Ten GoodGym members gathered at Highgate woods to help the Ranger Cindy with tidying up after the torrential rain yesterday. We gathered and introduced ourselves and stated our favourite colour. I think green won out as you might expect in woodland. We also met Hannah on her first GoodGym community mission give her a shout out! (click on the red link and give her some support) We then set about raking up sticks and detritus that had been washed from the forest onto the grass. We needed to do this so that the lawnmower was not wrecked when they came to cut the grass. When we had finished Cindy took us into the woodland to chat about forest management and in particular the recent infestation of The processional moth. Cindy then lead us into a clearing where we did a little yoga focusing on posture and breathing. We hope to be back again at the end of August or September. Thanks for coming getting active ,connected and doing some good!

Ten GoodGymers came down to Westbury Banks Nature Reserve and along with the Reserve captain, Luke, we made a dream team of eleven. ⚽️

Charlie was substituted in place of Euclides who was playing away. Dave was back in action and we had new signing, Michael, who jumped right into the game.

Our GoodGym Haringey team were up against some weed control membrane, which needed laying along a path in the reserve. Our team started on top, tackling in some pegs to keep the membrane in place. It was looking like an easy win, but the membrane countered when it threatened to not stay down as we ran out of pegs! The response from our goodgymers was impressive though as upped our defence and started using rocks and stakes to hold down the membrane.

We also started digging a border next to the path, ready for lots of planting. And soon, the membrane will be completely covered with bark to make it a permanent path.

After our brilliant work, Nurjehan was keen to get home to watch some football game that was happening (I don’t think that has been talked about much...), so we didn’t go into extra time. We scored some last minute goals with the tools going to the back of the net (or back into the tool shed), and we headed home.

GoodGym Haringey - 1 Weed control membrane - 0

Five goodgymmers converged on Stephens House and Gardens in Finchley to help the park maintain their road boundary. The metal fencing was being obscured by the growing foliage, most of it ivy spilling onto the pavement. It was a dry and warm evening and we worked at speed, cutting, clearing and bagging large amounts of greenery. We revealed bits of pavement that had not seen the light of day in years! We all agreed that it was very satisfying work and it certainly made for a much tidier boundary and gave the local residents more space to walk on. Helen, the park representative, was certainly incredibly pleased with the amount we managed to cut back. We nearly ran out of bags to put it in! Well done to everyone who attended. A fantastic team effort!