On Tuesday we ran in the rain to St Augustine’s to assist Sue.

As customary prior to us arriving Sue would send me an email with all the tasks she have for us to complete. Today’s email;

Dear Conroy, looking forward to seeing you all again this evening. Usual mix of heavy and light options. Woodchip delivery in the car park needs moving including loading into some ton bags and sweeping up afterwards. Lighter options include moving some smaller bags to spots around the garden, more edging / trimming the grass edges and sweeping the car park at the end. There's also a small dead tree to cut down / remove and a couple of smaller bushes to dig out. Lots of options as usual. Sadly I'm on crutches so not able to do much. Grrrr. Sue.

Dear Conroy and all you wonderful people, thank you for your work last night. I can't thank you enough. Such a relief to have the car park as good as cleared and sustainably packed mulch for the future. On June 27th 10.45 the garden at St Augustine's will be assessed by RHS. Sue have requested to have one representative from GoodGym Croydon.

Last night nine Good Gym runners ran 2km to join the ECCO team in cleaning up the boulevard.

After a week of transport strikes, a little partial closure on the trams didn't stop us and seven of us met up at Solutions to begin our run. As the task is close to our start point, we took a circuitous route over Windmill Bridge to stretch our legs and were met by two more at the task. As we arrived, Nicola was already helping to carry the equipment. Jerry and a couple of volunteers from the East Croydon Community Organisation set us up with the task of clearing litter and overgrown ivy. Ingrid and Samantha dived into the undergrowth with their litter pickers outstretched and soon had bagfulls of crisp bags and bottles, cans and chocolate wrapers, and all sorts of odds and ends which do not belong in bushes! The others took up the garden shears and began hacking back the overgrown ivy to clear the foot paths for pedestrians. Before we knew it, the council was here to collect the tools and we swept the pavement leaving the boulevard looking fresh. When it was all together, we had a large pile of bright lilac bags filled with rubbish we had cleared away. A great job done by everyone, and a big well done to Paul for his 10th good deed!

Next week, we will be doing a litter pick in Park Hill, followed by our social...picnic in the park!