When I was a child I think I was middle-aged.

Other children liked Pokemon - or Power Rangers - or other popular past times like playing.

Not for me - I knew what I liked - and what I liked was the 8pm-9pm slot on Monday nights on BBC One: Ground Force and Changing Rooms.

And last night - thanks to the frost-beating efforts of this wonderful group - I felt like my childhood friends (Alan Titchmarsh and Carol Smillie) were present in shaping our very own garden makeover at Cecil Sharp House!

Seven of us - Alex, Gosia, Jackie, John, Rose, and Steve (and me) - met in the King's Cross buzz and we became the only group (of adults) in London to be outside playing Simon Says whilst icicles formed.

Taking our smiles (like Carol Smillie) with us, we started our journey up and through Camden, meeting Emilie early en route!

Arriving at Cecil Sharp House, we met Natalia and Yumei, both of whom were on their first day of GoodGym good-deeding - a huge welcome, both!!

And then our makeover started. I am not certain how it happened. All I do know is that I turned round to find my gardening gloves and a million scattered leaves had already been placed into a neat pile.

It genuinely was miraculous - the lawn and paths were a sea of fallen leaves... and then they were grass and paving again - it could even have been a spring night :)

Thank you, everyone, for your work, time, and fun - it was great to see you!

Here's to next time!

It has been many sleeps since we were last at the American International Church's winter shelter. Google tells me it's been 238 sleeps. And yet yesterday felt so easy as we stepped back into our comfortable and warm winter routine.

Six of us - Andy, Gosia, Jackie, John, and Rose (and me) - started our evening (successfully) counting to 25, and we then wove our way through Bloomsbury's bustle and buzz, sharing stories all the way.

Arriving on an increasingly festive Tottenham Court Road, we picked up our remaining good-deeding crew (Ivar, Jack, Louise, Sarah, and Steve) and climbed down to a basement that's always a hubbub of positive activity on winter Wednesday nights.

The C4WS Homeless Project has been making a difference since 2006, and our task (making the evening's beds) was one part of a larger (and quite special) operation.

I had barely finished saying - 12 beds in the big room > 3 in the small room > 1 on the stage - when the sounds of camp beds a-sprining and duvets a-quilting filled our positive air.

It usually takes me 387 minutes to make a bed, but this special group assembled and dressed 16 beds in no more than 20.

With our bed-making completed, the group took their talents to the dining cabin, making swift work of creating a neat and tidy space for the evening meal.

Thanks so much, everyone, for your work and energy last night - it was wonderful to see you!!

Here's to next time!

Tonight we were leafleting for Age Exchange's Christmas fair alongside promoting GoodGym!

We started out by sharing our responses to Trump's election victory which ranged from sticking fingers in our ears and going la la la la laaaaa and mine which was a compiled video of my three year old whining 'I don't like Donald Trump on 20 different occassions.'

Tonight was special for two reasons- the twins were back in Greenwich! AND we were marking Marta's mammoth 800th good deed!

That's 800 times she's... donned some gloves to do planting and pruning, or gained some guns from digging 💪🏼 or avoided the dogs while leafleting, or got splattered from painting, or filled a bin liner litter picking, or put ceiling panels up after guilding.

In short, she done a lot of stuff! 🏅 🏆

After securing the sash of glory on a well deserving Marta, we had a quick round of Simon says and ran up the hill to split into 2 groups and dashed round the streets posting as many leaflets as we could. And quick work we made of it too, with lots of good GoodGym chats on our way. Another task complete and one step closer to Marta's 1000th which she'll probably achieve in the next couple of years!

Nice work team. Next week we're weeding at Charlton URC.

Until next time!

YouTube - if you ask for the right things - is quite the haven for gardening advice.

You can learn to mow and grow - or weed and seed - and there's a particularly healthy glut of guidance on planting.

I know this because I started my Saturday by searching (YouTube): how to plant bulbs

I watched several videos.

I was particularly impressed with Geoff from Australia, who demonstrated every conceivable tool one could use to dig a hole (for a bulb), before I realised his real interest was to sell the BULB-DEMON-2000 (which does, I admit, drill a hole in perhaps 2 seconds)

I left for the special Barnfield and Woodfield Estate feeling decidedly under-confident, especially without a BULB-DEMON-2000

Yet my anxieties were calmed as I met Mike, Lucy and Sedef (on their first GoodGym good deeds - a huge welcome!!), and we started the morning by collecting spades and taking them to a freshly mown autumn lawn.

We were soon joined by Alison, Caitlin, Cherian, and Nivia, and Mike (with my anxiety fading) showed us the bulb-planting to-dos with calm and poise. And I nodded in a way that suggested I knew all about this.

Dividing gorgeous spring bulbs (delectable types of daffodil) and spades, our group (with Barnfield resident, Callum, and Steve joining too) swiftly got to digging turf pockets, making roomy space, and planting our spring flowers to come.

With pastries and coffee to finish, we said our farewells :)

I feel excited about returning in March to see what nature does with our efforts! Thank you so much, everyone, for your time and work - I had a super lovely time and hope you did too!

Here's to next time!

Cressfield Close, just North of Kentish Town Road, is a quite wonderful place.

Passing by, you may mistake it for a normal collection of homes and gardens... but you would be mistaken.

Take a deliberate turn into its winding alley - make sure you look hard - and you'll begin to notice its quirks...

...you may hear goats and cows, and then you'll notice the farm... you might hear tracks and trains, and then you'll notice the railway lines... and if you really notice, you may see the tops of trees and bushes, the ones flourishing in Cressfield's Sheltered Housing garden... which is where we spent our evening yesterday!

Amna (on their first GoodGym good deed - welcome!!!), Steve, and I took an evening jog through King's Cross and Kentish Town, before being met by residents Marie and Michael, and we quickly got to our nature-bound tasks for the evening.

Amna and Steve (alongside Michael) made light work of three tree-sized holes, which will soon be filled with fruit trees (and perhaps we'll be back to sample their bounties next summer!)

And I joined Marie in turning over (and weeding) a patch that will soon be ready for planting and enjoying, and Amna and Steve joined our efforts following their speedy digging!

Thanks so much, both, for making a lovely evening - here's to the next one!!