Lovely morning spent with Gloria and Peter from FoLaR in Latchmere Recreation Centre. Julie and Rachel were asked to help move two big bags of bark to new saplings that were planted by GoodGym a year ago.

We first cleared the dead stems and the couch grass and then turned over the soil carefully watched by Julie's two adorable pups. They had a great vantage point by standing on the two big bags of bark. Adorable!

We eventually persuaded them to move and poured the new wood chip round the saplings. A tree-mendous transformation!

We also popped by the planter that we moved a few weeks ago on our group run - well positioned and the rosemary was thriving much to our delight.

Last night our group run took us to Latchmere Recreation Ground where the active friends group asked for our help to move a planter. A grand plan indeed. Thankfully we had twice the original numbers of sign ups earlier that day as it was a heavy lifting task and many hands certainly do make light work.

First job was to dig out the plants and carefully store them. Second job was to dig out the soil and the third task was to move the heavy planters. Fortunately the planters broke down into two sections they could be transferred across in two runs.

Once the planters were carefully positioned by Petra's discerning eye, Dave, Martel, Emma, Adam, Sabir and Julie positioned the plants and poured in the top soil. The massive Rosemary looked happy in her new home. Turf was then laid in the mud bath of the old planter and stamped into place. Thankfully there was rain today to help settle it.

In the meantime Rachel and Jen had removed ivy and mint from a different planter as they had started to spread and tangle up with the other plants.

The hour was soon up but not before Rachel received a card, cakes, crown and cape to celebrate 300 good deeds! A touching moment - thanks all. Then off to the Albion for food and drinks.

New GoodGym recruit and friend, Jennie, and I went for a little run/cycle -she ran and I cycled - so we could chat. A lovely route through Richmond Park, out of Ham Gate to Latchmere Rec to meet Gloria and her FoLaR (Friends of Latchmere Recreation Ground) team.

The mission was to dig 3 holes for silver birch trees that are due to be planted over the next few days. 35cm deep does not sound too difficult but we worked up a sweat making sure it was deep and wide enough for the root ball. Afterwards, we helped to lift turf so they could get to the soil layer to plant meadow flowers.

Can't wait to see how this area of Latchmere Rec develops under FoLaR's watchful eye and I'm sure we can help with the next stages of their project.

Thank you Gloria for the refreshments and for telling us The Latch cafe is now open by the toilet block by the playground. If you're a fan of Canbury Secret cafe then this is their new venture - sadly we didn't have any money on us but we'll make the effort to get a breakfast buttie next time we are back!

Well done, Jen! Hopefully you'll come back and join us for another GoodGym task soon.

GoodGym were orange hot today!

Luke and Rob arrived first and set to work painting the bench legs a lovely shade of orange. The first coat had already been done so it was just the top layer that was needed. The Wallers quickly set to work on the weeding, after they followed my telepathic directions to the task rather than giving telephone directions. It made sense in my head... With the weeds all plucked and the benches painted the next jobs on the list were to paint the flower tubs, a nice non bird poo friendly grey, although apparently red is best... lifting and shifting concrete blocks and starting a dead hedge to block out the view of the car park behind. Kate made her appearance after her coach visit and quickly set about helping out with the painting job. Rob started a dead hedge and went forraging for brush in the... Brush... Whilst Luke wrestled with an unmovable iron post. Remember your mattock next time. Finally on the stroke of noon, when the paint ran out and the sun was up high, it was time to plant ourselves in the freshly painted tubs, one household per tub, and pose for a group photo, Oscar the dog included. Congrats to Jamie on his 10th mission, the task force could really use a ninja like you.

Keep an eye out for more Latchmere Rec missions, Gloria and co have grand plans for the space including a pond that will need to be manually dug out in the autumn.

Having enjoyed the comfort of some warm tasks on our group runs over the past few weeks we braced ourselves for a task in the great and rather cold outdoors. Once we had welcomed new member Owen to his first run and Emily back for her second Kingston task we decided how many layers we really needed before leaving the warmth of Guildhall.

Our first stop was the market square for a much needed warm up. Mark had us playing stuck in the mud with a few jumping jacks involved for good measure and then working in pairs on a set of squats and lunges to make sure we were fully warm for our run.

Then off we went running along the river and up into the roads of Kingston for 3km until we reached our task at Latchmere Recreation Ground where we were met by members of the Friends of Latchmere. Four GoodGym members headed off in one direction to get shovelling while the rest set off to get digging.

A large amount of earth needed clearing from a concrete area behind some storage containers so that a shed could be built and there was lots of earth for our GoodGym team to move.

Across the other side of the recreation ground 5 holes needed to be dug 2ft square and 1ft deep for fruit trees to be planted. This was easier said than done when we got through the turf and the topsoil to find lots of huge rocks. It was time for the pick axe to take over from the shovels to loosen those rocks.

Rocks removed we kept digging and emptying the holes until they were deep enough. Once ready we refilled them backwards with the turf on the bottom and topsoil on top.

They are now all ready to have fruit trees planted in them on Thursday when the Friends of Latchmere volunteers go to the park to complete the planting.

By this point the warmth of the run and the digging and shovelling had worn off and it was time for another 3km run back to Guildhall and a good warm down on the steps.

Well done to our Owen and Emily on competing their first and second tasks.

Thanks to Martell for being backmarker and Caroline for leading the walking group.

Looking forward to seeing you all next week!!

This week’s run was looking a little sparse at first glance, but fortunately we made it to a total of 5 runners (including Leader Mark, who had less photo time this week as was carrying a Mattock ...ssshhhh) and we even had a reporter to join us! Yep straight in jumping with a microphone in the warm up and then after tweaking her recording equipment, our keen reporter interviewed Kate as the rest of the group went on to Latchmere Recreation Ground. Our mission was to help prepare the area for trees to be grown.

When we arrived at Latchmere, after a couple of wrong turns and getting lost from myself and Tom, the reporter Keyari and Kate were still to arrive (busy trying to power walk and talk at the same time!!). So we made a start on the mission at hand, which involved digging, weeding, and fighting with brambles.
Kate and Keyari (Our Reporter) now on the scene so Kate was straight into ACTION and as we worked we were interviewed with all sorts of questions on why we enjoyed Good Gym so much. Answers spanned from “helping the community” to “getting fit”, to “meeting great people” AND “Ouch those brambles hurt”.

After a good bit of digging around by all and a few photo opportunities with the lovely people from the Friends of Latchmere Recreation Ground, we set off on our return journey.

There were posing opportunities beside illuminated wreaths on the Kingston river’s edge to be had on the way back, which gave a Christmassey end to a nice run! I wonder if Mark got the one running in front of the Bauble on the way out… hmmmm

Good stretch Kingston and a great physical workout at the task.

Don’t forget to sign for next week already!!