This evening 8 brave (or foolish) GoodGym people, ran, walked or cycled in the rain to meet at Tower Hamlets long-standing favourite task at Stepney City Farm.

Siobhan, the farms wonderful Schools Officer met us at the gate to fill us on the task for the evening; cutting back overhanging branches and thorns from the entire perimeter of the fence that circles the farm, to ensure that local residents and passers-by are able to walk by safely without obstruction.

Shortly after Siobhan's welcome speech the heavens opened and there was a bout of torrential rain which left the more fortunate raincoat-clad people mildly damp and Si, Eimear and Alex particularly drenched (I believe Eimear said their were puddles in her shoes!)

Fortunately, it takes more than torrential rain to stop GoodGym runners from tackling a task, and we quickly siphoned off into pairs to begin tackling the perimeter fence. One member of each pair was tasked with collecting all the leafy debris into wheelbarrows and depositing them onto the compost heap, whilst the other half of the pair got to work chopping away at the foilage, which ranged from thorny berries, weeds, all the way to some beautifully scented lavender and elderflower.

Myself and Isabelle got to work near the rear entrance to the farm where Isabelle, an old hand at gardening, taught me the correct way to use secateurs.

Alex and Si made light work of their section of the fence, and also handily scouted out some large brooms for the gang to use to make the leaf-collecting easier.

Sree and Ninagot to work on the far side of the fence, clearing off most of the left perimeter before the rest of us even made it round to assist!

Charlotte and Eimear tackled the thickest patch of tough thorny branches, clearly the lot away before the hour was up.

After the hardr work was done, 6 of us finished the evening with a well-earned beer and pizza in the farms Allotment cafe, before heading off on our separate ways home.

Special mentions

• Biggest shout out of the night goes to lovely Nina, a medical student who completed her first task with us tonight and got stuck straight in with the task - you feel like part of the GoodGym family already!🤗

• TaskForce member Isabelle is making an impact this month with a huge 12 deeds in the bag already, as well as leading countless tasks across the borough. Alex is close behind with 8 good deeds this month which include delivering groceries to an older isolated person in need and helping out a local primary school.💪

• Si and Eimear should have special mention for not letting the rain dampen their spirits (although it dampened everything else!) and persevering with running there and back to the task whilst not sporting a single piece of dry clothing. The real heroes of this evening!🦸

• Last but not least, thank you to ever-friendly Siobhan for helping to us organise this task this evening, our penultimate session at the farm before Winter sets in ☹️

What's next in Tower Hamlets?

On Friday, GoodGym TaskForce member Leo will be leading a session back at Parkview where we will be helping Catherine and Liam to prune raspberry bushes and dig holes for rose bushes. Find out more and sign up here.

On Saturday our Area Activator extraordinaire Laura will be leading an exciting session to dismantle decking, cut bushes back, shift tyres and fill skips at local playground. Sign up here.