This was a special charity day GoodGym set up for the team at Radius Insights.

First I meant the team at there office and took them on a 3km walk to the Galleywell Nature Reserve, an amazing oasis of natural habitat in Central London. The reserve allows nature to thrive, and is a vital resource for the local community and adjacent school who can visit to learn about the environment.

After a quick intro from the head of the nature reserve Paul, we got straight to work. We started off by having the guy move a big roof that's soon to be discarded. The girls were all given small garden spades and sphaerocephalon allium bulbs. They were required to dig holes that were either 4 or 6 inches deep, depending on the size of the bulbs. The bulbs were then planted and covered up so that they'll be able to grow fully by this time next year.

Whilst digging, one of the girls managed to unearth a dead bird filled with maggots. This was a huge shock but it was also something everyone found funny later on. That will be a interesting story to tell later. Whilst the girls were planting, the guys were shoveling manure into wheel barrels and spreading them around so that the nature reserve would have more places for plants to grow.

Thank you to the Radius Insights team, the work done will have a real impact on local residents. Galleywell is a vital green spaces in the borough with a invertebrate habitat wall, made out of recycled materials and gradually being built by volunteers. The site is currently well used by the adjacent school, and raised beds, native climbers and a bee hive are proposed to encourage more public interest in the garden.

Everyone did amazing today and I hope you all enjoyed your first GoodGym Session.

8 of Southwark's finest headed to Galleywall nature reserve for the first session there of the year. With some helpful handles and a lot of 'to me, to you's' the team relocate the shed to the back of the garden, to allow for a more aesthetic entrance to be planted. The team work continued in task 2, forming a daisy chain to pass rocks from the back of the garden to the pond to form the rocky bank pictured. Good job team !

Last night, 12 Goodgymmers helped out at Galleywall Nature reserve. Lindy, Emma, Nelly, Nathan, Cecilia, Gemma, Alex, Mansur and Katy met me at Old Spike and we ran together. Then we were joined by Daryl and Andrada at Galleywall.

Alan from Galleywall had already prepared a list of tasks for us to do, so we quickly split off and got stuck in. Tasks involved: Digging up bramble roots, attaching other brambles to the fence, taking twigs and sticks out of compost bins, sawing firewood, and adding items to the habitat walls.

With the summer holidays still in full effect, we had some GoodGymers away, but these mighty 8: Alex, Daryl, Isaac, Mikhail, Nelly, Phil, Sam and Vic were up for GoodGyming on a Wednesday night. Everyone bar Phil and Vic arrived at Old Spike Peckham to hear Sam's quick intros before dashing out with no ice-breaker question as tonight's run was going to take the full 30 minutes.

Once at the site, Sam did ask the ice-breaker question to some...since it was National Radio Day (the day before): "Do you still listen to the radio and what programmes do you listen to?"

It's hard to distinguish between podcast and radio now, but Isaac and Phil do listen to the radio - mainly sport for Isaac, but for Phil it more the programmes that debunk myths and stats which is useful for his job.

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A welcomed sight

It been at least three months since we have been back to Galleywall Nature Reserve, but with their monthly Open Days and use by the local schools and scouts, it maintains itself. Yet, there are always tasks for GoodGym to do as Alan and Jane came prepared with a list.

Despite having only 8 of us, we were keen to get as many items on their list done:

• Alex and Daryl took on the first task which was to re-do the foundations of the wash basin on where people stand as it was quite wonky and needed a solid dig and fill with bricks to make it even.
• Isaac was up for cutting down to big cherry trees as Alan and Jane said they weren't producing cherries and cutting it down will encourage it to grow again.
• Vic wanted to untangle and discard the bindweed growing near the bike rack and shed.
• Nelly helped Jane identify self-seeding tree saplings to dig them out now before they grow into trees.
• Mikhail and Phil took a mattock and loppers to take out bramble bushes before they overtook certain areas of the Nature Reserve.
• Finally, Sam helped Isaac trim the cherry tree branches to put in the compost. Although, some larger straight branches were kept for planting.

Knowing that it would be a long run back, we called it at 19:55 to leave 5 minutes to tidy up and take our group photo. Sam informed Alan and Jane for his departure from the role come end of September, but he will help put in the next session in October before leaving.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Alan and Jane were pleased to have GoodGym back and can't wait to have us again! Thank you to Mikhail for backmarking the runs and taking the photos.

