Headtorches were donned and black cats were met as Lambeth carried out two tasks and loads of work at the Portico Gallery and Hillyard extra care home! Plus BREAD WEEK in Bake Off

We had a new task this evening, supporting Hillyard House extra care home. They support older residents who may have mental health or physical difficulties to live out their old age in a fulfilled way. The site has a lovely garden and GoodGym was tasked with creating a SECRET GARDEN towards the back of the site. We had to sneak around behind some shrubs and then clear an area that would be hidden from view by hedges. Residents will be able to explore this new garden and hopefully enjoy the peace and quiet. Armed with saws, secateurs and all manner of other garden implements, we set about this fun task. Soon, huge branches were appearing from the undergrowth and the compost pile became a mountain of old shrubbery. Rebecca Nellis got seriously busy sawing down an old tree and in 40 minutes we had cleared a massive area and swept up for good measure. The task leader Jenny was just delighted, as were some of the residents who came out to watch our work. We ran the 1km back to base and did some strength work before stretches.

The second group took the 8km round trip to the Portico Gallery. John Hunter tells all:

14 of us went up to the Portico where another member of John’s family empire, Sholto, was deputised to instruct us on moving piles of florist’s tables from one bit of the yard to another. After we nailed the table task, it was onto a Portico stalwart - the soggy tarpaulin. We made a human chain to do this. Passing this down the human chain made everyone sad, but then Methusulah the cat came along to visit each person in the chain like at a wedding or funeral, except it was definitely more like a wedding by the end of Methusulah’s visit because everyone was so happy.

Sholto said “I am happy because that would have taken me all afternoon to do that”. And he was happy too.

Sadly John H's camera went into meltdown so the lovely snaps got lost, but here they are described in words:

1: A variety of people looking sad because they got dripped on by the tarpaulin

2: Elise werking the “I’m not currently doing anything” look

3: Elise carrying a bit of fence

4: Sholto standing proudly by his work lamps

The brilliant Jack and Beth also completed a mission with the run time - clearing a garden so an older person can enjoy it. Brill!

On return to base, everyone enjoyed Katie's Bread Week offering after Flo really screwed up her Captain's Treasure Trove last week. OH FLO! We tucked into some delicious cinnamon buns and headed off into the night. TOP WORK.

What a wonderful evening

It started out with a task briefing in the fitness centre. This night we’d be delivering flyers for Wand UK again. Wand is a fantastic charity that provides support for vulnerable and isolated women in the communities. Their services include mental health and wellbeing support, computer and English classes, advice with domestic abuse and parenting. They have also put on an extra project called ‘Holding Hands’ to help those affected by the Grenfell disaster - providing free emotional welling and holistic support, tai chi & yoga classes and massages.

Meet me in Norland Park

After a warm-up we set off together toward Norland Open Space. There, the group was split into two (gender balanced ;) teams. Then armed with maps and new highlighters, they set off to deliver the flyers in different areas - one lead by Polly and the other by Jason.

They navigated successfully and did a speedy job, meaning we could all meet back at the park at 8 for a core workout.

Round the tree Goosey

Our fitness session was a was like a game duck duck goose with a detour. The group did a series of core exercises whilst one member race out to a tree across the park and back. This made the timing different for each exercise. Star jumps, burpees, legs raises and more.

Once everyone had a run out to the tree we wrapped up and headed back home whilst discussing the best local park runs.

Congrats to Esther for making it along to her first Goodgym run. Give her a Cheer!

Next week is our 1st birthday! Join us for celebrations.

With the summer holidays in full swing, tonight we were a small group but we still packed a punch and got a lot done between us!

We started our run tonight with a warm up jog down to Walpole for a running technique and drills session before the main event. This consisted of a number of different exercises designed to get our bodies ready for running including some very graceful looking horse style kicking (I promise this is a real running drill!).

We then set off to run to the Elthorne Park stretch of canal on the River Brent where reunited with the wonderful Jack from The Canal & River Trust. This was our second task on this part of the canal and it was great to be back even though it did look like someone had recently had a cider party there and forgot to take all their rubbish home!

Jack split us into two groups, one to tackle an overgrown buddleia bush and make the canal safer for passing cycles and pedestrians and one to paint over the unsightly graffiti on the underpass. Andy, Emily and Larissa were quick to express their interest in painting which involved some lovely boiler suits. It was a strong look guys!

Ronan, Mike and Alex put their hands up to saw and shear the vegetation growing over the towpath whilst I did some ad hoc litter picking between checking on the groups and taking photos, afterwards it was like the cider party had never happened.

Jack always comes really well prepared when he meets us with lots of tools and a number of different tasks we can complete in the location, however the one thing he did forget this week was a wet paint sign! Therefore we've made a little make shift wet paint sign which we will return to paint over next time!

With a good nights work complete we did an Indian file running session to get back to base for a quick stretch and cool down.

Thank you all for coming, every one of you guys are great but special mention this week goes to our visitor Andy from GoodGym Hounslow whose on a mission to get to 50 good deeds before his Wandsworth (friendly) rival! We were deed number 41 on the list so it's getting close now, good luck Andy hopefully see you back with us soon (or will your rival use us to get their numbers up too?!).

Next week we are heading to Ealing Food Bank to help with a bit of maintenance and you can sign up here.

See you next time, happy running :)