A change of scenery this week as we headed to the historic Bull Theatre in High Barnet, rather than our usual Phoenix Cinema starting point. Always good to spread our wings a little!

We started with a chat from Carly about the upcoming High Barnet Christmas Fair, a great local tradition which GoodGym has been invited to support. If you’d like to get involved, you can sign up on the GoodGym website. https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/help-the-bull-theatre-at-barnet-christmas-fayre?legacy=true

Unfortunately, our usual contact Susi was unwell, which meant some of our planned tasks had to wait. But there was still plenty to do, with the team getting stuck into weeding the garden areas and pathways, accompanied by the usual GoodGym chatter.

With the gardening done, George led the runners out onto Hadley Common while I stayed behind for a chat with the theatre team. Apparently, there was a slight navigational hiccup, but Victoria R spotted the error and soon had everyone back on track!

A few special mentions this week. Subham who had already run over 8km just to get to the start. Fantastic effort! Patricia , out for her fifth GoodGym session, and Beattie, who has now clocked up an impressive 150 good deeds! Awesome stuff!

And a big thank you to Victoria, who has kindly offered to help promote our activities on Instagram using the GoodGym handle. Every bit of publicity helps spread the word!

After the usual stretches and a final chat, we headed off in our various directions, some running, some cycling and others taking the Tube.

Another enjoyable evening of exercise, community support and good company. Well done, everyone!

The Orchard Project are starting another community orchard outside the lovely Friern Barnet Community Library, in partnership with Yvonne, their growing coordinator. As part of their volunteer engagement, they linked up with Lynne, who is coordinating growing outside St John's Church across the road, to plant two mini-meadows. So Subham and I walked intothe a lovely network of people dedicated to supporting nature and food in Barnet, including Shiri from the Finchley Pollinators, and a host of local residents supporting the initiative.

Subham and I got stuck in with tools, digging up turf for the first mini-meadow. Subham and I carried the turf over to a big tree on the green and deposited it on the bare soil around the base. We then gathered together with small handfuls of seeds to sprinkle on the patch, followed by a bit of consolidating (stepping on the seeds to stick them down so they don't blow away and have a better chance of rooting). We then bashed in stakes with a sledgehammer - including a swing or two by MP Catherine West! - and put string around to protect the patch, with a sign.

Then it was over the road to a long poor soil patch outside the church where nothing grows - perfect for wildflowers and meadows! We roughed the patch up with rakes and then sowed seeds and trampled a bit to round off. And for those that wanted it, there was a bit more engagement in the Library after, with apple juice, vegan apple cake, fruit tasting and chitchat.

What a way to start a Saturday! We met on a crisp, sunny Heath morning, with the autumn leaves doing their thing. Then it was straight into the hilliest parkrun in London.

After the run we swapped uniform for pink hi-vis and joined the parkrun volunteer team on barcode scanning at the finish. Phones in hand, we scanned runners, joggers and walkers across the line, from speedy finishers to families out for a stroll. Every scan means someone gets their time and their result, so it’s a small job that matters a lot to the people running. On this park run 601 people decided to run 5k as a morning start.

It was a lovely mix of people, with plenty of smiles and a few muddy shoes. Scanning is a great way to give something back to a free, community-run event that gets people moving every single week.

Hope to see you out there next time!