A lovely quiet morning to do some good in the hood! 🌸🌺

The planters at the local station been recently refreshed and replanted and looking lovely! I got there, picked out some cigarette butts and chewing gums but not too much! 🚬Then I also bought some flowers from the local petrol station and planted them out, then watering the flowers and a couple of dry planters under the bridge thoroughly. 💦Proud to say that there were no water drops on the floor after filling up the watering cans 🤟 If you know, you know 🤣

This evening we had the pleasure of welcoming Vicky on her first group run session!

It gave James the chance to get a taste of runleading, having almost finished his training.

After a chat we tooled up and set of on a run to one of our usual hotspots for a litterpick - stopping more rubbish fouling nature. Skipping Redbridge roundabout the second part of this evenings session was on the other side of the A12, where we could have easily spend all evening and still not get halfway up the road, so much rubbish accumulated in the undergrowth 😔

As so often we lost track of time a little, so ended up only doing 2.5km to be back at base on time - fingers crossed more of a run next time.

P.S.... the title is referring to the MacDonalds meal rubbish we found, receipt showing it came from just outside Newcastle to be dumped in Redbridge...

A wild Friday night doing my 300th good deed delivering books to an elderly Mr S, who likes his crime detective stories.

I took advantage of a lovely evening and late opening library hours to walk to collect some new books, chatting to a member of staff to get more books ordered for Mr S and Then I walked to Mr S, who kindly invited me in for our usual chat. We talked about news, finance AI systems, and chances of me being safe walking home at 8.30pm 🤣🤣🤣

After a lovely chat, and after collecting some already read books, I made my way home.

A lovely Friday night!

We’ve had so many sunny days that I was getting a bit nervous about freshly planted flowers at Hainault Station community planters. So I went over to pick out cigarette butts and chewing gum, and then together with a local volunteer did a few watering trips from the station’s men’s toilet to the planters to ensure everything is nicely watered during these lovely sunny days!

Forgot to take photos but took a photo of a funnel to remind me to purchase some good ones for the project, and a photo of a lovely plant on the way back home.

What a lovely lot of volunteers we had signed up today. Welcome to our newest member Victoria (likes to be known as Tors) and to Sevan a more seasoned GoodGymmer who came all the way from Ealing to add Redbridge to his list of GG boroughs visited. Frenford Foodbank had been let down on deliveries with some supplies arriving late and others not turning up at all. Linda and Ed decided to forgo the task of having everything set up early to go in search of rice, 5 Supermarkets later they'd managed to "score" 84kgs and arrived 5 minutes late 🙈 to find other volunteers ready and waiting.

There was then a flurry of activity where things were put on shelves, cages shifted about, admin sorted and bagging station set up. We had the briefest instruction session and we were off finally doing the picking and packing we set out to do. As this was the last session before Easter chocolate eggs and other treats were added for families with children.

Despite the time used for other tasks before the packing we still managed to get 35 of the 57 packages done before most people needed to leave. Luckily a couple were able to stay on and finish the rest.

Good Job Everyone 🥳🤩

🌼🌺HAINAULT STATION COMMUNITY GARDEN🌺🌼

We had a beautiful sunny morning to meet up by the station, three goodgymmers and 4 local volunteers assembled at the station and got to work very quickly! And despite two no-shows, we had a great group for all the tasks that needed to be done!

We had lots to do: - Take rubbish and many cigarette butts out of neglected planters - Fill watering cans with a very interesting system we have of using a hoover hose and using sinks at the station men's toilets (it's as grim as it sounds! but can't look into a gift horse's mouth - just grateful for water source) - Weed and pick litter out of the lush green planters - Fill the planters with fresh compost - Plant out a selection of green, shade loving plants as they will be under the bridge with not a lot of sun - Water everything thoroughly - Sweep up the mess we made along the front of the station

We had a nice post-task cuppa after a couple of hours of hard work, sitting in the sun, chatting, talking with locals - a lovely time! Well done everyone and thank you for your brilliant help to make an area of Redbridge that much better!