We had the first of our bulb planting tasks tonight, with nine volunteers making their way to Alexandra Recreation Ground to plant some tulips while the squirrels were asleep. The task almost didn't happen as our task owner Millie wasn't well (get well soon!) but Mark saved the evening by cycling to pick up the keys to the tool shed on his night off. What a legend!

Once we'd got the shed open, we had fun trying to work out which bulbs were tulips. Luckily our resident horticulturalist Rosie was on hand to guide us and give us tips on optimal bulb planting.

Our next challenge was breaking into the soil: as we've had very little rain over the last few weeks, the ground was rock hard, which definitely put the Gym in GoodGym. After a bit of trial and error, though, we perfected our hole digging technique (the spade as a pogo stick approach worked best) and in less than half an hour we had planted all our bulbs. Big shout out to Michelle who was taking part in her first task - I appreciate that digging holes in the dark is a pretty unconventional way to spend a Monday night (and definitely attracted some bemused looks from dog walkers...) so well done for getting stuck in!

After filling in our holes and covering them with leaves to confuse the squirrels, we ran back to the Bridge House for stretches. Excellent work team!

Some top teamwork tonight as we took on two tasks at St John’s The Evangelist (many other St John churches are available).

We met at the Bridge House as usual, chatted over our favourite forms of light, from the horizon’s blade of sunlight at dawn to candles that smell of lychee, it was a warming selection.

We jogged over to the church where they have a beautiful community garden, some wild patches and a hell of a lot of leaves. We met Sara who had prepared many rakes, shears and a couple of big bags so we could...

🍂 Rake up all the leaves

✂️ Trim down the weeds in the wild area

🪵 Add the sticks to the bonfire pile

💰 Bagging up everything so it can rot down into 'brown gold' (I watched a film about soil the other day 🧐)

40 minutes later and we were all done - a good deed for the book and some nice chat and exercise too.

Nice one team 🏆

This week's group run was in honour of This Girl Can's "Let's Lift the Curfew" campaign 🏃‍♀️, highlighting the inequality that women face as the long nights set in 🌃 when it comes to exercising and travelling in public places. It was great to see lots of women at the session and a couple of new and recent faces such as Annie!

We met at the Bridge House, introducing ourselves and answering this week's icebreaker question - what's your favourite journey in the dark? We had some great answers - Cat blew us away with her story and photos of flying through the Northern Lights - amazing! 😮

It was a long 3km run to the Dorset Road Allotments so we set off along the main road before busting the curfew by heading through Penge Recreation Ground, then across Penge towards Elmers End and the allotments.

This was Part 5 of our ongoing project to help break down an old chicken coop that's long been condemned, with the space planned to be added to the allotments so the local community can benefit. There were huge brambles to be cut, wire netting to be removed and weeds galore. With a large number of tools on hand there was something for everyone to do 😀

Clare and I helped removed the green waste in wheelbarrows while the rest of the team worked through to the back of the coop, scything away at the bramble jungle. With many hands we made a lot of progress in just 30 minutes 🏆

Our time up, it was back on the 3km jog to Bridge House. Huge well done to everyone who joined - it was so nice to hear comments like "I didn't know I could run this far!" and just goes to show the motivational power of social running 👊

Keep lifting the curfew by banding together to make the world safer at night 🙏

P.S. Men, GoodGym offer a short, online training slideshow to help you do your bit - find it here.

The rain held off just about long enough for us to get stuck in to our second task at Churchfields Recreation Ground this evening. We were met by the lovely Amanda (who brought snacks!) and set us to work sprucing up the area around Kendall Gate. The majority of us were pulling up weeds and neatening border edges while Stephen went to town with the loppers on some overgrown ivy. Meanwhile Catherine and Paul did a very professional (and rapid) job of painting over graffiti on fences at the entrance to the park.

Great work all!

Last night we had a variation on a longstanding task - instead of weeding at the Water Tower, we were to bag up rubble that we'd been separating for months from the green waste. The good news - it's to be reused! ♻️

We met at the Bridge House, and this week's question was - "What craft or fix have you done recently?". From DIY to computers, we've got a resourceful bunch at GoodGym!

We set off and climbed towards the top of Crystal Palace Park around the longer, north side, arriving at the Water Tower to meet David, our host for the evening.

The hardcore is to go to the Croydon Sailing Club to help build the foundations for their new clubhouse; cementing a new history for Brunel's historic Water Tower 📖

Bags provided, team GG attacked the rock piles and stacked up the loot to be moved this week. David was very grateful for our efficiency - many hands make light work and nowhere is it more true than GoodGym 🎉

We headed along the south side if the park and back to Bridge House to complete a loop of the park, a total of 4km and much uphill over the course of the evening.

Fab work, everyone! 😁