Canonbury Square has been described by the Evening Standard as “London’s most beautiful square”. But it takes work to keep it that way.

There were several tasks to be undertaken, so it was good that six GoodGymers were on hand to assist. Dan and Byron worked on the composters while Alison, Emily, Ines and John shared the task of sweeping the paths. There was even time for some weeding before a coffee and a chat.

We joined the Canonbury Square local gardening group and helped prune, rake, weed, and spread mulch on the flower beds.

The leaf mulch was from the bins we turned over last December and the "organic material" came from the animals at Freightliner Farm.

We had a lovely sunny, Saturday morning task filling some truly enormous sacks with leaves. The Canonbury Square Gardens group were as welcoming as ever.

Welcome Julia to your first task! Give her some support Julia!

It was touch and go whether our group run session with Goodgym Islington was going to go ahead on Monday, as the met office had issued a Yellow Weather Warning for snow and ice around London. However, after the heavy fall of snow earlier in day, the footpaths and pavements within Islington became more manageable. 5 intrepid Goodgymmers joined us for our special Christmas run over to Canonbury Square Gardens on the evening- our final group run session of 2022! It was a pleasure to run with you all!

We performed a warm up just off Benwell Road, and discussed some tips for running safely across snow, ice and uneven surfaces (keeping feet at least a shoulders width apart, maintaining shorter, more controlled strides, and limiting quick sporadic movements when turning wherever possible)- great for technical trail running too! We covered the 1 mile run past Highbury and Islington station as carefully as possible, and reached Canonbury Square in good time.

Beatrix, one of our regular task owners, had left us a collection of ancient pitch forks, shovels, brushes and green waste bags at the back of the square with clear instructions for our project. The objective for the evening was to cultivate the compost bins as best we could- taking out the freshly rotted green waste- leaves, branches, twigs and moss that has become perfect mulch after a year, and filling the green bags ready for Spring gardening. In the meantime, we then dug out some of the fresher leaves from another compost bin, and relocated them while we picked up the older leaves at the bottom of the bin, and transported them to the next bin. This process continues along two more compost bins, allowing all of the green material to be rotated, ready to become mulch. A very satisfying system!

We successfully completed the full switch around within an hour of graft, and continued our run back to The Emirates Stadium. From here, our Goodgym Islington crew enjoyed some delicious pizza and refreshments to mark the end of another super productive Goodgym year, and the last group run of 2022!

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NEWS

Achilles International Guide Running at Paddington Rec Track

On Thursday 15th December, Area Activator Simon and Achilles International will be hosting their weekly visually impaired (VI) guide running session at Paddington Rec Track. Meeting at Maida Vale Underground station at 6pm, and enjoying an awesome run with great people!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-paddington-rec-track-861e4964-b276-4255-8d3b-a699cab9e2ec

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Headtorch Group Run-Christmas Edition

On Friday 16th December, we will be hosting a special group run from The Running Works shop in Aldgate, and following the Thames Path to enjoy the city's Christmas lights. From Westminster Bridge, we will pass Green Park, The Albert Hall and over to the most festive pub in London, The Churchill Arms.

12 km for the full distance. But a shorter option will be available too!

Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/goodgym-islington-headtorch-group-run-the-christmas-edition

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Canonbury Square Gardens Christmas Volunteer Morning

On Saturday 17th December (from 10am - 12am, perfect post parkrun task!), the resident gardening volunteers of Canonbury Square Gardens will be opening up the space for a session of green maintenance ready for Spring 2023. There has been a rumour that gluhwein and hot drinks will be on offer for all involved!

Sign up here!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/friends-of-canonbury-square-volunteer-morning-december

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Elizabeth House Food Hub Christmas Deliveries

Although Goodgym Islington have finished their group runs for 2022, we will still be meeting up next Monday (19th December, from 6pm) to lend a hand to one of the more organised and vibrant food bank projects in the borough. The team will be preparing parcels and full bags of shopping for families and isolated people within Islington, Highbury and Arsenal, and would hugely appreciate any assistance with deliveries on foot!

Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/elizabeth-house-food-hub-xmas-deliveries

Today, at least 5 GoodGymmers met up to help The Friends of Canonbury Square Gardens with their open community gardening session (I mean, I spoke to 4 other people, but I'm sure there were more of us!). This is a monthly event, occuring on the 3rd Saturday morning of every month.

There were a range of jobs on offer today.

John volunteered for composting duty with an alacrity that suggested that last year's Covid has yet to release its grip on his sense of smell (or that he's possibly done enough composting with manure to be ambivalent to the scent of Canonbury's offerings).

Natasha started off by aerating the lawn using an intriguing rolling aerator. Despite looking simple enough, the struggle was real, and I was glad not to have volunteered for it myself. After the lawn was done, she joined Emily with a general potter that somehow included killing a tree (I was assured that this was intended 😎👍🏻).

Finally, Harish and I swept blossom off the paths of the Eastern gardens. This was incredibly satisfying work (and I'm not just saying that because I somehow commandeered the better brush at the start and bragged about the fact with every push of the broom). Harish enjoyed it so much, he wanted to take home the leaf grabber we used to transfer the piles of blossom to the compost bins. Ultimately, we decided that he would be too conspicuous carrying it off and so he's been forced to add it to his Christmas list.

Apologies to anyone I didn't speak to (& so haven't included): please do drop a note below to say which bits you worker on today 😊

Goodgym gardening regulars Simon, Harvey and David cycled and ran from various parkruns and Islington based green spaces to come and help the Friends of Canonbury Square with their monthly volunteering open day. Beatrix and the team were really appreciative of the extra hands available, and gave us some smashing tasks to crack on with!

David was giving a lovely manual lawnmower to trim the two main green patches (described as a very peaceful and mediative job, easy to get lost in it!). Harvey took a hold of an aeration rotor tiller, a scary looking spiked mechanism made to pierce the soil to allow air and moisture to mix with the turf. The machine would chug away with a very satisfying "clack" if used correctly!

Simon and local resident Lachlan lent a hand with compost rotating- using pitch forks to move well rotten (and almost mulch ready) compost into separate containers. Between the three pre-built containers, we moved the lightly rotted, semi- rotted and almost completely rotted compost from bin to bin, to allow new green waste and plant clippings to be added. Harvey also joined in on this task, and helped Simon to flatten the compost by jumping up and down on the mulch! On the opposite side of the park, David was busy with removing saplings from around some beautiful tall trees. The little sprouts were doing really well, but weren't growing in the right place for more trees!

A really smashing way to spend a Bank Holiday morning, followed by coffee and ginger nut biscuits provided by friendly locals! We will be back again soon!