Four happy Goodgymmers (Anh, Ros, Sarah and Xiaoru) attended our monthly task at the Walthamstow Toy Library, and this month the time had come to clean and organise the toy store. Many hands made light work, and much hoovering, cobweb busting, toy cleaning and furniture rearranging was done. Toys were sorted, and some of the very generous excess toy donations received were set aside for a forthcoming toy sale to raise funds for the Library. The Toy Library, as always, continues to do wonderful work for our community, providing a wealth of resources for local families, far beyond the rental of toys and games. Toy Library CEO Helen was, as ever, very happy to have our help. A big shoutout to Anh and Xiaoru who were both attending their first Goodgym sessions!

Our next Toy Library mission will be on 12 November, when we'll be getting into the seasonal spirit wrapping presents for Father Christmas, whose annual visit to the Toy Library will be forthcoming. His elves are extremely busy, so it's only right that Goodgym should lend a hand. If you fancy coming along and getting an early taste of Christmas cheer, do come and join us!

One Waltham Forest goodgymmer went to the Toy Library this evening, and helped Helen weigh, log and sort through some lovely donations of clothing, shoes, toys and books. We then set to work making some bookmark blanks, which the children will decorate at the Toy Library's next event, where they will also be able to choose a book to take home with them. Helen was, as ever, happy to have a helping hand. Next month's session has been put back a week until 15 October, as Helen has other commitments on our usual meeting day. She'll have some Halloween related tasks for us to get stuck into - spoooooky!

Two happy Goodgymmers (Lily and Sarah) braved the hottest day of the year to help Helen and her loyal team at Walthamstow Toy Library with some serious weeding and hedge trimming to keep the outside of the Library looking spick and span. A somewhat sweaty evening didn't stop us, and many hands made light(ish!) work. Helen was, as ever, delighted with the support and was particularly happy to report the immense success of the adventure playground, which we've worked on at several tasks this year. It's always a joy to be at the Toy Library and to know that we're contributing to such an important resource in our local community. Our monthly tasks continue, and we'll be back on the second Thursday in September. Come one, come all - everyone is always very welcome to join us!

Two happy Goodym Sara(h)s spent a solid hour and a half on at the Toy Library on Thursday evening, weeding the adventure playground and the carpark. Braving the hot weather and making every effort to stay hydrated, they cut back the rapidly growing bindweed, pulled up errant thistles and chopped up various bits of dead undergrowth in the newly renovated adventure playground, making sure to get rid of anything spiky or stinging that could potentially hurt the Toy Library's intrepid little customers. So busy they were, that they forgot to take any photos of their progress, hence the stock gardening tools image on this report!

Having been renovated over the first few months of this year, and opened in May, the adventure playground is already proving a huge hit with our local youngsters. Not only that, but Helen from the Toy Library was absolutely delighted when the official adventure playground inspector (yes, this is an Actual Job) expressed his admiration for how much work has been done to renovate the space. Apparently, the UK is short of 300 playground spaces, and in reclaiming and sprucing up the one behind the Toy Library, we have brought a much-needed one back to life! So, Goodgymmers across the country - only 299 more to go! Helen, ably aided by her family, has of course done much of this work herself, but is enormously gracious in her gratitude to Goodgym Waltham Forest for the time we have given her to assist in this very big task. The playground is a really wonderful addition to our community facilities, and GGWF will most certainly stand by to do anything else we can to help!

Went back to do some more gardening at Mr R's yesterday. Last time I was there, the lawnmower was out of action so I cleared the patio and did some weeding. Mr R had purchased a new lawnmower so I took that for a spin yesterday and got the back garden mowed. One of his wishes is to be able to get out and sit in his garden again, so I set up some patio furniture for him to use - just in time for the incoming heatwave!

Three jolly Goodgymmers made the most of a sunny(ish) Sunday afternoon to get stuck into the rennovation work at Walthamstow Toy Library's new adventure playground. Ros, Ruby and Sarah all mucked in, putting up fencing, laying woodchip and tackling lots of pesky bindweed, all in a contribution to the ongoing efforts to get the adventure playground ready for its grand opening on 30 May. So much work has been done, but there's still a way to go, and, as ever, Helen and her team were delighted to have some extra helping hands on board. We got some good work done in a couple of hours, and it was lovely to be able to contribute to preparing this incredible new addition to the Toy Library's facilities and to think of all the intrepid little adventurers who will get hours of fun and joy from the playground for years to come!