It was the first group run since the clocks changed and we were looking forward to a group run in daylight. And I was mostly looking forward to not taking dark blurry photos!

It was time for one of our regular group runs to The Albany but first we had to take a detour to see the teenage herons. It has been hit and miss recently on the amount of litter in the garden and with the grass getting longer it provided a good hiding place for the litter.

Not to be deterred and without Vic's extending litter picker, we still managed to half fill some gigantic bin bags. If they'd have been normal sized bin bags then I think we would have filled them.

It was time to say our goodbyes and head to The Brookmill for our social.

A beautiful morning for Catford parkrun, Lindsay was armed with a litter picker as she did course check, Paul dropped cones artistically around the former home of Charlton Athletic ensuring that runners and walkers avoided the few bits of remaining mud.

After a lovely sunset, Lewisham GoodGymers assembled at Glass Mills for another evening’s activity – this time, a return to the Rural Urban Synthesis Society, better know to us as RUSS. A short sharp run was just what was needed, on a cold Monday evening, as we were met by Eleanor and assigned our tasks: clearing away topsoil in readiness for future planting, plus some soil rotivation if time allowed. Whilst a team filled sacks with soil, 2 wheelbarrows were provided to transport them to their destination… but wait, disaster: one have a VERY flat tyre, as Julian discovered during the first slow and shaky delivery!! Fear not, though, as a substitute cart was offered and ensured the sacks would keep flowing nearly as fast as they could be filled. And were they filled fast!! As our total passed 30, and a slight backlog built up, there was time to start that rotivating whilst the last sacks were taken away. After a good evening’s work, and a quick team portrait, we were rewarded with tea and biccies before our run back to base – see you again soon, RUSS, perhaps next time in some daylight!

On a wet evening only the toughest (or foolish) GoodGymer's were out doing good in the borough! It was time for a trip to Senior's, little did we know what was in store...

On arrival, there was no one to be seen, we checked all the rooms, even the cafe (with much concern that Steve should not be left to go alone) but we didn't check the basement, we didn't think everyone would be down there!!

The task for the evening was to help clear the basement. We had been down there many a times to collect the Christmas decorations and marveled at the things that were down there. This was now our chance to dig deeper. The only problem is no one from Senior's wanted to throw anything away! Not even the boiler collection notes from 2011...

One team of Oli and Louise were tasked with going through the DVD's and removing any inappropriate ones. A task that was very subjective to everyone's tastes in films (Oli's = classic 90's films).

Another team of Alison and Paul tackled the paperwork dating back from 20 years ago!!

And Lindsay and Steve went up and down those stairs taking things to the bins and also labeling boxes!

The photos don't even do justice the variety of items that we found! Great work tonight team, I think we made a dent in the many many items in the basement!

It was a rainy start to the task! After a team effort loading wheelbarrows full of wood chip and using it to lay a path, we moved onto planting snowdrops. After removing any allium (which is an invasive plant) we planted lots of snowdrops and bluebells which should all bloom soon, creating a lovely spring garden. We celebrated with some well- earned refreshments 😊.