We started tonight by welcoming some of our new members at the Bridge House (even more met us at the task!) and talked about running habits and new year celebrations. James and Jamie had both been for a chilly swim in Eastbourne in the past week :) Then our icebreaker question today was what would you like to do more of this year, with a lovely range of answers from doing more community charity things, to doing more self care and less 'stuff' overall. Which reminds me, I said I'd found out there are seven types of rest and needed a nudge to remember what they all are - so here they are, see which of these you might need to pay a bit of self-care attention to every now and again: Physical rest, social rest, spiritual rest, creative rest, mental rest, sensory rest, and emotional rest. So covering things you might forget you need, like seeing friends, going for a forest walk, playing Lego, whatever works for you :) And back to tonight's task - we then headed the short (but hilly) way to the Water Tower to meet John and our other taskers. Once there we each grabbed a tool and set about the weeding, sorting of rocks and stones, sieving soil through the tried and tested shopping trolley, and digging down til we met concrete. So you could say some of us were movers and some of us were shakers! In fact we did so well that John had to go fetch more bags to pile our hard work in! Then we set off back down the hill, some of us had a little stretch back near our meeting spot, and were happily joined by a passerby who promised to sign up for a future task.

Last night we had a variation on a longstanding task - instead of weeding at the Water Tower, we were to bag up rubble that we'd been separating for months from the green waste. The good news - it's to be reused! ♻️

We met at the Bridge House, and this week's question was - "What craft or fix have you done recently?". From DIY to computers, we've got a resourceful bunch at GoodGym!

We set off and climbed towards the top of Crystal Palace Park around the longer, north side, arriving at the Water Tower to meet David, our host for the evening.

The hardcore is to go to the Croydon Sailing Club to help build the foundations for their new clubhouse; cementing a new history for Brunel's historic Water Tower 📖

Bags provided, team GG attacked the rock piles and stacked up the loot to be moved this week. David was very grateful for our efficiency - many hands make light work and nowhere is it more true than GoodGym 🎉

We headed along the south side if the park and back to Bridge House to complete a loop of the park, a total of 4km and much uphill over the course of the evening.

Fab work, everyone! 😁

Tonight we took another trip to the olde water tower. It’s been a long old project but we’re definitely down to the nitty gritty bits now.

We jogged/strolled up from the Bridge House (omg it’s getting dark quick) and met John who led us in.

One day a team of real archeologists will come in to do the finishing touches but until then, they’re stuck with us.

We decided to target two sections of pipework on opposite sides of the tower, pulling out bricks and rubble, removing weeds and soil. We did a really good job of exposing the pipes and I did a really terrible job of taking clear photos.

Nice work Time Team.

Tonight we had another lovely sunset run / walk to the Crystal Palace water tower where John split us into two groups: one excavating the delicate clay pipes running around the perimeter of the water tower base and the other clearing away the last of the foliage towards the back of the base. We made some interesting discoveries as we cleared, including a massive spider and a decades old crisp packet which sadly still hadn't disintegrated :(

As ever, the conversation was varied - from race day strategies for the Big Half in two weeks' time to favourite sweet condiments (Maltesers spread is now firmly on my list to try!)

A sudden and unexpected rain shower brought our session to an abrupt end, but not before we'd made good progress with our tasks. Have included a couple of before and after photos with this post - excellent work team!

We were back to the Water Tower at Crystal Palace this week after getting rid of many of the new weeds last Monday.

We met at Bridge House and gave our opinions on the best barbecue and other summer foods. From halloumi to aubergine to sardines, we had a great diversity of choices! After a quick warm up at the base of Crystal Palace Park, we ran up 🏃 and around the edge of the inside of the park 🏞️, which was nicely populated with locals enjoying the summer evening ☀️. Tackling the serious hills of the winding paths, the team arrived at the Museum and Water Tower ready to start work.

Clare and Cat tackled cleaning out the delicate pipework around the edge of the tower to get rid of the soil so that it can hopefully be restored. The rest of the group continued weeding, clearing loads of unwanted greenery in the 40 minutes we were there.

As we neared 8 o clock, we finished up and took the remaining waste out to the recycling pile before heading back down through the centre of the park back to Penge.

Brilliant work over the last 2 weeks, everyone! It looked like a jungle in there 10 days ago and now it's maintainable again 🙂

The bushes bit back as we returned to the Crystal Palace Water Tower 💦🗼 to discover that, despite our best efforts to remove the soil over the past 2 years, nature found a way.

We met at Bridge House on a hot day 🔥, but not too muggy and starting to cool off, ready for a run. This week's question - what's your favourite Olympic sport 🤸 to watch? Paris 2024 having begun to grace our screens from the start of the weekend, we had a diversity of answers from aquatics to gymnastics to archery.

With introductions done, we powered around the park 🏃 on Crystal Palace Park Road, climbing the steep hill (though less steep than the direct routes!) and reaching around the top to drop into the water tower (figuratively), where we met John and the news that we had our work cut out for us 🧑‍🌾

However, the weeds weren't deep rooted and the soil was ill, so they came out really easily and we did a lot in the allotted time. We bagged up our work and dragged it out, and said goodbye to John.

The run down was through the centre of the park with a beautiful evening view of Bromley and Bexley, veering off and round the south side of the park back to Penge.

John was really pleased with our efforts and we'll be back next week to carry on 💪