7 Goodgym Southwark members ran off on a slightly chilly Wednesday night to Elmington Community Garden...

We arrived, and were met by Mansur, Sam, Lindy and Jessie who joined us at the task. Together we hauled woodchip to three different parts of the Elmington Estate, making sure the soil stays moist in this dry spring and stopping the growth of new weeds.

For those that did run to and from Old Spike, Nathan had bought some sweet treats back from Colombia - que bueno Señor Wood!

Tonight, we went to Salvation Army in Nunhead to help Polis move some donations from the attic to a second storage location. The items were mostly furniture, often bulky and sometimes strange. We worked as a team and managed to move everything super quickly to create a wobbly mountain of things. Hopefully the items will find a permanent home one day!

On Wednesday, we went to Alberta Estate to help out. But firstly, we had to get there, which was a challenge in itself!

We met at Old Spike, Rosalind was first to arrive. Daryl brought his friend, newbie, Ryan (welcome!). And Benjamin, Gemma David, Sam, Cecilia and Mansur came for the run also. After a quick warm up, we started the almost 5k run towards Walworth Road. Due to the power of technology, Isaac met us en-route. Then we found Will, Rosemary, Jessie and Andrada when we arrived at Alberta Estate.

With our team now assembled, our task was to move some soil from two compost heaps, into a plot around the corner. With 15 of us, it was hard to know how to get started! But in usual Goodgym fashion, we quickly organised ourselves into smaller groups, one group at the compost heap, another group at the end location, and a few groups shuttling soil in between.

After 30 minutes we had moved over half of the soil - enough to make space on the heap for some new compost that was coming fresh from the barrel. And before we knew it, we were tidying up, taking the group photo, and saying goodbye before our run back.

We ran back as the sun was setting. Unfortunately Ben's injured knee flared up and so he hopped onto a Lime bike, beating us back by 10 minutes. After a cool-down and some community led stretches, it was time for pizza and pub. Great work team!

A small group of Mansur, Andrada, Benjamin and myself braved the cold 3km run to Thorlands for more wood chipping and path laying... We met Sam and Maria there and that is where the fun really started.

We were locked out of the woodchip area! We didn't have the correct padlock code to get the woodchip, so we started preparing the ground for the woodchip laying and Ben started litter picking...

But then we got a call from Simon, who was having a well deserved break in sunny Portugal, we were able to get in and get four wheelbarrows of woodchip to cover the path area. Thanks Simon!

We headed back through the cold South London streets before heading home.