12 lovely GoodGymers gathered at Cranbrook Community Garden last night to help clear a big backlog of leaves.

It’s been a while since we joined Janet and Eileen at this busy community centre, and the team needed a hand with the following tasks:

• Clearing leaves and older plants from the borders of the community centre garden, and all around the garden.

• Collecting - and disposing of - branches in the large bin, and the main rubbish areas.

• Trimming the hedges

There was a lot to get done, but the GoodGymers worked so fast, Janet and Eileen were nonethless having to continually find new areas for us to focus on.

By the time we finished up our tasks, returned equipment and debated the best way to spend the final 10 minutes, it was time to run back to the Hotel.

It was a lovely night – great to see faces old and new, squeeze in a little mileage and give Janet and Eileen a helping hand before the busy festive season kicks in.

And a great big shout-out tonight to Ivo, who led the run from the Town Hall Hotel to the task.

Next week, we head to the lovely St Leonard’s Priory Park in Bromley-By-Bow to see Larry for some more garden-clearing.

Until then.

We had a great little fitness session in Tower Hamlets before tonight’s task!

After dropping bags at the lovely Town Hall Hotel reception, David, Martin, José and I headed out to local Museum Gardens.

After a couple of laps navigating some rather uneven paths, we settled on a well located park bench for the obligatory weekly Bulgarian split squats.

We moved onto pulsing side plank dips to tackle upper body strength before ‘enjoying’ a couple of running drills, after which we made our way back to the Hotel to meet Vlad and Tamara.

Heading across Patriot Square, we were greeted by tonight’s task owners Katie, Natalia and Margaret, of the Patriot Square Tenants and Residents’ Association.

Why were we here?

Patriot Square TRA and residents are keen to make Patriot Square as wildlife-friendly and usable for all local residents as possible.

A new hedge, complete with blackberry bushes, has provided food and homes for wildlife but it’s grown a bit high. Branches overhang the well-used path, as well as obscuring visibility onto the adjacent dog-walking park. So as the nights draw in, now seemed a good time to improve visibility in this area.

Armed with shears, loppers, secateurs, lights, gloves and some newly-acquired pruning know-how, we got to work. Making our way from entrance to end-of-path, we cut and chopped and bagged lots and lots of overhanging branches and leaves. This proved to be a fantastic upper body workout indeed.

The time seemed to fly by as usual, and it was well after 8 before we gathered for that all-important group pic.

We said our cheerios to the Patriot Square Dream Team before heading our separate ways and looking forward to our next session.

Well done to everyone tonight, for some fab fitness and a good evening’s work. …And an extra big shout-out to our Task Force member Stephen, who set this task up!

Until next time.