The people at the Waterloo Street Community Garden are always pleased to see us, and last night was no different. They put us straight to work cleaning up the space, sweeping away leaves, deadheading, and weeding.

We were armed with sweeping brushes, secateurs, and a dustpan and brush (Tom was doing a brilliant job with that last one!). Charlotte and Sarah even brought their own weeding tools along and put them to great use. We even encouraged a local to join our efforts for a bit, and we gained some great local restaurant recommendations from him!

As the light levels dropped, foot traffic to the nearby Old Market started to increase (Chris Difford from Squeeze was playing, apparently), so we packed up and headed home.

From the Austrian Alps to a GoodGym’s 'green community mission' in the lovely garden of roses in Vale Park, with a grand group: 15 GoodGymers – a great return to Good Gym-ing, yesterday!

Less great was the daily news: "One of the lions has passed", as Out of Africa movie’s co-star Meryl Streep said about Robert Redford, the "true Hollywood legend" actor, director, Sundance film festival founder and decades-long environmental activist, who passed away yesterday, aged 89.

This news might be relatively less touching for most of my fellow GoodGymers in Brighton, but your Area Activator, Stefania, has been hiding a secret love for Robert since its early teenager years, when she fell in love for the actor after watching “Out of Africa”, considered by my mum as my first adult cinema experience. It was love at first sight, on-screen! When I turned 40, I also received a massive bouquet of roses with a lovely message from Robert, via Interflora - it was actually a lovely gift from my friend Manuela 😊

Nevertheless, I like to dedicate our GoodGym green action of caring for Vale Park’s roses to my favourite actor, and secret love 😉. Here are some other tribute quotes: "He was a beautiful person in every way", “One of his kind”, "He championed progressive values like protecting the environment and access to the arts while creating opportunities for new generations of activists and filmmakers."

Robert was a hero for a lot of us. I will keep alive my long-lasting love and administration for such a trueful star believing that what counts is the story that we tell from our Good actions. Then, Let’s!

Welcome Paolo, Nathan, Susie to GoodGym Brighton, doing positive stuff for the environment ... a little bit like my Robert 😉

With waterproof trousers for Sarah and I, and wet socks after a Park run at Bevendean Down for Rachel, three Good Gymers helped the volunteers of Friends of William Clarke park set up the tents for ‘Block Party in the Patch.’ Tasks included bringing down tents in a trolley from the container and setting them up, and by the end of it we became quite efficient in remembering how to set them up. With the weather looking changeable, we needed to set up all the event shelters. Luckily the weather was dry for the event and we had a great turn out. William Clarke park (The Patch) which is a hidden park behind Elm Grove, has a fascinating history as it was built on old railway land from the now defunct branch line of the Kemp Town railway, with an old tunnel still existing from Elm Grove to Kemptown. However, this community event was a celebration of the New York Block Party scene of the 1970’s and 80’s and featured a fantastic local breakdancing krew, live street art from Casettelord, an interview with New York journalist Mark Riley, two rappers with a jazz band and a couple of Block Party DJ’s with lots of dancing.

This week, 12 GoodGymmers made their way to One Church on Florence road, to help them clear space for a community compost to be installed. One Church Brighton is a broad and inclusive church, who do lots of different activities in and around Brighton, from worship to running community cafes, and putting on events.

6 of us braved the run up Ditchling Road, while others made their own way via bike or walking - all of us arriving to a warm welcome from out host (and very own GoodGymmer!) Michael, and Danny from local skincare company My Skin Feels - whose generous donations are funding the new composting site, which will be used by the local community.

After collecting some rather serious looking tools, we all got stuck in clearing an old flower bed and leveling the soil. Although our enthusiasm quickly waned as we discovered just how difficult removing a tree from the root is 😄. Liam, Euan and Frances did a fantastic job digging and sawing until eventually the bulk of the tree root gave way.

Whilst some of us were busy playing lumberjacks, others set about clearing the church walls and flowerbeds from weeds and litter, ensuring the space looked it's very best for the community who uses it.

A big welcome this week to two first timers to Brighton GoodGym, Jorge and Tristian. We hope you had fun and that we'll see you at another task soon :)