On a balmy East London evening, task owner Alex welcomed us by Barge East for what must surely be one of the most seasonally appropriate GoodGym tasks ever. With temperatures hovering around 30 degrees, it almost felt like we were at the seaside rather than in the middle of Stratford/Hackney Wick!

Our mission at Bola Beach Tennis was to help maintain the three beach tennis courts. Over time, the sand gradually migrates to one side thanks to a combination of enthusiastic players and the wind doing its thing, so we spent the evening shovelling, moving and raking sand back into a level playing surface. We also swept around the edges of the courts and returned escaped sand to its rightful home.

Some of the group embraced the beach atmosphere fully and went barefoot, enjoying the rare experience of getting sand between their toes during a Monday evening GoodGym task in central London!

The evening's most memorable challenge, however, came in the form of a gigantic roll of astro turf that needed moving. Despite the combined efforts of almost the entire group (the only exceptions were Jo and Dan, who wisely remained focused on expertly levelling Court 1 ), it refused to budge. We wrestled with the stubborn, immovable object and eventually admitted temporary defeat.

We then spent a lovely half hour after the task relaxing with cold cans of pop from Alex (including sampling the Brazilian favourite Guaraná) and brainstorming increasingly creative solutions to the astro turf problem. Suggestions included: - A "toss-the-caber" style approach (from Lucinda) - Sawing it into smaller chunks (Reymon's practical engineering solution) - Dragging it flat like a giant parachute game (thanks Chloe!) - And finally the consensus view: it probably needs a crane or to be airlifted ?

Watch this space... the saga of the astro turf is (possibly) to be continued...

A huge thank you to everyone who came along and brought beach energy to East London for an evening. Hope you enjoyed your slice of Hackney Wick seaside life — see you all next week! 🌞🏖️💪

A large group of goodgymers old and new joined Ken on a pleasant Monday evening for the usual spot of gardening in the cemetery park. Following the heatwave there was lots to be done. This week’s task was tackling another ‘verdant villain’ called Hogweed. This piggy plant hogs all the nutrients and sunlight and spreads rapidly to the detriment of the surrounding nature. Ken explained the importance of other nearby plants which attract rare species of bee to the cemetery park and are vital to the ecosystem and threatened by the invasive hogweed.

We set to work with our gloves, loppers and secateurs clearing the weed from a triangular patch near the pond. The wheelbarrows filled up as we cut stem after stem, then it was off to empty them on the pile. It was great to see the progress of the patch we cleared in a power hour of Goodgym effort. A huge welcome to our three new Goodgymers; Ana, Joely and Nuunuu. Thanks for all your help and we’d love you to join us again soon!

With our main contact Janet sadly unwell, we wondered whether we’d ever be returning to one of our longest-established tasks, at Cranbrook Community Centre. With a strong focus on inclusion and affordability, the centre provides everything from music and parties to fitness classes and prayer groups, but they do need our help to keep the entrance garden tidy

We were summoned back to the centre by Abdul and Linda, who are looking after things while Janet recuperates at home - it was good to hear she’s out of hospital. And our old friend Eileen was still there to hand out rakes and cutting tools, and to give instructions. There was plenty to do, with a mess of leaves and twigs to be raked up, overhanging bushes to be cut back and rubbish to be collected, and the heat had dissipated – for now. We even used our botany skills (and Google Lens) to identify a rather nice white-flowering plant, who’s name I’ve already forgotten. But it was an attractive plant anyway…

A special welcome to Adam, doing his first ever good deed! I trust we made you feel welcome, and hope to see you again soon. Welcome back Grove Road Emma, who’s been busy wrecking her flat, and it was also good to see Bonner Street Emma, who wasn’t feeling good, but visited briefly just to say hello. Get well soon, BS Emma

Eventually we very gradually dissipated, progressively splitting into ever smaller groups, but we’ll be back together at the Cemetery Park next Monday

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!