It was a full of good vibes and sunshine day, absolutely perfect 👌 for some gardening work. Gosia traveled to Camden today to help Mrs H in sweeping leaves 🍂 and branches from her back garden 🌱. This way she could come out more often and enjoy this lovely weather just a bit more.

I arrived at 5 pm and was very kindly welcomed by Mrs H. She was visibly struggling with walking and she explained to me that she is struggling with her health since the accident she had in the past.

Mrs H led me to a back garden and gave few rubbish bags which she got from the council. She instructed me where I can find a broom 🧹 and a shovel. I was ready to go 🏎.

Before I even started the work she was clearly very eager to share some stories with me 🙂. She asked me to come to the living room and she showed me a lot of photos 🖼 and told a bit more about her family 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 - her daughters, her dad and mum, her sister, her niece (who unfortunately passed away).

Then I got back and got on with work properly. First I tackled the area close to the door. Then moved further into the garden, and with a certain level of perfectionism 🕵‍♀️ tried not only to sweep the leaves from the ground but also target those ones which decided to fall into flowers, pots, racks and some other very narrow corners. Finally I tackled the shed area which involves repositioning a large ladder🪜and removing leaves that were previously squeezed by it. After the work has been completed, need to admit the garden looked pretty neat and welcoming 👋. Mrs H was very grateful so she offered me coffee but also said that next time we could have some wine 🍷 together. I was really glad to see her smiling as it even embraced more this already wonderful day.

Camden is a wonderful place where odd things usually happen.

This is why Camden residents rarely look twice.

Some tourists aren't like this and regularly look twice. This has resulted in many Camden tourists leaving the borough with neck aches, cramps, and twists.

They realised too late that oddities are normal in Camden, and that looking twice really isn't polite.

However I do wonder whether our wonderful group took second glances as we made our way through sunny and busy King's Cross.

Thirteen of us - Alison, Auriela, Charlie, Danya, Gosia, Helen, Imogen (on their first good deed - welcome!!), Jackie, John, Michael, Siobhan, and Steve - met at the (remarkably special) Story Garden.

Carley, our brilliant host, was waiting for us with a caravan of wheelbarrows and trolleys, each piled with tools, bags, and high-vis jackets.

This was the moment when our team of red t-shirts trundled everything over to the other side of Coal Drops Yard.

Our destination was the Story Garden's new (and gorgeous and permanent!!) community site on York Way. It's called The Triangle because it's shaped like a triangle, and it's mid-way through being built and transformed.

We were there to rescue and prepare a mound of earth that will soon be sewn with bee-loving flowers.

And yesterday - rescuing and preparing meant collecting, snapping, and bagging the thousands of weed sticks that covered the mound - the group's laughter and wood-snapping sounded like a happy family sat around a bristling bonfire :)

Many industrial bags filled and with the twilight fading, we made our return journey through the evening city - and I think the addition of huge bags of sticks made even Camden regulars take a second look...

...thank you for a wonderful evening, everyone! Your work made a big difference!!

Collected a bag of litter , anytime , any place, any where! I couldn’t say it better myself and we will do it again in April! I ran out of bags and I found a department in my local council that would send not only bags but litter pickers! You can probably do the same!

Hidden behind a nook - somewhere just north of Camden Town - is a secret garden called Adelaide.

A door that's inconspicuous. A sign that's easily passed. And rows of houses that disguise the scale of what's inside...

...it was our first time visiting Adelaide Community Garden this Wednesday, and as we walked (and walked (and walked)) through this special sanctuary, we were all left wondering: "does this garden have an end?"

Which it did, and which we were all thankful for. Especially as our task, as the light fell, involved scooting up and down the full length of Adelaide's pathways.

This wonderful group - Emily, Gosia, Helen (on their first GG good deed - welcome!!!), Jackie, John, Nivia, Sarah, Siobhan, and Steve - made a huge difference this week!

Our task was to distribute a total of 200 sacks of (freshly delivered) soil and fertiliser - in piles of 7 sacks - to specific named plots.

Cue wheelbarrows ferrying, sacks aloft shoulders, and trolleys busying - and all amidst shouts of plot-owners' names - "I have 2 manures for Marie!" - "can anyone see Brian's, I have 3 sacks of fertiliser!" - etc!!

As night truly landed, our happy group finished this mammoth task. It made a big difference, and it was an evening filled with fun, connection, and teamwork!!

Here's to next time!!

GoodGym volunteered at Caledonian Junior Parkrun. The park looked gorgeous today 😍 with daffodils, magnolias and other trees all starting to bloom. It was not that sunny but one could definitely feel the spring 🌱.

We arrived at the gathering spot at 08:45 and met there the other volunteers.

Gosia was marshalling and - again - covered the position one, close to the start line. Accompanied by the bubble 🫧 machine, she was making sure youngsters had this "special" twist when starting the race as well as whenever they got to pass the same spot after.

John was handing out the finish tokens this time so stood just after the finish line. He had a tambourine 🎵 to celebrate the moment along with the race finishers. He handed over around 28 tokens this time so it was not a record but still pretty good turnaround 🙂.

After the race we met at the clocktower 🕚 to hand over our kit and stay couple more minutes to chat 💬.