Lovely sunny evening for our task tonight!

We met at Hainault and decided to have a brisk walk into Fairlop Waters to take advantage of the beautiful evening! We walked around the lake and then back onto the fields to make our way to the school!

We decided to try and enter from the field, which we did but it turns out there isn't an easy way to get to the allotment so we did end up jumping over a little fence to make it into the EcoRanger area. We also met the chickens that were really fluffy:)

It's been a while since we've been here and there weeds have really sprung up but thankfully they are easy to clear and we had a nice time chatting and weeding whilst the evening was light.

We finished the session with a brisk walk back - lots of steps to make up for a day of sitting! Well done everyone!

Two good deeds and a parsnip!

This was a tale of two good deeds. Everyone met at the station bang on time at 6.30pm. We noticed that some of the planters under the bridge were looking a bit dry as they didn't get wet during the pouring down earlier in the day. So we grabbed some watering cans and gave the plants a good soak. Everything is looking so lovely with the spring bulbs providing brightness in the dreary area!

We then slowly but surely jogged our way around quiet streets of Hainault via Grange Hill to John Bramston school, where as usual we scared a fox or two on arrival. We also managed to recognise Orion's Belt constellation without the techy help from Linda's app that was at the ready in case we needed it - there's very little light polution where the school is so on clear nights we do like to do a bit of star-gazing:)

Tonight we focused on two raised beds - Julia and Linda focused on the strawberry bed, freeing up the berry plants from a weed that I'm not brave to name here!:) John and James took care of digging up the parsnip bed but leaving the big parsnips for the kids to dig out as that's always fun! We couldn't resist to see how big they were so took one out! We packed up, locked up and walked back to the station.

It's always tough to get out of the house on Monday evening, especially when it's dark and cold, but one never regrets a GG session - a little bit of activity, social banter and a task that's good for the community bound to make you feel energised and good! Great session everyone!

GG Love is in the air!!! Lovely evening to appreciate the best of GoodGym together!

Johnny Time! Julia and James met at the station and were catching up on all things new and old jobs whilst waiting for the other two Js to arrive! Jenny arrived by tube soon after so we were waiting for John, who is usually very punctual. We weren't worried but then we saw a big group of police officers rushing to the trains. Our imagination ran wild hehe but thankfully Julia checked her emails to see that John has alighted one stop too soon (easy mistake to make as we used to meet at Fairlop Waters when it was lighter!). Then John came in and without too much chat we jogged off to work off any possible frustration!:)

Doggy Time! We were 5 minutes into our jog when we were running through quiet residential areas and we saw this little fella own his on with his fancy bling collar! But no one was around! Being good samaritans we stopped as we didn't want to leave this little doggy on his own. A quick search and then a post on social media later, we were still there but then we saw someone come out - they recognised the dog and directed us to the houses. Julia knocked on one door and the woman said it was her neighbour's and it happens all the time so we should just leave it....! But Julia did not feel comfortable with that option so knocked on another door and the lady came out and said the dog must've ran out when bins were put out.... The dog was safely in and we went on our way! GGR runners keep finding stray dogs (and on occassion a confused person) that we direct back home:)

Joggy Time! It was a good old run tonight - I guess we knew we had some sugar coming up so wanted to work it off first by jogging a nice quiet route of 3.5km. We then ran back to the the station making it a 4.4km jog - a respectable Monday feat!

Forky Time! Tonight we finally finished the veggie bed we've been working on for 3 sessions! we fluffled it up (technical gardening term) with forks, good workout. We still have 3 more beds to sort out so that the kiddies can use it for their green adventures but that's something we can sort out next time! We had a good chat about lots of different topics as usual - from mildly controversial to extremely controversial!:) We do put the world to rights!

Cake Time! We were going to walk back as the run was pretty intense for all of us but the temperature really dropped and it was getting chilly so we did jog back buoyed by the promise of a hot tea and Valentine's Day treat of GGR traditional Colin cake! Two capuccinos, one hot chocolate, one tea, four mini-cakes and a brilliant chat later we were on our way back home. Another great session in the North of the borough - well done everyone!

We had a small but perfectly formed group tonight - such a lovely evening for a walk and a task!

Arriving We met up at the station where Linda and James have already picked out the rubbish from the planters before Julia arrived munching down on a cereal bar to fuel the session:)

Easy like Monday evening We decided that we wanted to take easy tonight so we walked and chatted to the school where we were greeted by Mr Foxxy who also showed up again later in the middle of us digging - we were impressed by his fluffy coat:)

Doing Good James got all the tools for us and we got to weeding the veggie bed that we started two weeks ago. It was a lovely crisp clear night with star constellations above us (we did try and guess them but think Orion's Belt could've been a Big Dipper.... The time went really quickly and we really put the world to rights talking other tasks, politics, weeding techniques, road safety and a lot more!

Fire, Fire! We were walking back whilst detouring to collect Linda's StreetTags and then we saw a fire station open up with a truck with sirens - of course we felt like a group selfie needed to be in front of it:) It wasn't an actual call for the fire brigade as the truck didn't move so we felt it was OK to take the photo!

Bike Safety First;) Back at the station we continued putting the world to rights whilst admiring James's bike and his security system with theft tracker and good security locks only for James to realise he left his keys in the lock!!!!!!!!! oooh we had a good giggle about that whilst also feeling very grateful that no bike thief was in action tonight. Phew!

Great evening, great banter, great end to the day!

Barking Mad arrivals We had an exciting start to the group session: James, Hélène and Julia had an 'interesting' chat with a very drunk gentleman who considered coming for a run with us, whilst Linda and Sharon were late because they found a dog without an owner whilst getting to the meeting point. Thankfully both the dog and the drunken fella were safely sent on their way, with the dog's owner located and 'go straight' directions to the intoxicated dude:)

Running in the cold night It was such a lovely cold but crisp dry evening for a run on quiet streets of Hainault! James, Hélène and Linda run a good 3.5km with Julia and Sharon doing a 2.8km walk/jog so that we all met at the school at the same time. The sky was clear and the almost full moon and bright stars were just so beautiful.

Hoe before you go It was a super fun session with plenty of banter, jokes and 'Gardening music'! With the current outbreak it's difficult to get kids to maintain the school's allotment so tonight we helped to plant out onions and beans as well doing a bit (a lot!) of weeding!!! Linda, Hélène and Sharon made a good dent in a very overgrown with weeds raised beds. James was 'raking it in' by doing rows for veg planting. Hélène and Julia planted onions and broad beans so hopefully we'll see some young seedlings in a few weeks!

We walked back in the brisk manner to keep warm - great session with lots achieved and fun social banter! Well done everyone!

Today was a lovely cold sunny day but the enclosure of the school's Nature Area created a warm sunny environment!

At 1pm on the clock Eco Rangers have rushed in to help get their veg-growing area ready for winter - bundles of energy and enthusiasm!

Linda and two of the Eco Rangers were in charge of softening out the bed that we prepped last week on our group run - the children were learning how to use the hoe to expand their energy and kids agreed it was a great 'anger management' technique:)

I, in the meantime, got the rest of eco rangers to weed one of the raised beds - we discovered that there were parsnips and turnips there from 2019 (probably) so they grew absolutely huge and required a lot of muscle but it was great fun and everyone literally dug in and had a great time. All the kids took those parsnips with them to show their fellow classmates and parents - we take no responsibility for the mud that no doubt will be there:)

Great session with young Eco Rangers at the school and it's great to see how our effort helps them to have this space to learn, grow and be healthy!

P.S. All permissions for photos were given to us by the school's headteacher (Thanks Melanie!).