One of the philosophical stickers I give out to 4 year olds (less creepy than it sounds, honest) is “What’s slower than a snail?” Not Team Goodgym Greenwich!

On Wednesday, we made the short trip to Woolwich Works, via a run along the river, to help clear up their community garden. It’s a really exciting new project and made even more special that the project is being run by fellow Goodgymer Zeb. Situated literally in the backyard of one of the most historic buildings Woolwich, it’s sure to be a hit with the local community and a really valuable place to relax, reflect and unwind.

We divided up tasks - from picking up litter, to strimming and trimming, to weeding. Lots of fun was had with the power tools and special shoutouts to Brin and Marta for taking on the challenge.

Largely untouched for who knows how long, but the garden was we found it was a hive of activity - grasshoppers galore, and the recent wet weather had brought the snails out. Which in turn brought out the snail-expert Franki - there are apparently 60,000 snails in the average garden (average probably taken from somewhere like Tunbridge Wells), and the one with shells that go leftward (anticlockwise) are 1 in 100,000, so have particular trouble finding a mate. Maybe they just need to come out of their shell. Or shell out on some decent garms. Cue me checking every snail I picked up before throwing into the newly coined Snail Sanctuary bushes.

We decided to limit our tidying to parts of the garden, leaving other parts of the garden wild. And we hope Woolwich Works agrees to continue to give the wildlife and insects a place they can still call home - which will in turn attract more birds and general diversity. Which will only make it a more attractive place to visit as a human!

This did make us think about future missions and the impact on ecology of traditional gardening, and how we’d like to balance “gardening” with projects that re-wild, or maintain-wild. And big thumbs up to Matt for coming across a Guardian Science Weekly podcast about wild vs artificial gardens: https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2023/aug/08/summer-picks-should-we-ban-artificial-grass-podcast which is very thought provoking.

Huge thanks to Zeb for the chance to stand on stage at Woolwich Works, and telling us about the various events there - such as the free tours at 11am on Sunday mornings!

Wowee, Wednesday night saw it all! One of our largest turn outs this year, and two new faces joining our ranks - well done Franki and Yuliia on your first group run. We had a lovely task ahead of us in our favourite location, but before we headed to the task we quickly went around and discovered how we would fight our enemies. A lot of the team chose ways that would bore their enemies and an overall preference for using their special talents. Great to see a lack of violence other than my mind when thinking up the ice breaker.

Following a juicy little warm up we headed off through Charlton. We wound our way through the residential streets onto the bike path that takes us straight to the side entrance. The back half of the group did get disconnected but, I, your brave leader journeyed back to reconcile the two groups and lead us into the warmth of the Maritime Museum's Collection Center.

Matt greeted us and showed us the purpose of our task, which was to take down ceiling tiles, which then the golden age group would "gild". The tiles came from a special room in a separate building, where the records and archives are stored. The tiles are part of a room for discovery for younger visitors. The task was large and we started a chain, but not before intellectually planning how we would identify the panels and their homes in the roof. The time passed very quickly and all of a sudden it was time to head back to Charlton House.

The group managed to stick together this time and we got back with time for a good stretch and a chat. See you all next time folks, keep plugging away at the good deeds as we are in close contention with our group for the January Challenge!

The rain thunder-plumped on London yesterday afternoon. So much, that I had to turn up the volume on my ‘Rain Sounds’ playlist to drown out the falling cats and dogs. But as I emerged out of Woolwich Crossrail’s (admittedly gorgeous) aluminium-façade-fronted station, I was welcomed into a pretty-perfect Autumn evening, just as the sun was starting to drop.

And that was where us GoodGymmers gathered. We caught up and broke our own ice (as run leader, Sara, suggested), and it felt lovely to be up and chatting after a day of increasing the volume on my ‘Rain Sounds’ playlist. Then we started. Sara welcomed two familiar newcomers to the group, Rhiannon and Zeb (welcome both, really awesome to see you last night!), and then told us the bad news – the task was situated up a very long hill, far away, and hopefully we’d each brought provisions and camping equipment. Dazed by this announcement, we introduced ourselves to the group, and we each answered a question – do we check the weather forecast in the morning? Well, turns out, nah. Some actually appeared anti-weather-forecasting due to their (alleged) unreliability, and others actively checked the weather forecast whilst already outside to essentially libel the Met Office, calling them out for false truths…

After that, we had a quick warmup on the greens around Woolwich Crossrail’s station, and then we headed off, through the throng of commuters. A few of us (Alex, Andy, Sarah, Rhiannon, Zeb, and me) got separated, probably still thinking about the deceitful weather forecasts, and then we found the others who were waiting, probably wondering where we’d gotten to (and also, whether it really was going to rain). And then we plodded collectively as a group, upwards. And up. Higher. A little more. Even further. Not there yet. Some more. At altitude. Dizzy. Low oxygen. Above the moon. Out of orbit. Still not there…

And then we made it, all of us collapsing through the doorway of the very impressive Shrewsbury House, a gorgeous grade II listed early 20th Century building that functions as a community centre for the surrounding population around Shooter’s Hill and Plumstead Common. There, we were given brooms and a hoover, and several started to sweep the foyer and the stairs, and even up the stairs, and all over. Whilst others of us, waiting for dusters and cloths to arrive, took a stroll outside looking for litter. Which we didn’t find much of because Shrewsbury House runs a tight and tidy ship.

But in the garden, in the dark, with headtorches alight, we looked, most of us agreed, like a team of swat burglars. Of course, the temptation to descend from wires through the air vents was strong and we had to hold Alex back from storming through the great windows… And then we (and those sitting just inside the windows) were saved by shouts from Sara: ‘the cloths are here!’ We jaunted back and started to dust, dust, dust the walls, and the banisters, and the staircase, and above and around doorframes. And this allowed us to move around the house, where we saw the busy buzz of activity that goes on here, with some enjoying yoga classes, others playing musical instruments, and many just chilling in the great rooms, enjoying each other’s company, and perhaps also enjoying the sight of us swat cleaners, making our way round the place in search of dust.

Then, the house spick and span, we aligned ourselves along the staircase (with great difficulty) for a photo, and we headed into the night. Alex and I left the group there to catch a bus back down Shooter’s Hill, whilst the others jogged back to Woolwich, this time down the hill, the hard work already done. Thanks for a lovely evening all!

Thank you for the report Steve! If you'd like to join our group chat on whatsapp - let me know and I can share the link. See you all soon for some more good deeds in Greenwich.