The award-winning community garden at the Canal Club brings residents together, supports biodiversity and provides a shared green space opening onto the Regent’s Canal. A notification by our former Area Activator and chief motivator Laura, that she’d be hosting a weekly palates session there reminded us that we hadn’t visited the centre for some time - and we hadn’t caught up with Laura for a while either

On arrival, she bounded out to greet us, as fresh and full of energy as ever. But we had work to do – those pesky weeds had pushed their way up between the paving stones, making the front of the centre look rather untidy

Several of our number arrived fresh from the shindig weekend, enthused by meeting GoodGymers from around the country, then finding they couldn’t wait more than 24 hours for more GoodGym, Before we got going, Darren wanted to know which ice cream everyone prefers, which can only mean he’s planning to treat us all with our favourite selection at next week’s task. We also congratulated Tom on his 50th Good Deed!

Meanwhile, using a variety of tools, we each found our own way to liberate the weeds from their trap between the stones, laying them cosily in a wheelbarrow and transporting them to a nice new home, reunited with their friends in a compost pile next to the canal

An hour later, there wasn’t a weed to be seen. And the nice plant we’d been told to leave alone, was left untouched, safe behind its nicely-drawn chalk line. After catching up with Laura, who made GoodGym Tower Hamlets what it is today, we sampled task-owner Sally’s lemon drizzle, and were expertly served tea and coffee by our Louise, before some of us headed for the pub to complete our evening

The Canal Club, however, is currently proposed as a site for development. It was built for residents of the Wellington Estate and its activities include toddler storytelling, baby dance classes, Tai Chi, knitting and sewing, outdoor pizza making, breakdancing, line dancing, karaoke social evenings, a science homework club, singing, refugee activities, a food bank, arts and crafts, and Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. There is a ball park and a children’s playground

This is not an empty site! Call on the council to remove the site from its accelerated housing scheme by signing the petition at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-our-space-e2-save-the-canal-club

This Sunday morning, we headed to Epping Forest (home to 55,000 ancient trees!) where we were met by the brilliant Robyn, Conservation Officer at Epping Forest Heritage Trust. This was no usual gardening task. Instead of shovels, trowels, and rakes, modern gardening equipment was forgone and we went back to basics. The weapons, I mean tools, of choice, were big sticks. As we made our way to the task site - a large open area dense with bracken - we kept an eye out for the best ones. Robyn advised they needed to be reasonably long, and sturdy, but not too wide, so that they could be wielded in a whip like fashion. Where bracken grows, not much else does, so our task was to bash as much as we could to give other plants a chance.

Big sticks acquired, we set about, in a somewhat zig zag direction, clearing all the bracken we could. Many different bracken beating techniques were employed - everyone seemed to have their own unique style:

• Hilary found a back-hand most effective
• Chloe put her golf skills to use and struck the ferns as if on the tee.
• Fiona aka Fiona Woods
  
• Emily entered a flow state - the stick became an extension of self
• John employed a choppy, efficient technique
  
• Anna held the stick like a sword, comfortably swiping from multiple angles
• Jack's moves were really a sight to behold, resembling a Wu Shu martial artist at times
  

This was such a fun, (and cathartic!) task - a lot of bracken was successfully bashed, and no-one got hit by errant stick swipes.

Post task, Robyn led us to Ambresbury banks, an Iron Age hill fort, thought to be constructed in 700 BC. Legend has it that this might be where Queen Boadicea fought her last battle in the uprising against the Romans...We stopped to have a picnic lunch here before setting off through the woods towards Chingford.

Shout out to Emily for completing her first Goodgym task!