutritional value (or more accurately I screamed, put it in the biiiin!) It's fair to say the staff room needs a little TLC, all of the care going to the kids at this lovely school. We'll be back for more jobs here soon!

Next week we're at St Lukes and the following at Charlton Manor.

Until next time!

Rachel

It was the pacers week today at Charlton park run. We were fortunate having some last minute volunteers helping out to support the event. In total there were 12 pacers ranging from pacing 20 to 42 minutes. Thirty new comers who travelled from Kent to other parts of London visited us today. Fifty-six runners achieved new PBs in this pleasant weather and conditions. The 210th event was concluded with groups of friends and families taking photos after the event and socialising at the cafe afterwards. Photo was taken by Charlton park run.

First time at Hornfair, which is not in my local area but happen to be house-sitting nearby which gives me the opportunity to visit other parkruns.

It is so wonderful to see kids of all ages getting out and enjoying the fun of running, walking, and volunteering. The parkrun even had some foam hands for marshals to give some power-up hi-fives!

I don’t think it was a official fancy-dress parkrun but there were still lots of excellent outfits including a very fast and very enthusiastic skeleton, and a superhero who was Iron Man on top and Batman on bottom! Why choose one when you can be both! And why are grown up clothes so boring - i would like to be a dinosaur please!

After all of our young runners had completed two laps of the course, my marshalling duties were fulfilled but my heart remained happy long after I had left. ❤️

A blustery but thankfully dry Saturday morning in October blew 2 goodgym-ers to Maryon Park Community Garden in Charlton. 

For anyone that's not visited, the garden is a community food growing area within one of Charlton 's many green spaces, where plothouders grow everything from pumpkins to tomatoes, beetroot to beans, and today we saw some pretty giant courgettes!

Our task today was to clear away a build-up of leaves from the entrance pathways, to make the area safer and tidier. Leafblower & shovels at the ready, we'd soon run out of space in the composting bins and it was time for a tidy up and a catch up with Tim & Edna. 

Have a great weekend all! 😊

It’s the end of the month so it was time for the Group Run to Mycenae House, a lovely local landmark with extensive grounds that the volunteers always need our help with.

Three of us ran the mile or so from Charlton Park to the house to be met by our other members and the amazing Fiona, the volunteer coordinator. For most of the summer we’ve been doing weeding and chopping so it was lovely today to have a more constructive task, namely planting a number of new plants (although the weeding didn’t quite go away). We set to work, digging holes, popping in the plants and watering and between the 5 of us and the volunteers we managed to get 20 odd plants in, including one monster specimen that required three of us to plant it.

All of this was hard work and we were grateful after an hour to be rewarded with some of the excellent cake that is always waiting for us after the task.