A lovely group of (new) Goodgymmers joined us today at Ackroid Drive (well technically on Thursday but i'm a little late with the report, oops!).

Our main task at hand was to help Bablu from Trapped in Zone One getting various arches ready for new and exciting mural paintings. We picked up the relevant painting tools provided by the Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetry Park, whilst some of us continued to clear the overgrown cow parsley.

Please come join us this Wednesday to see the Artists bringing the designs to life!

What a joy to finally get a chance to muck in at Hackney farm. And muck in we did. Surrounded by newborn piglets and baby goats, we headed towards a huge pile of manure and an extremely long ditch surrounding half of the farm. We were to prepare the deep ditch for fresh saplings and fill up some wily fox holes in the horses paddock. Were the foxes tunneling their way to the chickens coop? Will the horse tell the monkey? What’s the name for a baby goat?
Pondering these important questions, half of us valiantly shifted rocks out of the long ditch, while the rest of us shoveled and wheelbarrowed manure, the lifeblood for young saplings, into deep holes. From the manure pile to the wonderfully close farm bar we skipped to celebrate our hole-filling, fox-out-wiling and overall funky aroma.

The sun came out this evening for a great Good Gym session all about trees! The group divided into three tasks. Rosa, Graham, Sharon, Annabel and Simon were planting trees. Kevin, Charlotte and Basia were putting the trees into wheel barrows and pushing them over to an area where Hilary and I were counting the trees. Silver Birch, Hazel, Crab Apple, Blackthorn....trees as far as the eye could see - even one called Goat Willow! There was a lot of lifting work involved tonight - who needs weights when you can lift a bucket of Wild Cherry?