It may be the last day of October, but someone forgot to tell the weather, as it was still feeling more like late summer than spooky season! ☀️

Eight of us, plus Arthur, joined forces with our friends at Mycenae Gardens for our monthly volunteer session. We soaked up the sunshine, enjoyed a good natter and got stuck into some gardening. It was a fang-tastic way to spend the morning. 🧙‍♀️🌿

Some of the team got their hands dirty weeding, clearing grass and tackling the alkanet to get the space ready for planting lots of lovely new plants next month. Others got busy lopping down overgrown trees, bushes and dead plants and dragging them over to the dead hedge that we've been adding to over time.

A special welcome to Leonor, who joined us for her very first GoodGym task. She certainly didn't let the grass grow under her feet, tackling her lopping task with gusto! ✂️

A great morning, topped off with some hauntingly yummy cake from Virginia and a coffee in the cafe.

Lovely to see you all - until next time 😊

*Coming up *

On wednesday we'll be litter picking in woolwich: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/woolwich-river-litter-pick-57deb427-7033-49e5-85fc-c8010e88f8ef

Next weekend, as well as the parkruns we have:

• Saturday 7th November: Maintenance at Westcombe Woodlands: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/maintenance-at-westcombe-woodlands-b989e989-3623-4bdc-9700-3324f9db4748

• Saturday 7th November: Litter picking and Wildflower planting at Maryon Wilson Park: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/litter-picking-and-wildflower-planting-at-maryon-wilson-park

What a lovely day today was! Most of us met during Junior Parkrun where Linda, Julian, Khai, Aman, Marta, Ivar and Louise cheered, tokened and high fived all the kids round the 2km course before heading for coffee at the Old Cottage cafe.

We then had a walking group and a running group who headed to Mycenae Gardens where we were met by Mayuri, Arn and the Friends of volunteers who introduced us to the tasks at hand. These included sawing down branches for the dead hedge, raking and clearing ivy and brambles.

An hour of clearing and getting scratched by brambles (particularly in Louise's case) we stopped for cake which was scrumptious before a few of us went to another cafe to top off the morning! Because you cant have too much sitting down and chatting over something yummy can you?

Great to see you all and until next time.

On Wednesday we're meeting in Woolwich for a task at Dee's Nursery

And next Saturday we're back at Maryon Wilson Community Garden.

The end of the month has come around quickly and 10 Good Gymers were on hand to attend the monthly session at Mycenae House, one of our favourites (not least because they’re always very generous with cake).

We were met by Fiona, the amazing coordinator of the many taks occurring at the house that morning, and she soon put us to work with a couple of tasks: first up we had some cut material to move to the dead hedge before the main event of clearing all of that perennial Good Gym enemy, green alkanet, from one of the reserved spaces. But being Good Gym we’d got that task done quicker than you can say itchy skin so another task had to be found. We were soon split into two teams, one cutting back some holly trees to increase ground coverage and one team moving the cut foliage to the dead hedge.

And finally it was time for cake.

A super hot Bank Holiday Sunday sun shone down on 8 Goodgym-ers at Mycenae House & Gardens in Greenwich for today's community mission.

Unfortunately, a mix-up meant the usual team from the organisation weren't there to direct us, so the task couldn't go ahead as expected. Always prepared though, we turned the mission into an impromptu litterpick, both in the garden & surrounding roads, chattering about running, goodgym, ice cream, and of course the inevitable topic of the weather!

Ending our morning at the lovely Greenwich Pleasaunce for an ice cream, it was time to say au revoir & have a great rest of the weekend! A big GoodGym Welcome to Tom on your first task! ⭐

Note from Rachel: Completely my fault, sorry everyone - the actual date for the task is next week: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/helping-at-mycenae-gardens-67018f9d-7640-4245-ae99-dce473021b07

On Wednesday we're gardening at St Alfege's Primary School: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/gardening-at-st-alfege-primary-school-beaa8fad-7bcb-435e-9ef8-58e227127026

Until next time!

Today we joined the Friends of Mycenae Gardens for a spot of dead hedging!

On arrival a huge pile of branches awaited us ready to be added to the dead hedge at the end of the gardens and we spent a merry while chatting and dragging branches over and the pile gradually depleted until it was definitely time for a cake stop (yum yum, thanks Virginia!)

Sugar levels replenished, our next task was giving Holly a haircut. She was wildly overgrown and well due a trim so off we set with secateurs and shears and in 15 minutes she looked 10 years younger, with all of her trimmings having the added benefit of making a prickly top to the dead hedge - an extra deterrent for any curious climbers.

Well done team- proof many hands make light work and special welcome to Eleanor for her first task with us!

Tomorrow we've got the litter pick on Woolwich common.

Wednesday we're at the Prince Philip Maritime Museum and next weekend we've got:

• Helping at Maryon Park Community Garden

• Talk and tidy at Hornfair Park

• Maintenance at Westcombe Woodlands

• Helping organise Mama2Mama's storage unit (Bank Holiday Monday)

Until next time, lovely people 👋🏼

Rachel

This very fine Saturday* 11 of us arrived at Mycenae House, some after already volunteering or running at one of the Parkruns, or swimming or just successfully rolling out of bed, hey we don't judge and it's all an achievement on a very fine Saturday.*

We joined the Friends of Mycenae Gardens who were busy getting on with planting over 400 tree whips by the dead hedge which we've spent many a day building up. We got to work, digging, planting and stamping (and playing hide and seek) and soon they were all in place and it was time for cake.

AND Today was a very special day because it was Johhny's 50th and a bit birthday...Aka his 60th 🤫. Which is particularly exciting because he will shortly get free travel, eye tests and all sorts of discounts now that he's gracefully moved into the 'Seniors' category. But it's only a number - there's nothing senior about Johnny other than the wisdom and life experience he carries with him, not to mention his many good deeds! So very fitting that after the task we enjoyed coffee and cake together to celebrate our lovely friend.

A great morning with an amazing group of humans - thank you all!

Tomorrow we have litter picking in Charlton

Wednesday we have a run to Dee's Nursery to help out in the garden.

And next Saturday it's Gardening at the Hospice in Bexley.

Until next time!

Rachel

*(not fine, not sunny, just grey, grey forever grey but let's pretend we experienced some finer weather just for a moment, please 🙄)