A special yoga morning at Stephens House & Gardens

Instead of our usual online Tuesday session, Stephens House kindly offered us a beautiful room to host a live class — and what a treat it was. A huge thank-you to Malcolm the manager for making the space available.

We had a lovely mix of GoodGym members and local supporters of the House & Gardens, whether through volunteering or donations. It was great to see everyone gather in the Stephens Room — once Sir Samuel Stephens’s own laboratory — with those stunning views across the gardens.

For anyone who couldn’t make it in person, I broadcast the class online as usual, so I hope you still felt part of it.

Thank you to everyone for coming along and supporting the House. Let’s hope we can do it again in the new year.

Have a wonderful Christmas — keep moving, stay well, and here’s the yoga thought for the day:

Yoga Talk : Encouraging Healing Through Gentle Movement

Yoga uses controlled, low-impact movement to gently “wake up” muscles and tendons. This stimulates healthy blood flow, supports tissue repair, and helps reduce stiffness. By balancing effort with rest, yoga becomes one of the most effective ways to maintain mobility and recover from everyday aches or longer-term injuries.

Four goodgymers joined the local community for a day of activities organised by environmental charity Earthwatch at the Mutton Brook Tiny Forest. Adults and children enjoyed a full day of citizen science: measuring trees to calculate carbon capture; counting creepy crawlies to assess the health of the natural area; testing the filtration properties of the soil. The weather was glorious and we collected tons of data that will help the scientific work that Earthwatch is doing at the 300 tiny forests around the country.

1,800 new trees! 🌳🌿

Next to the North Circular, one of London's busiest roads, sits Mutton Brook. This previously under-utilised green space has now expanded from our initial Tiny Forest to four thanks to the brilliant work of 8 GoodGymers, Earthwatch, Barnet Council, school children and members from the local community.

Great work and nice one for being apart of it Scarlett, Paul, George, Daniel, Kubilay and special mention to Anastasiia and David on your first good deeds with GoodGym!

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What is a Tiny Forest and how does it help? 🌳
The 3 new Tiny Forests each hold 600 densely planted trees, using the Miyawaki method developed in Japan. Having an additional 1,800 new trees will not only help to improve local biodiversity and create more green spaces for people to connect with nature, they’ll also be used for scientific studies by Earthwatch, universities, schools, and citizen scientists.

The planting will specifically help scientists understand how trees in urban areas can grow best - the 3 plots are trialling different planting methods, using a mix of experimental and traditional techniques. We're proud to be part of such an innovative project that’s putting Barnet on the map for green solutions.

Record holders 🥇
Citizen science is a key feature of Earthwatch’s environmental research projects, providing evidence and monitoring data that are crucial to helping scientists better understand and improve the management of the natural environment.

We were also very proud to find out that our first Tiny Forest in Mutton Brook holds the record for the most data submitted - well done to all of our citizen scientists for all their data collections over the years.

Inspiring speeches 🎤
After a lovely day planting in the sunshine we then headed to Stephens House & Gardens, a beautiful space that we regularly support, for Earthwatch's evening reception. After many inspiring speeches, Paul and Daniel closed, speaking brilliantly about GoodGym and their experiences in Mutton Brook - emphasising how well the Tiny Forest connects the community and the importance of helping people benefit from connecting with nature and green spaces.

We look forward to supporting the growth of the new Tiny Forests and thank Earthwatch for being such brilliant and inspiring partners to collaborate with.

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To read BBC's feature on the Barnet Tiny Forest planting please click here.

To find out more information about Earthwatch's Tiny Forest project please click here.