3-2-1- GO!

We were there supporting 73 youngsters running the rainy 2k Eltham juniors parkrun 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃‍♂️.

We cheered them around the two laps with plenty of high-fives ✋️✋️, and took their times as they crossed the finishing line ⏱️ 🏁.

This is such a great way to start a Sunday, especially with a coffee at a local cafe afterwards ☕️!

Come along and join us next time!

Tonight's GoodGym task took team Greenwich to the historical gem that is the Prince Phillip Maritime Collection Centre in Kidbrooke, home to the Greenwich Royal Museums' stored collections. These are made up of Art and Artefacts, and the centre is dedicated to their preservation as well as education within the local community.

Our first task this evening was a nautical one but we managed to stay on dry ground as we moved a slightly rickety boat into its new position. (Again on dry ground, it definitely isn't seaworthy!).

We were then led, crystal maze style, to our next adventure, in the magical mystery storage room, for some ceiling panel removal & replacement, ready for groups carrying out gilding of the panels. Our Man with the Golden Puns did us proud, quickly working out the jigsaw puzzle of panels, and we took turns climbing the ladder with instructions from the team on getting the placements exactly right.

I definitely think we got that crystal and caught some gold confetti!

Photo time with our prop of choice & it was time to head our separate ways. Thanks all & have a great week!

Garden Preparation Progress Report

This week, we continued with the task we began last week—getting the garden ready for the next phase. Our efforts focused on ongoing preparations, including removing old cardboard, sweeping up dried leaves using rakes, and laying down membrane in key areas.

Although the work was carried out by just three of us (Owen, Isabella and myself), we felt a real sense of progress and accomplishment. The garden is steadily taking shape, and it’s clear that our contributions are making a difference.

That said, as always, more helping hands would be greatly appreciated to keep the momentum going.

Till next time! ✋🏻😁

Sunday saw Good Gym back at Westcombe Woodlands, one of our favourite tasks and this month saw a new variation on the usual theme, namely that alongside the usual and eternal brambles we now had to remove a large number of Robinia plants. The plant is a non-native species that is not terribly good at providing a habitat for local species, including the many bats that inhabit the woods (stay tuned for news on September bat walks batfans). It turned out to be a tough old thing too: the plants were well established with a deep rooting system that all needed to come out. But Good Gym persists and after 90 minutes or so (including a welcome tea break) we’d cleared a lot of unwanted plants from the woods.

Thanks to all who came and thanks to Marta for the pun

What a glorious evening to be newt and aboot with GoodGym Greenwich! With 13 of us gathered and the sun shining brightly, we set off on a scenic run through beautiful Greenwich Park, with Marta managing to sneak in the final part of her interval training en route!

A happy welcome back to Jia for her second good geed with us!

Our destination was the lovely garden of St Alfege’s Primary School, where we were met with a list of garden tasks organised by Amanda the Headteacher who popped in to say hello! Between us, we:

🌱 Weeded garden beds and turned over the soil

🛶 Emptied out a boat planter and refilled it with fresh soil

🌳 Replanted a tree

🛞 Emptied and weeded tyre planters, topping them up with fresh compost

📦 Cleared out and organised some storage crates

But, you ask - what's with title of the report? Well, we also found a newt who was very sweet. Ivar may have wanted to adopt him but settled for popping him back in the pond area. One of the cuter amphibians in my opinion and a lovely surprise this evening.

Anyway, with such a great team, the jobs were done in no time and after a group pic we enjoyed a little river run back to base before parting ways for the evening, with that satisfying post-good-deed glow.

St Alfege’s is starting a monthly community gardening session, so keep an eye out for more tasks coming soon as the school transforms this space for wider community use!

Coming up next...

🎉 This Saturday we’re helping set up and close down at the Beats, Boards, and BBQ event in Charlton Park and we have gardening at Hervey Road

🏃‍♀️ Next Wednesday we’ll be meeting at Charlton House for a group run to Brooklands School for more garden work!

Until next time, wonderful people! 👋

Rachel

We're continuing our gardening preparations, with more volunteers helping out - 3 C’s from Goodgym (Chloe, Calvin and Cecilia); *with Isabella , helping Owen.

What we did: - We removed the cardboards that served as weed barrier. - We removed stubborn weeds and dig out the roots with hope of preventing regrowth. - we cleared the soil and ensured it’s free from rubbish, such as plastic, big stones, etc. (Raking and hand-picking them) - we used landscape membranes or weed barriers and secured them firmly with hooks. - As a finishing touch, we spread woodchips over the prepared area.

After completing the day task, we were kindly offered tea and biscuits—an irresistible treat that made it almost impossible to say no! ☺️ Till next time. 👋🏼😃