Last night, 9 of us headed out for what turned out to be quite the ponding experience.

Our mission was to give the pond some much-needed TLC. There was plenty of hard work involved, including clearing out the weeds and digging out the stubborn ones, trimming back the ivy, and giving the area around the tomato plants a good weed.

Mark had been endeavored to take it easy on those shoulders, but of course, he couldn't help getting stuck in and digging deep to get to the root of the issue. As he reported today: "digging up those plants definitely took its Pond of Flesh from me.”

There was plenty of newt-ural territory covered in the comments, with everyone getting involved and coming up with increasingly terrible (and therefore brilliant) pond puns. 🐸🤓

The only downside was that it got dark within a few minutes, making it rather difficult to see what we were doing, but we managed to keep the pondemonium under control and no one fell in so that's a success in my book!

A really great difference made last night - thank you everyone - let's not let all these puns water down the achievement… 😉

On Saturday as well as the Parkruns, we've got Clearing up at the Pet Cemetery and weeding at Hervey Road

On sunday we've got Clean up Charlton.

Until next time!

Rachel

An undecided sky looked down on 7 goodgym-ers, meeting outside Charlton House for this evening's task. Said sky decided to bless us with a dry evening which was handy for this outdoor group run!

A brisk walk through Charlton Park with a literal ice-breaker (discussing relevant injuries...) brought us to the streets between Charlton & Woolwich, and a literary themed task, delivering flyers for The Library of Things in Woolwich. This is an excellent scheme where items can be borrowed, from carpet steamers to karaoke machines, helping save money and the planet.

Lots of steps, hills & letterboxes later, we were working our way through the Library of GoodGym, from A Beginners Guide to Motoring (helping push a broken down car to a safer position off the main road) through Running Scared (of the numerous doggies eager to see what we were delivering...!) And then back to see how The Charlton Men ('s football team got on in their game tonight).

Proving both libraries & Goodgym are great for one's circulation, we turned to the next chapter of our respective weeks. Thanks all & catch up soon! 📚

Nine GoodGym Greenwichers joined the Friends of Plumstead Common Allotments last night for a satisfying session of clearing an abandoned allotment.

After a hilly-er than expected run we met Dan who had lots of tools at the ready and armed with with strimmers, loppers and sheers, we spent 40 minutes tackling the overgrowth. We lopped off as many brambles as we could and strimmed the long grass (#thinktick 😉) and gradually the pile of cuttings grew and the space felt clearer.

Well done team - the plot is now one step closer to being brought back into use and we got a decent workout while doing it!

A big thank you to the Friends of Plumstead Common Allotments for having us along. We’ll likely be back to continue the job!

Coming up...

• On saturday we have helping at Maryon Wilson Community Garden

• On sunday we have maintenance at Westcombe Woodlands

• Next Wednesday we're leafleting for the Library of Things in Woolwich.

Until next time! ☺️

Rachel

Tonight's task saw 12 Greenwich GoodGym-ers meet for a de-brambling session at Vanbrugh Pits in Blackheath.

Talk of favourite shops, past and present, got us through our relative journeys, and we were just about to walk on by, when suddenly, and without warning, there was this Partial Eclipse of the Sun! It got slightly dark, and there was this strange humming sound, like something from another world...🎵

OK, so that's actually a line from a Little Shop of Horrors song. Thankfully, the brambles we had to tackle weren't carnivorous like the one from the musical, but were pretty prickly, so we made good use of the tools provided, including loppers, forks, and mattocks, hacking & twirling and digging out roots. After a few trips to pile up the cuttings for collection by the local council, our time was up, and the "after" photo shows what a dent we made in the overgrown area. A total Eclipse of the Bark indeed!

Thanks all & see you soon ☀️🌙