The BIG NEWS of the evening is that party poppers were popped for the brilliant Tim, who completed his 50th run last night. Give that man a cheer - he sure deserves it!

This evening we had two lovely runs - a small group led by Lucy and Nicky went 1km to Brixton Orchard - where a spare spot of land on Brixton Hill has been turned into a lovely, well, an orchard! There was a lot of woodchip mulch that needed spreading across the site and this crack team of 8 worked hard to get it all done.

I sure am going to miss Clapham Common! Especially the workout Katie makes us do on the benches! Said Issy.

The rest of us headed 2.5km back to Clapham Common for our final session of the year. The final strips have been dug and soil turned over - all ready for wildflowers to be planted. We can't wait to see what this looks like next summer. GoodGym have visited this site a number of times since March and have been a key part of the effort to create a tranquil, bee-friendly area on the Common. Hooray! After some lovely strength work, we all ran back to base for stretches.

What bakes! Said everyone.

On return to base we were treated to FOUR different bakes from Nicky, Issy, Sarah and a surprise chocolate fudge from GG Camden visitor Liz. YUM! After dining out on the sweet stuff, what more could we want than a social night at local pizza place 500 Degrees? Our backwards meal was highly recommended and people tucked into some delicious oven-fired delights. Some people had the classic Margarita. Freyja added olives to hers - an Olivita! George C had the terrible FUNGHI but he seemed to like it. Nelly had a vegan tomato and no cheese pizza. Elise accidentally ordered a white pizza so took some of Nelly's tomato base! Many of us enjoyed their home made ZINGY lemonade! It really kicked off. Thanks Steve for organising and thanks Lambeth for a great evening of tasking and feasting.

The first week of October meant it was proper dark when we started our run and even darker when we finished! Luckily, we had two great tasks to get on with and everyone was super up for it.

A smaller group led by JKB headed back to the Tulse Hill Estate, where task owner Vinnie and his barky dog had three jobs that needed our attention. One group sorted out a compost heap that was a right mess, another moved a big old load of soil whilst group 3 moved a load of soil. You could say it was an evening of MOVING for this team but boy did they do well. Shout outs to Andrew and Rebecca who stayed behind to tidy up at the end. TOP STUFF.

WOOF! WOOF! Said the dog.

The rest headed to the fantastic Grove Adventure Playground, which is 1km away. For those wanting a longer run, Tom H led a group 3.5km round the houses. Once there, some people set about digging holes in the ground to plant some grasses that were from the Chelsea Flower Show don't you know. It turns out this was much harder than it seemed as chunks of concrete were awaiting us below the surface. After some serious perseverance all grasses got planted, which task owner Anthea was very impressed by. Another group filled up a flower bed with soil and the rest set about some serious weeding of flower beds out the front and also between the paving out the back. Even more people swept and mopped the floor inside. All in all, we got loads done and one tool was like a broom but had a tiny head on the end and we thought it was like a giant's toothbrush. So that was fun.

It's like a giant's toothbrush! Said Freyja.

On return to base, we tucked into some delicious biscuits and some cake that had candles on it as it was Katie's (that's me!) birthday so that was very nice. THANKS LAMBETH!

We had two lovely runs this evening, one was back to the historic Brixton Windmill. Tucked away off Brixton Hill, lots of people don't even know this windmill exists but it does and it is a great place of learning, surrounded by a peaceful garden. Beth led a group on a 1km route to the mill, whilst those wanting a longer run took the 4km Tom Benson run bus.

Here's what Beth had to say:

For those of us that took the direct route up Brixton Hill there was some chat on the way there about how few of us knew that Brixton had it’s own fully functioning windmill. On arrival we were a little disappointed to see that the sails had been taken off the windmill but once they are repaired they’ll be back on and it will be looking more functional again soon. Jean handed out tools and showed us what needed doing. A large group neatened up the edge of the path, a group of three started digging a spot for a new tree and there was also trimming of some overgrown plants to be done. Once the reinforcements arrived in the shape of Tom’s long run group there was even more digging going on and plenty of sweeping and bagging up of weeds.

The rest of us went 2km up to the Tulse Hill Estate. Hidden amongst the buildings is an incredible polytunnel that serves as an educational food growing project for the whole estate. Over the summer, hundreds of tomato plants were cultivated and given out to residents to grow on their balconies. The project gets lots of reclaimed wood that is used to make pallet beds for growing but at the moment it was all piled up next to some garages. Presenting a fire risk, it needed to be moved so we squeezed into the small space and started pulling them out and taking them to a safer space. The pile was quite big and there were bits of timber, old fence and even a fireguard that we pulled out of the way. It was a fantastic effort made all the better by not scratching the very nice VW Golf parked precariously near to the work area.

On arrival back to base, we tucked into some Bake Off treats from Tess and Sarah. It was all delicious and we headed off home happy.

September has come round and the nights start to draw in again. The hot summer has started to leave us but that was lucky for this evening as we were back to Clapham Common to take off some more top soil as we finish off the wildflower meadow. As the summer was hot and dry, the ground was still pretty hard and everyone had a tough session trying to get their spades through the roots!

It's hard to get through these roots! Said everyone

After running 2.5km there, we split into two groups. One went off to do some fitness with Katie and a lovely yoga for runners session from newly returned Sarah, whilst the other half got digging. After swapping, we then ran back in three groups at different paces. On return we all enjoyed WEEK ONE of our Bake Off Sweetstake - Vix and John H brought us some sweet and savoury biscuit joy. Wahey!