We had our second outing to help Jeannette and Alan dismantle the smaller chicken coop at Dorset Road Allotments tonight. Assisted by some power tools (handled by Alan) we made great progress and managed to take off one of the sides and most of the roof, not to mention many wheelbarrows of weeds and brambles that had grown since the last time we visited. Special shout out to Laura who was visiting from Mali and chose to spend her limited time off helping us out!

Once we'd finished the task, we were treated to a selection of allotment-grown fruit and veg as a thank you for our hard work, which was a lovely surprise!

Snow way?!

Two unexpected things tonight:

SNOW, or some blossom that looked like snow, and a LIZARD loose in Cator Park. We didn’t see it but we were shown pics. Wild.

Before all that excitement, we met at the bridge house, named ourselves, partially numbered, and told everyone our favourite races/future races.

We jogged a cool 2-3km to the park via the snow to meet Gill, Lou and Ian aka some of the friends of Cator and Alexandra parks for some Tiny Forest weeding, mulching and watering of the thirsty trees.

Lou showed us a pic of the lizard, which someone probably let loose. No one saw it.

300 trees, 1000 weeds and several wheelbarrows of mulch later and we were done. Nice one everyone 🦎

David and I had a nice run from base and Charlie had made his way from Sydenham station, but unfortunately our task tonight wasn't able to happen 🥲 More railing scraping for us to do next time!

Luckily we found a nearby pub and brainstormed a few ideas for GG socials 💡

We had our first WWF X GoodGym Workout for Nature session* this evening and what a lovely night for it!

After discussing our favourite UK place to be in sunny weather (thanks for the question Clare!), six of us ran the 3km to Dorset Road Allotments where we met Jeannette and co. Over the last year we've been helping to dismantle a HUGE chicken shed which hadn't been used for a decade so was full of brambles. This has finally been demolished so our task tonight was to clear the foundations so that topsoil and grass seed can be added. The eventual plan is to turn the spot into a picnic area, which will look out over a flower-covered hibernaculum made from the leftover rubble from the chicken shed. Very environmentally friendly!

Over 40 minutes we made good progress, with Colette being in charge of scouting out bits of broken glass and plastic, David trying out the pickaxe to get rid of tough roots, and Clare, Catherine and James digging and raking over the earth and shuttling wheelbarrows of top soil from the compost heap while I worked with Jeannette to get rid of any pesky bind weed roots.

We finished off just as the sun was setting (so nice to be able to do tasks in daylight!) and before setting off on the run back the team gave me their best chicken poses in honour of our long departed friends.

Great job team!

*Between 7 April and 4 May 2025, WWF (the wildlife people, not the wrestlers) and GoodGym are collaborating on hundreds of sessions to celebrate Earth Day. Each session will involve a Workout for Nature - a physical volunteering activity which will benefit local green spaces, and give our own wellbeing a boost. You can find out more here

Tonight was a double deed day. Two tasks for two top local organisations - St Hugh's Community Centre and Living Well who provide a food bank and support to those who need it.

We kicked off at the Bridge House with a belated fave pancake question. I didn't know some people didn't like pancakes?!

Also, shout out to Colette for joining us tonight - nice one for getting stuck in!

We split in two:

📦 Catherine, Clare, Collette and Stephen headed down into Penge to shift a whole lotta stock from the storage room and into the main shop area at Living Well's charity shop.

🚪 James, Cat, David and I took the long route to Anerley, where St Hugh's Community Centre had a load of leaflets advertising all the important wellbeing and community services they offer to deliver through doors on the estate.

Both teams nailed their tasks and timing and those who headed back to base arrived minutes apart.

Well done everyone 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