11 Goodgymmers joined us last night for our first group-run style community mission from a new start location. We had a great mix of GG Islington regulars, and plenty of new participants (welcome to Alicia, Hana and Florence).

Six runners started at The Packington Gallery near the Arc Centre, Islington- a food bank project which GG Islington have assisted in developing over the lockdown. This new location allows us to safely drop off bags and belongings before embarking on a social run to our task. Our crew set off towards Market Road Gardens (2 miles out, 2 miles back) on residential streets, with Ellie and John back marking to make sure we maintain social distancing on our journey.

Upon our arrival, we met up with Frannie from Octopus Communities Network, who had already set the rest of our team to work. Our objective was to make the final preparations for the wild gardens, public access pathways and vehicle entrance for the Heyward Adventure Centre, ready for groups of school children to visit next week. Plenty of weeding, cutting back overgrown foliage, collecting green waste for the hugelgarden bed and litter picking completed by our crew.

Please note that it might be time to consider bringing headtorches to tasks again, as this task did start to get quite dark. Trainer Simon will start running with the portable bat lights again to help with this!

Fantastic work everyone, the space looked absolutely smashing, especially after the months of work that GG Islington had contributed to this project. Keep an eye out on the community mission listings for future Octopus Communities tasks at Highbury Quadrant and Shepard's Hill Allotments!