Jane and I joined the Community Brain on sunny Sunday morning at St Mark's Hill to help set up the "piste" for Ski Sunday. Ski run in a form of long vinyl got laid, railings put up, foam and bubble wrap installed as protection, all to be secured by the ever present duct tape. What a fab event for our local Subitonians, making a come back after number of years hiatus. We even got to perform a little ski dance for CB's social.

GoodGym went back to Tolworth Broadway to help the Community Brain fill the planters full of plants and bushes to help create beautiful green spaces on the high street. Dave, Rachel and Scott met at the Quaker Centre and ran/cycled the 4km over to the high street where we met Tara as well as Georgia and Phoebe from the Community Brain. They had a tall trolley laden with different plants and bushes ready for planting. We grabbed trowels and started digging in the gaps to create holes for the plants. Some of them were quite root bound so we had to tease the roots out before putting them in the holes. Fortunately Georgia and Phoebe had already done a litter pick to remove the rubbish and clear some of the weeds. It didn't take long for our industrious group to work our way down the high street. One of the planters was filled with water - none of us really could work out why - but there was a hairy moment where I nearly lost my phone (as I took photos) in the boggy soil. Lucky break when I caught it!

At our 8th and final planter we made friends with the local shopowner who was grateful that we were helping to make the front of his premises look more attractive. We had a small celebration when Georgia produced a homemade gluten-free cake for Phoebe's birthday and as she was sharing it out the shopowner came out with Indian sweets for the group. Delicious!

What a worthwhile evening! Looking forward to helping the Community Brain again in the future.

Spring has definitely sprung! After a day of glorious sunshine it was a refreshing change to head out for the run in a t-shirt and not feel too much of the iciness of winter in the air. Perfect timing for one of our longer run sessions with 4k out and 4k back.

Rachel, Fionn, Matthew and Dave met at the KIngston Quaker Centre to get prepped for the evening ahead. After a quick warm up we headed out with the boys on foot and Rachel keeping us in check on her bike.

A brisk 20 mins later we landed in Tolworth where we caught up with Jassy and headed to start our task - to clear out around 15 planters of rubbish and weeds. We were meant to be meeting local charity The Community Brain but they had all come down with Covid so were unfortunately unable to attend. This didn't stop us though! Armed with gloves, headtorches, trowels and bin bags we set to work and made our way down the high street clearing the detritus. We made a few friends along the way with various people calling out thanks and one gentleman from a local newsagent handing us a six-pack of water. Always nice to be appreciated!

When all beds were cleared we had around a dozen bin bags full of waste... job well done. Jassy and Fionn headed off home and Matthew, Rachel and Dave got back on the road to Kingston for another 4k back to base.

Two Googymmers joined Community Brain’s strong team of 5 to complete the 1st phase of building their polytunnel at a vast garden space behind Tolworth station that they recently acquired.

Under Georgia’s watchful eye, we measured out 10 equally distance spots to dig holes for the founding posts for the tunnel. Whilst you would most likely normally build these on a soft grassy land, this was a different story. Tough going with barbed wire, roots, glass, metal and various other obstructions but we got there. We were half expecting to find King Richard in there;)

After the holes were dug out, Luke & I with few others put together the posts with their metal plates, placed them into their allocated positions and started the tricky bit of levelling, measuring, levelling again whilst Georgia and couple others took on the task of building the metal frame.

At the end we all joined forces in placing the metal arches on their posts and topping it with a central beam support. Phase 1 done! What a satisfying Sunday.

Looking forward to helping Community Brain with their next phases creating a lovely community space.

It was a cold February morning but that didn’t stop two GoodGymmers from helping at the Ziggy Returns event organised by the Community Brain, based in Tolworth.

Rachel and Fung were tasked with decorating the perimeter of the venue located in the car park at Tolworth Station. We put up bunting and hung mobiles made out of 7 inch vinyls. It was a job to untangle them but we got there soon enough. While all this was happening the stage was being put up and the music was flowing. We had a great time and that was before the event even started!

Despite earlier snow and ever present cold, we braved the elements and gathered at the Tolworth allotment where we were met by the lovely Georgia.

Firstly, we were given a tour of the wonderful community "house/office" where a bug hotel was to be constructed (drawings looked good), brackets printed by a very fancy 3D printer and plants & fish looked after. Nice and cozy inside but that's not why we were there.

There were number of plots that were left full of unwanted items, some trapped by the ever present bramble. Taking on the bramble first (there seem to be no gloves in the world to protect you from this nemesis), we were then able to clear that plot as well as few others, bagging most of the items for disposal and making a bonfire pile from the unwanted wood. With a little more work from Georgia's team (mainly collection of the old broken greenhouse), these plots can be used for a community plot as well as go to local people, some of whom have been on a waiting list for 3-4 years we have been told.

Looking forward to coming back soon.

PS: apologies to Jacquetta for losing her hat