What an absolutely gorgeous evening for doing some good! ☀️

This evening we met at a buzzing Papa's Park. The music was blaring, the cafe was open and Valcie came to say hello!

We briefly discussed our favourite beverages for a day such as today (including several healthy and soft choices!) 🥵 and then we got going to Larkhall Park's petanque pitch/court/arena(???) which had definitely seen better days...

There we met Alex who gave us very clear instructions of our task:

• Uproot a load of weeds that had gone wild around the edge of the pitch
• Rake the gravel into piles
• Shovel the gravel into wheelbarrows
• Wheel the gravel to the big pile at the edge of the park so it can be reused

It was a proper workout but most of us switched up jobs so we didn't get too tired. Ed kept going on his weeding patch though, right up until the end. 👏

Some locals and one of the Friends of Larkhall Park who walked by said they were super grateful for what we were doing, pleased that the petanque pitch would finally see some use! (And definitely be easier on the eye...)

Petanque you very much

Nice work guys! Here's the link to next week's task and we'll head to the pub afterwards too! 🍹

After a slow start tracking the group down in Larkhall park's miniature hills we met around the bed we were set to clear. The Friends of Larkhall had managed to get hold of some spades and forks to attack some tall plants with deep roots.

Originally intended to brighten up the space this plant had sown its seed far and wide and was starting to kill other plants in the bed. Unfortunately it was time for it to go.

We set to work straight away working out from the middle removing a lot of plants, a couple of us set to work removing some dead plants from the hedge in the middle and Sam worked on clearing the litter we unearthed as we cleared. Including a full, unopened bottle of wine!

The Friends of Larkhall park were really grateful for our visit, enabling them to get a lot of work done in a short space of time.

After weeks and weeks of scorchio last night saw the weather break and a bit of rain happened. This was somewhat ironic as one of our tasks was helping our pals on Clapham Common to water the wildflower meadow that we planted in the spring. After a serious amount of back and forth with watering cans, the heavens opened last night and the lovely pitter patter of refreshing H20 could be heard falling from the sky. OH WELL.

Before all that though, we welcomed back Vicki - HI VICKI - who is visiting from Oz for a bit and it was lovely to have her back. We also celebrated the brilliant Emma and Jim, who earned their 50 and 100 t-shirts respectively. WELL DONE GUYS!

After a quick warm up we split into two groups. Jim and Beth led one group about 1.5km to Larkhall park:

11 of us took a leisurely jog over to Larkhall Park to meet Carl. He had a lot of weeds that needed pulling up and was grateful that we would have them out before the rain came and they would be reinvigorated and take over even more. We split into two groups - Team Weed and Team Thistle. There were noticeably different approaches in the two groups, Team Weed went with a ‘bend at the hip, bums in the air’ vibe while Team Thistle crouched down and really got on the same level as their targets. After half an hour or so the area was looking much better and we set off on an even more leisurely jog back to Papa’s.

The rest of us headed to the aforementioned Clapham Common to do some solid watering. The plants were so dry that we certainly did some good and the rain that came later can only help the lovely plants on their way to perennial glory.

Nice work GoodGym!

Wowee! What a night. Many amazing runners came along last night and boy did we need them. We had three tasks to complete and they weren't going to do it themselves. After a nice warm up from Tom Benson we split into three groups.

JKB led the small but perfectly formed team a short distance to a GP surgery, where some planters needed moving for the GP Food Coop. Completed in record time, the team then joined Katie's group at nearby Larkhall Park.

The Friends of Larkhall Park had a large area of overgrown thistles that needed removing, whilst leaving the nice decorative grasses in place. We identified those to take and those to leave with the skill and precision we are famous for. The team also did some nice sprint work as well, which involved dodging dogs and a danger log. It all happens in Lambeth.

George C led the final group up to Clapham Common where we planted some wildflowers (is that an oxymoron?). The small plants looked a little bit like tufts of grass but fingers crossed they will actually turn into lovely flowers, otherwise it makes a mockery of the hard work we have been doing removing the original grass. Hmmm....

Back at base we did some nice stretches and everyone went home more exercised and happier than when they arrived. EXCELLENT!