It may be the last day of October, but someone forgot to tell the weather, as it was still feeling more like late summer than spooky season! ☀️

Eight of us, plus Arthur, joined forces with our friends at Mycenae Gardens for our monthly volunteer session. We soaked up the sunshine, enjoyed a good natter and got stuck into some gardening. It was a fang-tastic way to spend the morning. 🧙‍♀️🌿

Some of the team got their hands dirty weeding, clearing grass and tackling the alkanet to get the space ready for planting lots of lovely new plants next month. Others got busy lopping down overgrown trees, bushes and dead plants and dragging them over to the dead hedge that we've been adding to over time.

A special welcome to Leonor, who joined us for her very first GoodGym task. She certainly didn't let the grass grow under her feet, tackling her lopping task with gusto! ✂️

A great morning, topped off with some hauntingly yummy cake from Virginia and a coffee in the cafe.

Lovely to see you all - until next time 😊

*Coming up *

On wednesday we'll be litter picking in woolwich: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/woolwich-river-litter-pick-57deb427-7033-49e5-85fc-c8010e88f8ef

Next weekend, as well as the parkruns we have:

• Saturday 7th November: Maintenance at Westcombe Woodlands: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/maintenance-at-westcombe-woodlands-b989e989-3623-4bdc-9700-3324f9db4748

• Saturday 7th November: Litter picking and Wildflower planting at Maryon Wilson Park: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/litter-picking-and-wildflower-planting-at-maryon-wilson-park

On a sunny but cold October morning (belated signs that Autumn is definitely upon us), 4 GG'ers made their way to the walled garden next to Charlton House. The reason for the gathering was to help the resident CABAHS volunteers with their annual plant sale. This event is high on the CABAHS agenda, with proceedings going to the Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice.

As soon as we arrived, we were greeted to the sounds of "We can stop lifting the heavy stuff, GoodGym are here to help!" - good to know that we carry such great reputation! Not wanting to prove the shouts wrong, we quickly set out to carry as many plants in boxes, crates and makeshift containers as we could to their respective pride of place for display to any interested buyers.

Such was our dedication that we were done in 30 mins, leaving us time to admire the plants and even make some phone calls to flatmates to entice them to buy the fruits of our labour. We hope the plant sale is a treemendous success!

Well what a night, and what a pun! All credit to Ivar of course, who struck GOLD with that one and set off a tirade of puns in the whatsapp group.

Some walked and some ran to the task - with two simultaneous ice breakers, the best of which being "what's one thing you hated as a child that you now love?"

On arrival we split into teams - an indoor and an outdoor group. The innies were putting back up some gilded ceiling panels, the golden evidence of which is still on Mark's face apparently - what a great way to evidence who did the real work in that group 🤓

Meanwhile the outies pottered around the community garden, watering the beds, weeding and chatting. And Rubaina gallantly rescued me from a spider - especially glad you came back Rubaina and you can be paired with me for all future bug related tasks, thanks very much 🙋‍♀️

But last night was more tour that task and hey what a great way to spend a Wednesday evening than looking through the stores at the Prince Philip Maritime Museum. We checked out lots of paintings of shipwrecks and battles and portraits of lots of middle aged white men, and one woman who looked a bit taken aback to still be there. It was cool to get a peak inside and hear about some of the paintings - it's been a while since we've been in and we've had lots of new friends join us since then!

Time came to head off and then Aidyn caused some drama almost getting himself locked in (we almost did but we wouldn't have actually forgotten you, Aidyn.)

Great to see you all as always!

Coming up

There's loads going on this weekend in addition to the parkruns so come and join a session if you have some time!

Saturday:

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/spring-bulb-planting-and-mulching

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/gardening-at-hervey-road-community-garden-1ed22d2f-d7a0-489e-8a74-da9f3d7430db

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/remove-fence-in-sutcliffe-park

Sunday:

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/helping-at-the-cabahs-plant-sale-e89cf473-6588-423d-85cf-691658b18405

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/clean-up-charlton-10ce0687-9b2d-408e-b009-96e6222da227

Next Wednesday we've got a Charlton House start and a run to Charlton Manor Primary School: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/gardening-at-charlton-manor-primary-school-e46f1ec7-a47c-4ac6-bf6f-fb36414e9c9c

Until next time!

Rachel

What a lovely day today was! Most of us met during Junior Parkrun where Linda, Julian, Khai, Aman, Marta, Ivar and Louise cheered, tokened and high fived all the kids round the 2km course before heading for coffee at the Old Cottage cafe.

We then had a walking group and a running group who headed to Mycenae Gardens where we were met by Mayuri, Arn and the Friends of volunteers who introduced us to the tasks at hand. These included sawing down branches for the dead hedge, raking and clearing ivy and brambles.

An hour of clearing and getting scratched by brambles (particularly in Louise's case) we stopped for cake which was scrumptious before a few of us went to another cafe to top off the morning! Because you cant have too much sitting down and chatting over something yummy can you?

Great to see you all and until next time.

On Wednesday we're meeting in Woolwich for a task at Dee's Nursery

And next Saturday we're back at Maryon Wilson Community Garden.