Designed and setup as a starter session, this group run on Saturday did have a newbie signed up, but she dropped out in the morning after Sam sent out a reminder email.

Not to worry, David, Laura, Lindy and Tim met up Sam at Old Spike for 10:30. After talking to the manager of Old Spike and convincing him to come on Wednesday night for his first group run, they gathered outside in the alleyway to warm up and answer the recycled ice breaker question and snap poll Sam used on Wednesday night. The result? Pineapple is not allowed on pizza and hot toddy and lemon, ginger and honey are popular remedies for when you have a cold.

Daryl just arrived in time as we ran 2.5k from Old Spike to Tiny Forest in Peckham Rye Park after doing a loop of the park.

Anna and fellow Tiny Forest treekeeper, David met us at the site just as Clare arrived as she walked from home. The starter session task was to weed around the growing tree saplings as these weeds were taking vital nutrients for these trees to grow. With cheap hand tools Sam got from Amazon and 30 minutes later, they managed to scratch the surface of weeds in this Tiny Forest patch in Peckham Rye Park.

With five minutes left, the group that ran over said their goodbyes to Anna, Clare and David as they ran a short 1k back to Old Spike for their deserved flat whites and lattes to finish off the morning and get rewarded for this quick group run.

Fresh from junior parkrun, Anna, Sam, Maria and Olive met at the Peckham Rye Tiny Forest with coffees in hand. We were soon joined by Phil and were ready to get weeding!

It was quite a challenge at times to see the trees for the weeds, as a proper weeding was long overdue. However with some gardening gloves and strong pulling biceps the five of us made some real headway, clearing over half of the South forest of its unwanted undergrowth.

Somehow Maria had made it to 36 goodgym tasks and this was her first weeding mission! She was a natural. Thanks to Sam for providing the tunes, and Olive and Phil for coming from marginally further afield to help.

We managed to do a couple of surveys alongside the weeding. We found that water drained in 14 seconds inside the forest where it took 3m 30 seconds outside. Great for flood management! We then took a look under the paving slabs to see what bugs and slugs we could find.

Still a lot to do at the forest, so watch this space for further sessions.

In the midst of an amber weather warning for rain, I met some soggy representatives from Earthwatch this afternoon for their community event at the Tiny Forest on Peckham Rye Common.

The rain put a dampener on the planned activities, and the second session of the afternoon was cancelled. However, I was able to have a one on one training session with Emily from Earthwatch on how to use the monitoring equipment to submit data on the forest, and also an intro to weeding the site. This means I'll be able to set up a Tiny Forest x goodgym session soon, hopefully in better weather, so we can all get involved in helping Peckham's Tiny Forest to thrive.

Goodgymers joined a number of other locals, including retirees, toddlers and school groups, to help EarthWatch Europe plant a new "tiny forest" on Peckham Rye Common.

The concept was designed by the Japanese botanist Miyawaki and involves planting different species of trees much closer together than a traditional forest, and in a smaller area. This means cities can benefit from increased biodiversity, carbon absorption etc in a short period of time.

The forest will be monitored for impact over the next 10 years.

It was cold and muddy but we all got stuck in and "dug deep". After the session this afternoon there should be 1,200 new saplings on the Common.