19 GGers met on the 19th March in not 19 degrees to help Caxton House

Thank you all for coming on the last Monday of winter (I really hope), it's great to be surrounded by such brave souls in doing good in Islington. Welcome along to Lucy whose first time it was yesterday - lovely to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Please be aware that on Monday 2nd, 9th and 23rd April we will be meeting at the Arc Centre down by the canal as the Arsenal Hub is either closed for Easter or there is a football game on.
2. There is GG Monthly Drinks on Thursday 5th April - it'll be in central and it'll be lots of fun!
3. Well done to Alex Coyle for hitting 50 Good Deeds last night - black t-shirt on it's way!

After a warm up we headed north via Hornsey Road and the backstreets to Caxton House, this has been a regular task over the years for us and it's a brilliant one!

Caxton House Community Centre describes itself as "local community hub based in Islington, we offer a number of education, fitness and arts projects; and provide a key link between like-minded organisations and the local community."

Upon meeting Rose she told us our tasks for the evening:

1. Trimming and cutting back an area of bushes and trees at the back.
2. Clearing and de-weeding the cracks between the pavement so they can be sanded.
3. Clearing away brambles and ivy at the front

Armed with an array of tools we got to work doing some GOOD work. In between our tasks we did high knees and some star-jumps to keep us warm in sub-zero temperatures.

Banana Bread!

On our way home we leafleted the area for Caxton House and Green Gym, promoting local volunteering and activities for the community to get involved in.

Social time! We headed to the pub for our monthly social, taking all the koala veggie burger stock on offer (excluding Aidan's that is...). Kike had made some lovely banana bread - which didn't contain nuts and therefore Alix didn't get poisoned. Good news all round!

Sign up here for next week, we are helping St Lukes and Ramsey Flowers Group with some SPRING gardening.

PB out.

This week 13 runners ran 6km to tidy up the therapy garden of a local dementia day center, making it safe for service users to go outside.

We had two GG newbies: Federica and Mohammad – Give 'em a cheer!

We split into two teams, with Jody and I lead the speedy lot, while Nicola took the leisurely group. Tonight marked Jody's 50th run - give her a cheer!

My group made it the 3km to the center in 19 minutes – great work! Poppy let us in and showed us the tools and told us what to do so we could get started. The others were just a few minutes behind us.

Poppy had borrowed tools of the Friends of Tottenham Green for us to use this evening. We got to work weeding the raised beds and clearing the weeds between the bricks on the floor. Avital and Federica even managed to pull out a massive dead tree from one of the beds, with a big tug and a little help from yours truly.

Within 30 minutes we'd filled six bags, packed our tools and said our goodbyes. It was time to run back – up the massive hill. Jody was our trusty back-marker on the way back, with Nicola helping me lead the way. Lots of focus on engaging those glutes, knee drive and pulling toes towards the shins to activate ankles. Working on building form into more and more runs. And with London Marathon coming up, form will be your best friend.

We eventually made it back to base for stretching and lemon drizzle cake, courtesy of Hazel, who couldn't make the running, but still did the baking and brought it along for us to enjoy! That's definitely worth a cheer!

See you next week for another 6km-er!