On a balmy Thursday evening, six green fingered GoodGymers converged on Waterloo Community Centre, ready, willing and able to take on a weed war, that had been raging for six months, unchecked.

Lockdown has meant that the centre has been unable to open, meaning many of the community's most vulnerable members have had to go without their regular hot meal, and food parcels.

Waterloo Kitchen staff have been busy giving the hall a thorough, deep clean, in the hope that they will be able to open their doors by next month. A new entrance, one way system and limited or staggered meals will be the order of the day.

Head Chef, Mike, made a great start on clearing the path to the new entrance, but was very relieved to hand over the job to our merry band.

It was great to welcome back two of our runners, Tony and Carol who both had plenty of news (and photographs) to share, as they each have twin grandchildren...Tony's grandsons are now two, and Carol's granddaughters are just turned 18 months...where does the time go? But don't think that they spend their time chatting...Carol had already been working at the centre for over an hour, before the rest of us arrived, as she is a regular volunteer there, and she provided us all with hot and cold drinks, too. Tony had brought a whole range of his own tools, and set to, clearing a particularly overgrown paved area...and didn't stop until it was done. A fab effort, both!

Keeping it in the family, Joand Ben arrived together, full of energy and ideas...thanks, Jo for the Napoleon inspired title pun (I thought it was Abba). Both did a fantastic job of clearing the passageway behind the hall. A very trusting Jo even scrambled under a pallet that I was holding up, in order to reach some (almost) hidden weeds...there is no hiding place when Jo is about!

Mat and I did our usual pottering about, and generally managed to look busy...

In just over an hour and a half, we had transformed a rather neglected looking frontage into an inviting, and clear space...just the ticket for getting things up and running again.

Mike is keen for us to visit again in the coming weeks, so that we can tackle the overgrown raised beds, and maybe add a bit of colour...watch this space