First we had eleven, by the end of the headcount we had twelve and by the end of the warm-up we had thirteen of us ready to get our fingers turned veritably green as we helped at the Gladstone Park Allotments!

With everyone together at last we headed off towards Gladstone Park, despite all my map checking I still managed to take us up one wrong turn but we didn't go far and what's an extra half a kilometre?! It was great to be running in the light although there was still a chill to the air. Kudos to Liz who not only came along in just shorts and tshirt but was also was fresh from having run her first half marathon in Wales on Sunday - amazing effort!

Wrong turn

Once we got to the allotments we were met by Carol who had heard about goodgym through North West TWO, a residents association for the Cricklewood area. She took us down to the plot we would be working on where we also met Michael. The main task in hand was weeding between the plots and in some of the over grown plots too. Everyone donned gloves and got straight to work pulling up the weeds and clearing around the allotment plot. Nadeige, Emily, Caroline and Uthman teamed up to replant some of the strawberry plants that had get tangled amongst the weeds. It was a great team effort and we replanted the strawberries in half a plot whilst clearing the weeds from another half. Nadeige got so into it we thought we were going to have to leave her behind to as she wanted to finish the job!

Teamwork, good for the soil!

We worked hard for about 40 minutes and had made a massive difference - Carol and Michael both remarked that we'd got a huge amount done in the time and it had made a big difference for them. Before we left Carol kindly provided us with some cordial and garibaldi biscuits. With everyone refreshed we said our goodbyes and headed back to base. The temperature had dropped significantly so the pace back was quite a step faster. Everyone did great and we even managed a session of squats in the park!

It was superb evening and after stretching off and hearing the news about the GoodGym Olympics (we need a team this year!) and the London Marathon Cheering we split and some headed home and some stayed for a much deserved drink!

Next week we are doing some leafletting, it's going to be a short task so we'll finish with some fitness work or if we are lucky we'll have a couple of tasks - sign up here!

Cheers, Pritesh

Eleven of you joined me in Willesden Green this week matching my 'world record' attendance numbers as we had our first run in the light as we enter British Summer Time. A BIG GG Brent welcome to Emily, Hannah and Helen who attended for the first time - great to have you with us. Welcome back to Karen who hadn't joined us in some time and for you regulars - well we love to see you too!

Old favourite

Tonight we were heading off to visit Colin at the old police station in Willesden Green, it's a volunteer led project converting the old police station into a community hub for all kinds of things to then be able to take place there.

It's a short run down to the station and we were impressed to see that much of our previous work was blooming at the front of the building - all the planters were full of beautiful flowers!

Colin gave a us a bit of a tour so that we could see some of the activity that had been ongoing, the front reception was pretty much complete, some screen printing equipment had been installed and as previously mentioned much of the gardening had been done.

Our task tonight was to do some more planting and move rearrange some of the flowers that were yet to be painted. Along with this there were various odd jobs to be done - plenty to keep us busy!

Kittens!

Colin being Colin he couldn't help but add some extras on to our tour and our work...first up everyone got to meet the little kittens that live on site - cue all the cuteness! I decided to take on the 'evil taskmaster' role and eventually got everyone split up and on to the tasks.

Everyone worked hard for a good 30 minutes including a 'five minute challenge' for the 'planters' outside - it made for a fun finish and just when we were ready to leave Colin found us one last task!

One more task, one more task, one more task

Clare, Danny, Pete and Samina. rather 'un-abley' assisted by myself took care of that last job helping Colin to move a planter from the police station site across the High Road to the Islamic College.

One swift group picture later and we were off for a run back - we headed back on a slightly longer route that took us out to Gladstone Park (check out the parkrun there every Saturday) and then back to base. A quick stretch off later and we were all done with some of the group staying at the pub for a deserved drink.

We're doing some leafletting for Cricklewood Library next Monday (bank holidays don't stop us!) so sign up and join us!

Cheers, Pritesh