5 pro diggers joined the lovely Fieldwork Project team today to help with digging out space for a French drain, which will ultimately reduce flooding and make the area more stable and accessible. It was great to welcome Jeff to his first GG session, as well as Leigh from GG Croydon and CP regulars Hannah and Laura. Thanks everyone for your top digging efforts. and to the Fieldwork team for some tasty pasta - a perfect way to refuel in the peace garden. It was great to learn more about the project's wider work and how the French Drain will work, once installed!

The days are gradually getting longer and we were super lucky with a nice mild Wednesday evening for tonight's task. After a quick warm up and exchange of our favourite things about spring (cue lighter nights & pretty flowers) outside Woolwich station, 1 2 goodgymers made their way uphill, walking, running and cycling, to Dee's Childcare, one of our regular task locations, where adventures awaited us in the huge outdoor space.

Past tasks have involved everything from hanging Christmas decorations to constructing mini-roundabouts, slides and stages. Today's task started with the perfect puzzle being sprung on us: deconstruction of a damaged trampoline & install of a replacement. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the pieces simply did not fit together well enough, so plan b involved making the area safer with boards & barriers to block the pit. (watch this space for future tasks once new parts arrive!) There was also time for some wedding (oh no sorry, let's blame autocorrect: weeding... but one ring at a time here...) and sweeping amongst the borders made up of recycled plastic bottles.

A swift downhill run and a ten minute interval training challenge completed our session. A very warm welcome to Vicky on your first task- lovely to have you with us! Thanks all & see you soon 😊

Next week we've got some outside jobs at St Richards. This weekend Bexley have their 9th birthday celebration and task, gardenjng at the hospice on Saturday and on sunday we have westcombe woodlands. And all the usual parkruns of course!

A big welcome to Sabrina and Marina, first time GoodGymers for today's task at Kelsey Park! 👋

Thankfully the rain had just about finished by the time we arrived and stayed away for the morning, enabling us and the Friends group to clear some brambles along the path by the waterside in the beds between benches. We managed to get some roots, but it was too soggy to try for some deeply embedded ones, and others were buried in amongst fir-like shrubs with needle leaves that were prickly to go between, so we had to settle for cutting other brambles back as far as we could.

We filled several wheelbarrows full, making a real difference to the beds that so many people walk by every day.

Great work, team!

On a cold and dark evening, 4 Good Gymmers arrived to return the farm to normal operations following the day’s Christmas festivities. We developed an efficient system for taking down gazebos, carrying tables to the local church hall and dismantling an extremely large marquee. After all that effort, there was just enough time for a cup of warm mulled apple juice before heading out into the December night.