On Saturday morning, Sarah, John, Ivar, Martin, Frazer and Marianna from GoodGym joined forces with the lovely SweetFig community crew, Tracey, Yvonne and Caroline, for a litter-picking session around the Days Lane area.

It was a classic round of litter bingo, with wrappers, bottles, cans and all the usual suspects making an appearance. But this session also had a surprisingly sporty twist, as we found a golf ball, a football and a dog ball. Not a bad haul, especially as Marianna had her children and dog with her, making the balls feel like a very on-brand discovery.

As we worked our way around the area, several local residents stopped to thank us for cleaning up, which is always such a brilliant boost. It is a lovely reminder that even a short session can make the streets look better and help people feel proud of where they live.

Once the bags were filled and the litter bingo cards firmly completed, we headed to SweetFig, where Samantha, the local café owner, very kindly treated the group to tea and coffee on the house.

Huge thanks to Samantha and the SweetFig community for supporting the session, and to everyone who came along to help.

Fancy joining the next one? Come along to a GoodGym session. No special skills required, just a bit of enthusiasm, comfortable shoes and a willingness to make the local area a little bit lovelier.

We were out at the Community Fun Day in East Wickham, helping Discover Welling with their stalls. The team got stuck into running the fairground games, encouraging visitors to have a go, cheering them on, and politely pretending that some of the throws were, “very close indeed”. There was plenty of laughter and a good bit of friendly competition.

Alongside the games, we were busy chatting to residents, families and visitors throughout the day. It was a brilliant chance to be part of a local event that brought people together, raised smiles, and proved once again that no British summer fayre is complete without someone desperately asking their parents, “Can I have another go?”

Most importantly, the day helped raise money for Discover Welling and promoted other fantastic charities, including The KITE Foundation and Diabetes UK. So every game played, every pound donated, and every heroic attempt at winning contributed to some brilliant causes.

A huge well done to everyone involved in organising the day and making East Wickham feel even more community spirited than usual. GoodGym came, helped, laughed, and left with the warm glow of doing good, plus a renewed respect for anyone who can actually win one of those games on the first try!

What did you do last night?

We spent a lovely hour in nature, building bug hotels for Holy Trinity Lamorbey Primary School.

Seven of us headed to the school, where a stack of pallets and bricks was waiting to be transformed into new habitats for insects and other tiny residents.

Working in two teams, each took on a hotel of their own. We started with an upturned pallet and filled it with leaves, twigs, fallen branches gathered from around the grounds, plus a haul of pine cones we’d collected and brought along. Once each layer was packed, we set bricks at the corners to act as spacers and repeated the process. By the end we'd created the bug equivalent of two multi‑storey skyscrapers!

Afterwards we enjoyed a slice of battenburg cake (I know, when was the last time you had battenburg!) which rounded off the session very nicely!

It was a really peaceful, enjoyable task: gentle activity, plenty of fresh air, and lots of good chat. And best of all, the new habitats will support the school’s eco learning curriculum, giving pupils a chance to explore and understand the wildlife right on their doorstep.

Next week it's something completely different when we visit Parkview Care Home where they always have something lined up to keep us busy, with their lovely residents lending a hand. Sign up here.

In the evening sunshine, four of us met in Danson Park, having walked and run there. Marianna came with her daughter, and they brought Jay along too – perhaps our new canine mascot 🐾?

We kicked things off with a 10-in-10 fitness session; ten back-to-back exercises, one minute each. High knees, butt kicks, lunges, squats and more got us moving and chatting about how Jay came to live with Marianna, Martin's adventures in Thailand and Fraser's election to Deputy Mayor of Bexley.

For the main event, we headed into the surrounding streets, delivering leaflets to promote a sports festival taking place in the park later this month, organised by Danson Watersports and Bexley Mencap.

It was lovely when a local resident came out to say hello. He'd been been at the Big Paddle Clean Up last week and recognised our red T-shirts on his smart doorbell as we approached his front door!

As we walked up and down driveways, we kept a wary eye on the heavy grey clouds gathering overhead. We hoped to avoid the rain, but with only a handful of flyers left to deliver, a loud clap of thunder signalled the inevitable and the heavens opened. We were soaked through in seconds, but in true GoodGym style, we finished the job.

Here's hoping our efforts help attract plenty of people to the event.

And fingers crossed that the weather is a little kinder for our group task next week. We'll be finishing off the bug hotels that we started building at Holy Trinity Lamorbey School. Why not join us?