15 GoodGym Barnet members took part in this year’s Big Butterfly Count (18 July–10 August), adding our sightings to the UK-wide citizen science survey. I managed three counts myself—numbers were low in my patches, so I’m keen to see the national results.

Butterflies are brilliant indicators of environmental health, helping scientists track the effects of climate change, habitat loss, and pollution. Early reports suggest a good year for gatekeepers, red admirals, and peacocks, plus a UK first—the southern small white fluttering in from southern Europe!

Citizen science is easy, fun, and open to all—you don’t need to be a runner or an expert. Next year, let’s get even more people involved: friends, family, neighbours… the more counts, the better the data.

Thanks to everyone who took part—your 15 minutes really can help protect our environment.

🦋 Count them, love them, protect them.

Today, 5 awesome GoodGymers headed to Saffron Acres to lend a hand in the glorious sunshine.

We got stuck into weeding and shifting wood to help create a brand new seating area, the perfect spot to overlook the beautiful new sensory garden taking shape.

Shout out to Gillian one of our newest members who achieved her 3rd Good deed, keep up the efforts.

Massive weldone to everyone who came along, small team, big impact as you can see from the before photo and then afterwards we have well earned seats!

Today, a brilliant team of six GoodGym volunteers got stuck in at Saffron Acres, supporting their amazing community food growing project.

We tackled the sensory garden with some serious weeding skills and filled 6 wheelbarrows full of green waste that I did attempt to get on top of the compost.

Shout out to Jenny on her first GoodGym good deed, weldone getting stuck and she's already signed up for next week, brilliant! So lovely to catch up in the sunshine while making a difference fantastic efforts all round!

7 GoodGymmers laced up their trainers and grabbed their litter pickers to tackle the towpath along the canal. In partnership with the Canal & River Trust, our mission was clear- to clean up the tow path keeping it spic and span for everyone to enjoy and help the environment.

From plastic bottles and cans to discarded wrappers and bottle tops, no piece of trash was too small to pick up. We filled 4 full bags of trash! A shout-out to our newest member, Gillian, who joined us for her first GoodGym task. Weldone for getting stuck right in, hope you enjoyed it!

On route Dawn placed one of the 'Random acts of knitting and crochet kindness' on a bench for someone to find and bring a smile to their face, weldone Dawn a lovely thing to do.

Weldone everyone fantastic efforts on a lovely sunny day see you again soon!