David and I had a nice run from base and Charlie had made his way from Sydenham station, but unfortunately our task tonight wasn't able to happen 🥲 More railing scraping for us to do next time!

Luckily we found a nearby pub and brainstormed a few ideas for GG socials 💡

It was nice to meet Sara and shift 4 heavy wooden sleepers for Bromley Mencap this evening.

We're building some new planters with them in a few weeks time which will house some new plants outside their community hub in Norman Park! 🌷

A great workout for a great organisation! 💪

A fab five went up the hill ⛰️ to Upper Norwood tonight to help Sabine at the Central Hill Estate get some gazebos 🎪 and a table ready for an Easter Egg Hunt 🐣 she's organising on Saturday.

We had perfect weather ☀️ to motivate us to higher ground through the Crystal Palace Park, which we can now enjoy as it's light again! Speaking of, tonight's question was "Name your favourite part of the Park". From the dinosaurs ☀️ to the maze to the transmission tower, it's an iconic place. As we headed into the entrance by Bridge House, we spotted some lovely annuals in the planter and stopped for what might be the earliest run photo ever? 😂

We met Sabine at her lock-up, collected the bits to take across the estate and headed over to a fellow resident's house on the other side nearer to the planned event space, who will mind the kit for the week. Props to James for moving the really heavy gazebo!

It was a quick task but will have a major impact, helping the estate residents enjoy Easter as a community 🙂

A lovely chilled session supporting Greener & Cleaner at their Community Garden.

We completed a couple of tasks:

🐎 Louise shifted a load of manure onto the compost heap so it can rot down with all the green waste and make some “black gold”

🔩 Meanwhile Hannah and I put together some weird metal tables for use at some workshops.

👍 Top Job

Lovely to be able to run to, and complete (almost) a whole task, before it got dark. We started off meeting at the Bridge House, talking about the change of season as the clocks changed this weekend. Votes were mostly for spring and new life, blossoms, bugs, flowers, and how we're more likely to see new and returning people out on tasks now that evenings feel longer. We took a mini detour across Crystal Palace Park, watching people, dogs, and birds making the most of the weather, then arrived panting at the top of Anerley Hill to meet John and our other GoodGym taskers at the museum entrance. After pondering over whether Brunel might have tagged his work somewhere in the tower, we split into little groups - weeding, sweeping, digging and sorting rubble and rubbish from soil which can be used on local gardening projects. In fact, we learned how some soil from this water tower was used for a raised bench area in South Norwood Country Park recently. We all agreed that the best tasks (and to be honest, most of our tasks!) are the ones where we can immediately see the difference we've made in a short time :)

Despite the dog distraction we did very well. The room was swiftly cleared, ready for the carpet fitters.

Crystal Palace GoodGymmers made their way to Alexandra Recreation Ground this evening to carry on with the task of scraping off the old flaky paint on the railings around the children’s play area, ready for a fresh coat once the weather’s a bit drier.

Given how close the park is to the Bridge House, we took the scenic route there via Sydenham. Unfortunately I managed to fall foul of two of the hazards I’d pointed out in the pre-run briefing (poor lighting and uneven pavements!) but luckily I was well supported by lots of concerned GoodGymmers and my well-stocked run leader first aid kit. After a quick break to check for injuries, we ran on to meet up with Millie from the Friends of Cator Park and Alexandra Recreation Ground who had an assortment of tools and protective equipment ready to help us remove the old paint and lichen (and some pesky slugs). My personal favourite was the double action scraper brush tool - watching all the paint flake off was very satisfying!

We worked and chatted for about 40 minutes and made some decent progress in that time. We’ll be back at the park on 21st April to continue the task (hopefully without the need for a first aid kit or head torches!). If you want to try out the scraper brush tool for yourself, you can sign up here

Rail-ly great work tonight team!