We had a great turn out for our return to the Finchley Charities' community plot at the Fuel Land Allotments. Ten Goodgymmers gathered, half at the Phoenix for the warm up run and half at the allotment gates for the task. We were met by the lovely plot coordinators Brigid and Les, as well as Carmel from the Finchley Charities. (A brief shout out to www.goodgym.org/v3/profile/sheela-guttula, who couldn't make it due to an injury - get well soon!)

With many hands, we made light work of the tasks: carrying logs from the back of the plot to the front to extend the palisade, weeding bindweed, horseradish and oak seedlings and watering the vegetables. We also admired the wonderfully weird icon of Jesus the group found by chance painted on an old slab resting by the shed, as well as a lovely tiger moth spotted on a fence near the plot.

It was great to see Jamie out again for his third session - hoping work commitments will allow for lots of future sessions. And thank you to Richard for suggesting the pizza and popcorn social afterwards for some of us.

Five goodgymers went along to help the local community with citizen science activities at the Tiny Forests near Mutton Brook. There are four Tiny Forests there now, and there is a lot of work to do: litter picking, tree measuring, and various other experiments.

London Climate Action Week could not have come at a more appropriate time, with the whole of Europe baking under record high temperatures. And tree cover in urban areas is a hot topic, as we all battle to keep our cities livable in this new normal.

So it was great to see local citizens caring for their local forest cover: 2,400 trees planted by the community since 2022, with the help of environmental NGO Earthwatch.

Tiny Forests are densely packed areas of tree cover, planted using the now-famous Miyawaki method . The tree cover is all native species and they are ideal for urban environments, where space is at a premium.

We all got busy with different tasks, while enjoying the sight of butterflies and bees coming to feast on the flowers growing alongside the trees.

Looking forward to the next event at the Tiny Forests!

GoodGym members Paul, Richard, George, Rachel and Subham showed up for the Film screening for the Tiny Forest part of London Climate Action Week (LCAW) 20-28 June on what I believe was the hottest day of the year. We welcomed a full crowd at The Phoenix Cinema, which is also our local meeting point on Tuesday evenings. There were many Earthwatch folk as well as locals and we also were able to spread the word abour GoodGym as well as the Barnet Tiny Forest, which we often have helped with. After the film, which documented Tiny Forests in Europe as well as told more of the story of Prof. Miyawaki, the founder of the Tiny Forest method, there was a Q&A with members of Earthwatch as well as Paul representing GoodGym, which was well received. A great time was had by all! And we were able to escape the heat!