The railings of the Meath Gardens changing rooms proved to be a useful little multi-gym this evening.

As the number of GoodGymers grew for tonight’s task, we rattled through this evening’s workout, including tricep dips and even a chest press or two on this handy surface.

At shortly before 6:45 we finished with a few stretches, before being joined by the first of the Friends of Meath Gardens team!

Why were we here?

Meath Gardens is one of our longstanding tasks: we’ve formed a close relationship with the brilliant Friends of Meath Gardens over the years.

From canalside tree-watering to exciting planting projects, we’ve been lucky enough to join the team for some fabulous garden activities.

The park is a much-loved local green space, and pockets of rubbish often make their way under well-used footbridges or become sandwiched between the park’s borders and fences.

So tonight’s task was a big old litter-pick, covering as much of the park as we could, tackling those trash hotspots.

Task owner Tunde kicked us off with a fantastic briefing: information about the current litter hotspots; our priorities this evening, and clear instructions on everything from the size of our groups to the health and safety basics was covered.

Divided into three teams, we proceeded to tackle three areas:

1. The borders between the shrubs and the fences.
2. The footbridge towards the back of the park.
3. The ‘big green bit’ in the middle of the park.

All three teams filled rubbish sacks very quickly (tonight’s stash included a suitcase, a bicycle wheel and a gazillion bottles and cans) - this certainly felt like a satisfying and sociable way to spend a Monday evening. From clambering down banks to carting bags to bins, this proved a good little workout too.

At just before 8 we piled the last bag outside the Changing Room block, ready to be taken to the bins.

After posing for a couple of fab group photos, our final upper body exercise of the night consisted of the last trip to the big bins.

Saying our cheerios, we dispersed into different directions: some straight home, some to the lock-up to collect valuables.

A fantastic night.

Shout-outs to the whole team, especially to Fiona who got some good action pics!

Next Monday, we’re heading back to Columbia Road for a variety of gardening tasks.

Until then.

11 GoodGymers met at the iconic Limehouse Town Hall last night to help Rosie and Jay with some urgent painting!

The corridors of the entrance hallway of this beautiful building needed a few coats of paint in time for their Open Day this coming Sunday.

Housed in a Grade II listed building, Limehouse Town Hall is,

a resource for artists and cultural producers, audiences and communities from Tower Hamlets and beyond to share ideas, celebrate, organise, and imagine a better here and now.

After a thorough briefing, Rosie dispatched GoodGymers to all corners and ends of the corridor, armed either with a roller (to deal with the big areas) or a brush (to go over those pesky corners and doorways). Working in teams of two, with an absence of spillages, Rosie agreed after 40 minutes a lot was getting done.

With Oliver and Neena tackling the higher areas, the remaining GoodGymers zipped from corner to corner with paint trays, ensuring our contribution this evening was as thorough as possible.

And guess what? As usual, the time flew and before we knew it, it was after 8 and time to carefully stack rollers, brushes and trays, ready for Rosie to continue tomorrow.

A thoroughly fun evening, culminating in a run down of our exciting announcements, including:

• This Thursday’s late summer social

• …Our new Sunday sessions with the Bethnal Green Foodbank

• …and not forgetting an important reminder of The Big London Social, next week.

Meanwhile, next Monday’s task sees us heading back to Bow to join Kieran in the lovely GET OUT Garden.

Until then.

Another good sized group gathered along the wall for some body weight training before tonight's task!

We focused on some effective lower body stretches, and some brilliantly-done push-ups before moving to The New Squat Technique, The Obligatory Split-Squat Series and some dreamy Pilates roll-downs, courtesy of a delayed task start.

At a few minutes past 7, we headed around to the side of the garden to help cut back a few tree and bush branches which had crept over into the area by the bench, and near the family play area. The team worked exceptionally fast, and before long were calling out for assistance to help move the huge piles of branches.

Meanwhile Fiona and Aran were raking bags full of leaves around the front of the garden, before they headed over to the trimming team around the side of the centre.

We gathered armfuls of branches to take to the bin area, safely tucked to one side in as neat-a-piles as we could manage.

It was a great little task to be invited to help out with. Task owners Janet and Eileen oversee the Community Centre itself and this side of the garden. So when we're invited to join them for a quick gardening catch-up, it's always guaranteed to feel like a productive and fun night.

On depositing the last little pile of branches and leaves, we headed back to the bench for one last pic.

A lovely evening, everyone - you did great.

Next week we return to the GETOUT garden in Bow, for our first visit of the summer - complete with pre-task workout.

Until then.

The workout...

Busy Ravenscroft Park was a delight in which to start tonight’s session, with a little pre-task workout.

No fewer than 6 runners gathered around the largest planter in the park to whizz through the obligatory dips, incline push ups, several different types of seated leg lower, and some new squat techniques.

The task...

After being met by task owners Ed and Liz, we all wandered over to Sivill House, to greet the rest of the group and get the lowdown on tonight’s task.

What were we here to do?

Spread woodchip!

Yes, thanks to a large donation of woodchip, the productive, committed Columbia TRA were keen to have some additional pairs of hands join their team (Ed, Ed and Liz this evening) tonight to help distribute this around the estate’s many young fruit trees.

(Used in this way, woodchip can help to maintain the moisture of the soil and reduce the volume of weeds).

Ed wasted no time in briefing the group as to how best to tackle the vast task of getting tonnes of woodchip to some of the furthest points on the estate. This included an informative short tour so we knew where we were headed.

And so to work we went, with one crew ready to distribute around one of the gardens to the back of the estate (already a fruit paradise with some very decent raspberries); another shovelling barrow after barrow of woodchip, and a third wheeling to designated fruit tree-hotspots.

With the main areas completed, Ed took one team off to another totally new area to finish the job for the night, a spot towards the Columbia Road, front of the estate.

By the time we’d finished packing away the last wheelbarrow and woodchip bag, it was after 8, so we said our cheerios, and headed home.

A brilliant evening of very physical activity – well done everyone (and big shout-out to Sree for tonight’s fun pun).

Next week, we return to the Cranbrook Community Garden to help Janet finish the The Big Gardening Job, complete with pre-task workout.

Until then.