It was an early Sunday start for four brave GoodGym runners who volunteered at Caledonian Junior Parkrun today. The weather was pretty grim - cloudy ☁️ and wet with tiny raindrops 💧 cheekly swirling in the air. None of this discouraged around 20 youngsters from joining today's run 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️.

We gathered close to the start of the race where we were assigned with a marshal 🚩 position, a lanyard and any necessary equipment needed for our spots.

Gosia covered the start spot with an important mission of turning around the START sign after the kick-off. John covered the hill. Ines and Byron got assigned to a spot at the opposite part of the park (referred to as a position four).

The run started at around 09:05 then we spend around 35 minutes cheering young runners in completing the race (we even had a tambourine to spice up the efforts 🎵). We then gathered at the clock tower ⏰️ close to the route finish, to give back the equipment and head our ways.

Batteries charged for the day 🔋🙂✅️.

It's that time of year again when Christmas trees have served their festive purpose and put out on the streets. With councils encouraging residents to drop off their trees at Christmas Tree Collection Points, GoodGym stepped in to help gather trees off the streets and into the pile for recycling.

Six ready volunteers set forth from Clissold Park to see what they could find. Despite 12th Night not yet passed, the team found plenty trees to keep them occupied for an hour. By the end, they had gathered a tree-mendous 20 trees (and a couple of wreaths!), creating a more obvious collection point for any residents planning to drop off their own.

There is , more tree collecting action on Tuesday 7th January around Hackney Downs. Join us if you can!

Two Goodgymmers were back on hand today, helping the community gardeners at Highbury Quadrant.

After giving a young apricot tree a good drink, the goodgymmers were introduced to the compost heaps where fresh cuttings from the garden were dug and turned into the the existing heap to help speed up the composting process. A local robin joined in a supervisory role.

Then, following a quick introduction to the tiger worms in the wormery, and the 'hot box' full of not-tiger-worms, the next task was to water the plants and raised beds.

There was still time left to harvest the ripe tomatoes and pinch back the basil plants in the greenhouse to encourage new growth.

As we worked, we were offered raspberries and black currants fresh from the garden, and we left with a wonderfully fragrant stash of rosemary, basil and tomatoes to enjoy at home.