A small but mighty group gathered at Glass Mill, not put off by the rain and the dark nights! The other small but mighty group were meeting us at The Albany so by the time we arrived we were a medium and mighty group ready to tackle whatever litter The Albany had to throw at us!!

After a couple of visits with minimal litter, tonight was the complete opposite. We ended up with bags and bags of litter including a pair of sandals, plenty of beer bottles and cans.

Next week, we have a brand new tasks and all hands on deck needed to tackle the overgrown allotment.

In the history of leading group runs, I don't think I've taken such a small amount of photos. The important thing here is this was definitely quality over quantity!!

We haven't been to The Albany for a couple of months and we were pleasantly surprised to see the grass had been cut, and the works completed. It gave us an easier task of spotting the litter. Luckily we have Paul-sized bin bags (as confirmed in the photos) to hold all the litter. It was mainly the usual suspects of glass bottles, cans and chicken shop boxes. Nothing exciting for once, no bags full of snails, shoes or wigs.

We were done and dusted ahead of time and just as it started to rain we made our way back to Glass Mill.

Next week we are heading to Senior's, a longer and hillier run but nothing we can't achieve together!

This week's group run was all about Julian and his 499 good deeds!! Whilst we're a little sad that the big 5-0-0 won't be happening in the blue borough, we're super proud of Julian being part of our team and how much good he does between here and Greenwich. He'll get stuck into every task we do and rain or shine - thank you Julian. I look forward to seeing you achieve your next milestone which is hopefully 500 this evening at Greenwich!!

This week we also had 2 newbies joined us who must have wondered what on earth I was doing when I had party hats and a tray of doughnuts. I can't promise the same every week but I can promise good deeds every week.

It was off to The Albany this week and time to tackle the litter. After ringing the ring doorbell a couple of time and no answer I thought maybe we were in for one of those weeks with no task. We did get in eventually and set to cutting back brambles and picking up the litter.

Again, there was a distinct lack of litter and my theory is that the longer grass means it's not being blown under the fence so much but also it could all be hidden within the grass and we just can't see it!

Half the group headed out to clear the surrounding streets of litter and by the end of the session we had quite a few bags of litter including a wig!

Next week, we are heading to Senior's to help in their garden with the bigger tasks such as turning the compost, digging the beds and weeding.

This group run was a 2 task week and we had 12 wonderful GG-ers ready to tackle the litter at The Albany and the mulch at the Tiny Forest

We gathered outside Glass Mill and as I approached it was great to see a group forming after last week's bank holiday lowering our group run numbers. We split into groups and one group headed to the Tiny Forest guided by Steve and photographer for the evening Julian and the other group to The Albany with me.

The Tiny Forest team were joined by Linda and a couple of Tree Keepers and most importantly joined by Suki - our favourite Tiny Forest dog! There was lots of mulch to be moving to the main Tiny Forest (we covered the extension last week) and involved filling buckets and pouring those over the fence.

Meanwhile at The Albany....there was barely any litter!! That's never happened in the history of group runs at The Albany, usually its a satisfying clean up of all the cans and chicken shop wrappers that have blown in from the streets.

We did still fill 3 GIANT bin bags, when I say fill I mean to about 50% as they were so big I could fit in them and they got heavy quite quickly, with the litter, not with me in them! The litter we did find was described as level 10 litter i.e. nappies etc not pleasant - bring back the cans and chicken shop wrappers (although no litter at all would be encouraged)!

At both tasks it started to rain slightly then it started to pour down!! We made the decision to pack up our litter picking at the same time as the Tiny Forest text to say the rain was too much and they were heading back to Glass Mill.

We regrouped at Glass Mill and headed off for our social at the local, Guardian recommended Turkish restaurant. After some confusion over the booking which Marta handled, we were all seated and ready for a catch up and refuel.

Eight intrepid GoodGymmers returned to the familiar Group Run location of the Albany in Deptford, but with Kim away on her skiing jollydays, regular GoodGymmer Steve stepped into the less familiar role of run leader for the evening.

After a warm welcome to regulars Sarah, Darryl and Matt there was a welcome back for Victoria S and Adam! (give 'em all a cheer!)

A few quick warm up drills later and we were on our way through the streets of Lewisham. The Albany Centre is a charity, community centre and performing arts space right in the middle of Deptford's market and high street, which has been its home since 1899!

As we arrived, we were greeted by Chris who was our host at the Albany and got us signed in and equipped with litter pickers and bags to tidy up their lovely community garden. We were joined by Vic C and Vic L, who brought our Victorian tally to 3. As headtorches bobbed about in the darkness, we had quickly packed 4 bags of rubbish and had time for a couple of team photos.

It was time to say goodbye, as Team Vic headed homewards and the rest of the group ran back to our starting point of the Glass Mill Leisure Centre for a final 50m sprint followed by a chilled yoga-ish cool down and stretch.

14 GoodGymers shouting each others names, 4 tennis balls, a couple running round in circles and we had a perfectly chaotic warm up. And everyone got a quick reminder of each others names! Oli, Julian, Paul, Sarah...glad I had a reminder, I'd never of remembered their names! Just joking my wonderful regulars!!

This week it was off the The Albany, which is a great Theatre in Deptford but also a hot spot for rubbish.

Our tasks for the evening were to patrol the perimeter (and the rest of the garden) to see what litter we could find. We usually find some gems and this week I'd say less gem and more disgusting - a nappy which I'm reliably informed was used.

The second group tackled the weeds in between the paving stones. There was also the mandatory lesson in sweeping from Paul. Isaac is now an expert sweeper!

It wasn't long before we lost daylight and we were all weeding. A good reminder that it is now most definitely head torch season.

We have a brand new task next week and we're heading to the Young Lewisham Project to help with the painting. Remember to wear your oldest GG top that you don't mind getting paint splatters on.