A definition of nostalgia is a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning to return to some past period.

And I admit, looking into my own eyes in the shimmering pond at the Christchurch School Community Garden, my thoughts drifted upwards into the blue, and through the clouds, and they wafted, blown by the wind of nostalgia, to Wednesday evenings of the past… digging up dirt and moving it to the back of the garden… watering plants and shovelling dirt… digging a hole for a pond, and getting mucky with dirt… oh my, with all that dirt, my heart doth hurt…

But it shan’t, because tonight we were back. For the first time since the pandemic.

We, 15 of us, met in Greenwich’s Naval Colleges, which moved with a buzz of summer activity – there was sunshine, warmth, runners and walkers, and people just out and smiling, enjoying the vibe. We nattered until the bells cried out for 7pm, and our run leader (and twinny), Alex, started off with a welcome to Greenwich newcomers, Rawan and Tom (welcome both, hope you had a good evening!), and an important question - what’s your favourite cake? Well, us Greenwich bunch have a varied palate, and we surely encompass all possible variations of the proverbial tastebud. We had:

Chocolate Cake Birthday Cake (whose?) Apple Pie Millionaire’s Shortbread Colin the Caterpillar (I hear there’s also a Clyde, a Curly, Cecil, Morris, Cuthbert…) Cheesecake (with real cheese)

This chat got us itching to move in the direction of cake, but Alex skilfully herded us onto one of the ‘greens’ for a political warm up. Basically, like Parliament, we had to run around, and then – we U-turned, we climbed the ladder, we headed to the other side - and we had an awesome time doing so too; it was great to see so many of us laughing together.

All warmed up, cake out of our immediate thoughts, we headed to Christchurch School Community Garden. There, we were met by a familiar friendly face, Fiona, who’s one of the team that curates this awesome green space for the local community in East Greenwich.

After some moments moving around the community garden’s multiple vegetable plots and heady flowers, we were given our task. The hedging, in all this sunshine, had grown through the railings and was overhanging the adjacent footpath. So, shears-abundant, we headed onto the pavement outside, and we just started clipping. And pruning. And lopping and cropping and snipping and thinning. In minutes, the change was impressive, and some of us got out brooms and swept up the foliage, and others wheelbarrowed them to disposal. By the end of the task, I think it’s fair to say we made a lovely difference; just 16 happy helpers in 30 or so minutes.

And with an artistic tunnel-like photo (see evidence above), that was a wrap. It was awesome to be back at Christchurch School Community Garden, and if you’re looking for sanctuary, it’s open every Friday from 10:30am. Go check it out, go fuel your own nostalgia.

Thanks all :)

In a fitting tribute to Kim’s impressive exploits at Sunday’s Windermere Marathon, this week saw GoodGym Lewisham tackle our own long run! For the first time we’d be running around 4km to the PNK Garden, right on the border between us and our neighboring Borough of Southwark.

With everyone kindly arriving a little bit early, enabling a timely departure from Glass Mills, we had only a few moments to welcome along Rawan for her very first GoodGym run before we were off. With typical Lewisham efficiency, the finer points of an introduction were covered off on the move as we headed to and through Deptford before arriving to be greeted by Lara.

Lara instigated the PNK Garden project early in the pandemic as a way of clearing the waste ground adjacent to Lower Road and directly in front of her flat. Now nearly 2 years later, the space has been transformed beyond recognition to a wide open area with scope for planting and use by the local community.

Our initial group of 12 divided in two to tackle tasks at either ends of the garden; 7 to begin weeding the southern (Lewisham) end whilst 5 prepared new planting beds in the northern (Southwark) end.

Just as a brief rain shower swept in, our spirits and numbers were lifted as the southern group were bolstered by two Victorias; one from Lewisham and one from Greenwich! Meanwhile the northern group were one bed down, duly filled with staged layers of sand and earth, and were motoring through lining bed two.

With the south now looking clear, it was time to start covering the new space won back from nature with woodchip to keep future weeds at bay.

Sadly with a long run comes reduced working time and before we knew it we were tidying away gloves and tools and readying ourselves for group photos, perched around the pallets neatly stacked early by Alison and Rawan. After a quick thank you to Lara for hosting us, and a promise to return for future tasking, the group headed back across the border into Lewisham and started the long journey back to Glass Mills.

Next up: our monthly social at Lewisham Lanes – see you there!