The end of the month has come around quickly and 10 Good Gymers were on hand to attend the monthly session at Mycenae House, one of our favourites (not least because they’re always very generous with cake).

We were met by Fiona, the amazing coordinator of the many taks occurring at the house that morning, and she soon put us to work with a couple of tasks: first up we had some cut material to move to the dead hedge before the main event of clearing all of that perennial Good Gym enemy, green alkanet, from one of the reserved spaces. But being Good Gym we’d got that task done quicker than you can say itchy skin so another task had to be found. We were soon split into two teams, one cutting back some holly trees to increase ground coverage and one team moving the cut foliage to the dead hedge.

And finally it was time for cake.

Today we joined the Friends of Mycenae Gardens for a spot of dead hedging!

On arrival a huge pile of branches awaited us ready to be added to the dead hedge at the end of the gardens and we spent a merry while chatting and dragging branches over and the pile gradually depleted until it was definitely time for a cake stop (yum yum, thanks Virginia!)

Sugar levels replenished, our next task was giving Holly a haircut. She was wildly overgrown and well due a trim so off we set with secateurs and shears and in 15 minutes she looked 10 years younger, with all of her trimmings having the added benefit of making a prickly top to the dead hedge - an extra deterrent for any curious climbers.

Well done team- proof many hands make light work and special welcome to Eleanor for her first task with us!

Tomorrow we've got the litter pick on Woolwich common.

Wednesday we're at the Prince Philip Maritime Museum and next weekend we've got:

• Helping at Maryon Park Community Garden

• Talk and tidy at Hornfair Park

• Maintenance at Westcombe Woodlands

• Helping organise Mama2Mama's storage unit (Bank Holiday Monday)

Until next time, lovely people 👋🏼

Rachel