10 wonderful GoodGymers visited Camden Town's hidden communal garden!

Last night we were waiting for the rain. The weather forecast told us to bring umbrellas and wrap up warm. Yet we met in a warm and dry hour yesterday evening.

The first group to assemble – Alex, Jackie, John, and Marc (on their first good deed – welcome!) – met in Somers Town to begin the evening with a short run and we were joined by DaMarcus en route!

In a hop and a flash we arrived at Barnes House Estate in Camden Town. Sat between a supermarket, a church, and Camden Town's bustle, Barnes House is an estate with a very special communal garden.

We were soon joined by 5 other wonderful GoodGymers – Alison, Lydia, Paul, Siobhan, and Steve – as well as local residents Dan and Vicky, who always welcome us so warmly :)

Dan and Vicky soon got us on our way to 60 active minutes of weeding, pruning, leaf gathering, and more, and we left the space looking fresh for the winter months to come.

Thank you, everyone for your work and conversation – it was a lovely evening!!

10 GoodGymers turned out for the most autumnal of all autumnal tasks AND Emily hit 200 good deeds!

This special group – Alex, Danny, Emily, Helen, Jackie, John, Kareem, Siobhan, and Steve – donned head torches and gloves and grabbed rakes and brooms in our first properly dark task of the season!

Our home for the evening was Cecil Sharp House, which is itself home to the biggest and best trees in all of Camden...

... which does mean there are plenty of leaves!

Cue 10 GoodGymers meticulously collecting bag upon bag upon bag of falling autumn :)

And amidst all of this effort we were celebrating a very special milestone yesterday evening: Emily – who frequents Camden, Islington, and other GG areas – hit a whopping 200 good deeds! A huge well done and thank you, Emily!

We will back to Cecil Sharp every 3 weeks during the leaf-falling season, and I'm already looking forward to the next session :)

Thank you, everyone!

6 GoodGymers caught the autumn sun and emptied a compost heap!

Nestled in a (large) nook in Chalk Farm sits Adelaide Community Garden. It is huge and wild, and home to a lovely number of carefully nurtured allotments.

This special group – of Caitlin, Helen, Igor (on their first GoodGym trip to Camden – welcome!), Imogen, and Steve – made a wonderful difference yesterday morning.

Amidst conversation and autumn sun, they worked in pairs to dig out the compost heap 👉 wheelbarrow the mulch through the allotments 👉 carefully dispense everything into manageable sacks 👉 and build a stack of bags ready for use on the allotments :)

I know that everything will be put to excellent use very soon – thank you so much, everyone!

4 GoodGymers braved the night and cleared a mountain of weeds!

This lovely group – of Alison, Lydia, Steve, and Alex – arrived at Willingham Terrace Estate in the midst of dusk.

This is a usual and regular haunt of ours and Hilda – our lovely task owner – swiftly got us set up with rakes, hoes, forks, and trowels.

Our target for the evening was stretch of hedgerow that has been competing – poorly... – with thistles and weeds and litter.

Not that they were a match for this group. After 60-minutes of conversation-laden digging and pulling, the stretch was once again clear for the hedgerow to thrive :)

Thank you, everyone!!

8 GoodGymers caught the sunset at a woodland garden in Camden!

This wonderful group – Alison, Deirdre (on their first Camden visit – welcome!), Emilie, Imogen, Lydia, Siobhan, and Steve – visited St Paul's Woodland Garden by Camden Square yesterday.

Just a short hop from where Amy Winehouse once lived this special space is a haven for nature and community.

Catherine – our task host – is part of the brilliant Green City Projects team, and they use this space to support people living with mental health difficulties. It was a joy to be there :)

In the race against the dying daylight, everyone kicked swiftly into good-deeding action last night!

The first task was to move a giant pile of bags filled with something called 'hoggin', which Google tells me is a self-binding mixture of clay, sand, and gravel that creates a firm, attractive, and permeable surface, and which I can confirm is very very very heavy!

Not that was a match for this group's muscles, who moved 30+ sacks to a variety of corners in this woodland space :)

Having completed the shifting and the heaving much quicker than anticipated, everyone moved quickly to emptying the 'hoggin', and it really did create firm, attractive, and permeable surfaces!

Thank you so much, everyone! You did a huge and wonderful amount!