6 Goodgymmers swept the evening cold vibes under the carpet as they imbibed into a good spot of the GG classic that is leaf sweeping.

Alas, Poor Dave

Dave and Jack met Gramps at BHY for a nice run to Russell Park, where we had been summoned for a bit of path maintenance as the leaves were making the area particularly slippery.

We were joined at task by Paul and Veronika at first, while Latoya went into her regular Wood Green walkabout as she looked for Russell Park. Reader, it wasn't the first time, and rest assured, it won't be the last!

Once we were together, we got on with the job at hand, most of us struggling a bit under the cover of darkness - except for Veronika who seemed to have developed an allergy to the light from my portable lamps. Hmm.

Before you knew it, we were nearly done so Jack and Veronika even had a bit of time to do a bit of weeding some wild garlic out of one of the flowerbeds in Floyde's Garden.

We all then headed back home/ BHY while Latoya rolled out the extremely impressive list of races she's running this year. Let's just hope none of those are in Russell Park.

Euclides and Rosa joined forces with the lovely Haringey Walks folk for a lovely loop walk that took in Russell Park, Belmont Rec, and Downhills Park. Conversation ranged from 4am wake up calls from baby twins to economic war malarkey between Colombia and the USA. At the end, we had just walked over 3k and were back at HQ feeling a bit lighter after a nice natter. Highly recommended.

4 Goodgymmers flocked to Noel Park for this year's RSPB's Birdwatch survey and helped enhance the habitat for our feathered friends along the way.

Chirp Chirp

David, Rosa, Euclides and Euclides' mini-Goodgymmers met at Turnpike Lane Station for a lovely walk to Russell Park in Wood Green where we met reps of the new Friends group for a bird-friendly task.

Rosa, the mini-Goodgymmers and halfway through the task E Snr took on the job of doing a couple of laps of the park, surveying and tallying up the number of all the birds they could see within an hour. Pigeons and tits were the most popular, while a real lack of any parakeet sightings was reported as a big regret.

While the birdwatching was happening, David, Euclides, and Laurie and Bex from the Friends group installed seven new bird houses, three new bird feeders, and replenished the already-existing all-you-can-eat avian buffets.

A flocking nice way of spending a Sunday morning

5 Goodgymmers proved they're not afraid of the dark as they lend a hand at Woodside Park as the Friends groups gets on with the work of rehabilitating the tree beds at the Braille Garden area of the park

The One Where Ed turned up and saw what the task was and went 'I'll just go home for 2 mins to pick up my headtorch' and disappeared for exactly an eternity. Poor Paul was worried sick - ed. it might have been more like 4 minutes

Armed with just a couple torches since Gramps big light has decided to do one and head on the long journey to Big Light Heaven, our Goodgymmers were tasked with clearing an outbreak of the always-lovely but over-vigorous green alkanet from the grounds of the Braille Garden area of Woodside Park.

Michael from the Friends group kindly gave us a brief historical overview of the garden, created after WWII as a place where blind locals could come and partake in a bit of gardening, with aromatic planting and braille sign making the task easier for them. Time inexorably marches on, however, and with time the gardens fell into disrepair, becoming a couple of overgrown tree beds. Enter the Friends group!

With a small grant in their pocket and the support and expertise of the Wood Green's Postcode Gardener scheme, the Friends group is working to reinstate some of the beauty and accessibility to the gardens. In other words, they know how to pull at our sentimental Goodgym heart strings...

Even though it was a bit dark, our Goodgymmers pulled the deep-rooted alkanets from one of the beds ahead of a planting session this weekend. Slowly but surely, we got rid of a few wheelbarrowfuls worth of alkanets and weeds.

We also did a gentle litter pick and got rid of a number of empty beer cans, clear evidence that the gardens are still very much in use if only for a different sensory experience.

Come 8pm, Gramps called an end to the procedure but not before some selfies and and assurance to lovely Michael that we will be back whenever the Friends needs a hand. He then tried to poach one of our runners but I'm not sore Gotta respect the hustle!

Join us on Sunday for birdwatching, and next week for more GG shenanigans in the park

5 Goodgymmers catwalked their way to Traid on Wood Green High Road for an evening of interfacing and inboxing

Kudos galore

Big noise for Mark who joined us for his first ever task and was an absolute natural. Star!

And big love for Bianca who didn't let a bit of traffic get in the way of getting to the task this evening. Fashionably late indeed - love that attitude!!

You can both come again <3

Not too crabby

Just when you think that by now we can do a Traid task eve with our eyes closed, we are welcomed by the wonderful Traiders with news that tonight we are not taking clothes off their hangers but instead are packing everything together as it is - ready to be quickly unpacked at a different store the following morning.

We had to get used to a special folding style to make sure the hangers always ended up in the middle of the box to avoid any unwanted tears but once we got the hang of that, our Goodgymmers sailed through this task.

Halfway through, yours truly found a Lobster/Ant/Undetermined crustacean costume so in true Gramps' style, I had to don it for the occasion. It is surprising how little people bat their eyelids when you're running down the High Road dressed as an orange creature!

We're at woodside this eveningfor a spot of tree pit regeneration, and at Russell Park on Sundayfor a spot of birdwatching/ bird housebuilding session. Come!

Our esteemed leader Euclides was unavailable this evening, so Sarah stepped in to lead the group to Lordship Recreation Ground.

Task owner Ximena was also absent, but had given full instructions: we were to spread woodchip around the base of various benches and bald patches around the parkrun and junior parkrun courses.

Equipped with two wheelbarrows, two shovels and a rake, the group made short work of the task, returning to the woodchip pile several times to ensure any potentially muddy patches were well covered.

Meanwhile Dave eschewed the use of tools and developed his own wheelbarrow filling strategy. As Paul said "he's literally the human Swiss Army knife"

As 8pm rolled around the equipment was packed away, Haringey hi 5s were exchanged and our heroes disappeared into the night.

Kudos to Claire for tonight's pun!