8 Goodgymmers met up on a warm night to help the Friends of Stroud Green Library clear their back passage (stop fnarring at the back).

Clearing the blockage

Plentiful innuendo aside, the hops, weeds and brambles need to be removed to open up the route from the emergency fire exit. We set about the over exuberant grenery with gloves, rakes and other tools to make evacuation easier. We also welcomed newbie Eren, who quickly got stuck in to the piles. There was also a cornerful of building waste in bags. Using our tried and tested human chain technique, we speedily removed the lot! We even had some time to marvel at the local wildlife - a very friendly cat.

Exit, persued by secateurs

After that, we transported the green waste and bags of rubble to more appropriate spots. This included transporting the hops by dumpster bin to the nearby compost heap, a multi-hand job.

6 Goodgymmers met on a chilly Sunday morning for a bit of hardcore gardening at the Westbury Banks Nature Reserve.

WELCOME KLAXON

Everybody show some love and appreciation for Alix, Amy, and Hugh who burst their way into the Goodgym scene with such an accomplished performance, I'm still not 100% sure they weren't lying when they said this was their first task. Absolute heroes and we certainly hope to see them again soon!

Knock knock knocking on WBNR's door

We met on a cold Sunday morning for a Haringey Goodgym starter session. This is an opportunity for folk curious about the Goodgym experience to come and have a test drive. It's also an opportunity for Latoya to unleash the Sally beast onto new, unsuspecting people - but more on that later.

We congregated by the basketball courts in Ducketts Common and after a very quick safety brief (don't get hit by a car/ keep an eye on Latoya as she gets lost easily/ be careful using chainsaws/ blah blah blah) we all set off for a short-ish run to the Westbury Banks Nature Reserve. Gramps led the way while Latoya and Amy bookended our group as the backmarkers.

We all found our way there in the end, even if some of us managed to get lost while following an almost straight line, and we were greeted by a very closed Westbury Banks Nature Reserve.

After a couple of frenzied messages it became apparent there had been a staffing mishap with the Friends of Westbury Banks Nature Reserve rota but Haringey Goodgymmers are nothing if not resourceful. Gramps ran home as quickly as he possibly could to get a spare set of keys he had been entrusted with, while Hugh and the rest of the crew considered the merits of jumping over the fence.

Thankfully, Gramps got back before anyone had any chance to risk twisting an ankle with a spot of Sunday trespassing and before you knew it, everyone had been handed some jobs.

Hugh, Amy, and Alix dug right into it and forked their way through a rather vigorous weeding session on the accessible path at the Reserve.  Latoya and Charlie cleared some very thick ivy using some heavy duty choppers before joining the weeding crew.

In an attempt to entice our new Goodgymmers to return, Gramps encouraged Latoya to first regale them with all the horror stories of her Goodgym life in all their nappy-flying-pond-dipping gory detail before forcing everyone to "do a bit of Sally."

Thankfully, everybody took it in good spirits and even managed to crack a smile while doing it. I'm fairly certain Alix even claimed it made her run afterwards a bit easier (she might have retracted that statement straight away but I'll still claim it as a victory).

Once we were done, we headed back to Ducketts Common. A lovely session on a crisp but sunny Sunday morning.

Boom