Monday 20th June 2016
Find out about GoodGym TaskForce
The rain may have scared a few off today, on this, the longest day of the year, the MIDDLE OF SUMMER! But, it actually got sunny just in time for our run and we had a cool 28 GoodGymmers whose skin was waterproof and who know that running is the only sport worth worrying about.
We welcomed first timers Isabel and Antonio, cheered Aidan for doing 100 good deeds, cheered Kike for doing 50 good deeds, cheered Danica and Aidan for running the Westminster City Mile and got briefed.
James came tonight. There is no announcement to make, but James is the name of a Billy Joel song, so we had to mention it.
So, we had planned to do our longest run ever at GG Islington (10k), but that task was unfortunately cancelled. Worry not, it's still the longest day of the year, and it's ....
Competition thyme! Two tasks tonight and two groups each planting their own little pots of thyme under the instruction of the group's "Thyme Lord". We'll check back periodically and see which group was the best gardeners and who has the longest thyme!
One group headed off to Barnsbury Community Centre for their evening of good-doing.
And a small group of girls and boys, led by Aidan, ran uptown to Whittington Park Community Association to help out.
Caroline, doing a run leader course this weekend, led the Barnsbury group and wasn't shy about shouting a bit of encouragement.
One job at Barnsbury was to continue shifting the mound of soil that we started on last week.
Antonio grabbed one of Barnsbury's new forks and started breaking up the soil to make it easier to shift.
Tough work shifting this stuff. Everybody's always surprised by how many rocks and rubble there is in it. BUT, we got it all moved and managed to move the container into its new home.
Well, lots of little pots. A team of four planted various herbs in multi-coloured little pots. Rocket, coriander and of course thyme.
We did paint the beds right the first time, but the harsh weather meant that the paintwork was getting a little patchy, so Isabel and Bella grabbed a couple of paintbrushes and did a spot of touching up.
OK, this one's a stretch. but the group at Whittington had to sand down a bench, which was probably constructed from wooden beams and there was probably the odd sliver of wood.
They did a great job. Check out the pics for before and after shots. Looks ready for some varnishing.
There was also more sand-related activity as they had to move a kids' sandpit inside.
I Glove You Just The Way You Are
Or not. We had all those brand new gloves, but Graham thought he'd given them to Danica, who thought she'd given them to Simon, or something like that. Anyway, the poor Whittington contingent had to do a spot of weeding outside the One O'Clock Club with bare hands.
While over at Barnsbury we were sorted with a giant box of gloves. A team set about removing weeds from the centre piece and then planting some more grass seeds around it.
There were none of these tonight. Everybody got stuck in good and proper. Nice job.
Back at the pool we decided not to stretch for the first time ever on an Islington run and see what happened. Report back here.
Beth started the fire! In her oven! And baked FOUR types of biscuits in it! A coconutty one, a shortbread one, a chocolate one, and a plain one. Delicious. Beats stretching.
What's best? Short hills or long hills? So that everybody had an informed opinion each group did a set of four short reps and one long hill rep and we then voted on our favourite back at the pool. Short hills definitely won it. There were also votes for "no hills", "one very long hill", "downhill" and line of the evening from Jill: "a flat hill".
It was still light when we left! Aaah, they're drawing in now though.
So that was a fun pun report on the longest day of the year. Maybe we could do a Billy Ocean themed report on the longest night. Maybe not.
See you next week Task will be announced shortly.
My life is great cos I get to do this for a job :-D,
Simon
Tue 21st Jun 2016 at 12:36pm
Laura good puns in there for An Islington Man! Great report :)
Islington
Joining the lovely resident gardeners at Thornhill Square Gardens for an evening of composting, watering and maintenance