Last night, 14 Goodgymmers came out to help out at Galleywall Nature Reserve.

First to arrive at our meeting point, Old Spike, was Steve, who had been away recently. Whilst we caught up, newbie Chong arrived - and then nipped back out to check out a bike shop. Similarly, Isaac came dashing in, only to dash back out to do a quick lap of the Rye. Emma, Sarah, Nelly, Fi, Tim and Katy arrived and stayed 😅

Once everyone had arrived, I started welcome speech, and we gave a proper welcome to Chong. Our ice breaker question this week was related to the task... "Imagine we're going on a nature walk together, what do you see?". Tim started us off with a caterpillar, Chong gave some insight into his favourite sports team, and everyone else built a beautiful scene with a river, a waterfall, some salmon swimming in the river, some light filtering through the trees...🥹. It was a great team effort!

After a quick warm-up, we set off on our 4k run to Galleywall. I think it was the warmest day we've had this year, so it was a sweaty one!

When we arrived at Galleywall, James, Richard, Daryl and Andrada were already there. Eddie from Galleywall welcomed us and explained to us the task: we had to move some logs out of a ditch, and then put them back in a less haphazard manner, so that it would be safe for children.

Even though outcome was clear, we were not certain about how to achieve it initially. Steve came up with the idea of taking everything out the ditch, and then putting the big things back first, to give a stable base, so we rolled with that. We got into pairs and started to self-organise, and we completed the task surprisingly quickly.

Eddie came to inspect out work, and during this, he had the idea to dismantle some of the bug hotels so that people at the bus stop would be able to look through the "windows" to see into the nature reserve. After some discussion and experimentation, we opened up two windows.

At some point Daryl got separately picked to mow the grass.

Just as I started to worry that there may not be enough work for us, Eddie came round with laminated booklets which was a guided nature walk of the nature reserve. We split off into fours and off we went!

We finished at 8pm exactly to run/walk/cycle back to Peckham, perfect timing for our social at Skylarking. 🍻

On International Day of Happiness and French Language Day, Sam welcomed in Elena, Paulin, Isaac, Lindy, Katy, Nelly, Maria and Daryl into Old Spike Peckham for another group run. After his intro speech, his ice-breaker question was to do with one of the social dates...he chose to ask what everyone's favourite French word is:

From "Boh" to "pittoresque" and "bissou" to "oo la la", we had all your stereotypes and intriguing French words.

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What's flyering in french?

With this being one of our longer runs, Sam opted to skip the warm-up and head to Galleywall Nature Reserve as it is a 4k run each way. We started off fast to avoid the people on Rye Lane before feeling the humidity on this warm muggy night. We all made it to the Nature Reserve just after 19:15 to find Eddie welcoming in Phil, but we did not notice until after Eddie gave a list of jobs/tasks that Sander had already arrived and was cracking on with transporting leaf mulch. Yet, we had more people than tasks, but luckily Sam had flyers from Library of Things to distribute to the neighbourhood around Surrey Quays. Staying with Eddie in the Nature Reserve:

• Emma, Elena, Lindy, Maria, Nelly, Phil and Sander stayed behind to collect leaf mulch, saw wood and put in wooden pole signage firmly into the ground.
• Whilst Daryl, Isaac, Katy, Paulin and Sam ran off to deliver the flyers using the 40 minutes to tackle the estates near Surrey Quays Overground.

Upon arriving back at the Nature Reserve close to 20:00, Sam noticed those at the Nature Reserve had already been done with their tasks about five minutes prior, so without further waiting he took a group photo and they said their goodbyes to Eddie, Elena(who lives closeby), Emma, Phil and Sander.

We ran back to Peckham at a slower pace as most of us were tired and the humidity was still in the air. Once we arrived back at Old Spike at 20:30, Sam opted out of a stretch and told everyone left to stretch at home.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Eddie always appreciates our time at the Nature Reserve to help fine tune the area and we got a shoutout from Library of Things on Instragram too. Thank you to Maria for backmarking the runs to / from Galleywall Nature Reserve.