Another Tuesday, we know what that means........

It's goodgym

We had a group of 8 volunteers tonight, including our tourist from Tower Hamlets Kareem.

A warm, Welsh welcome to you....

CROESO

This was our first ever time helping out at this hostel, but not our first time helping the Salvation Army.

First to set off were our walking elves, making their way directly to the location shared by Michael. Then, after a warm up led by Lucy it was time for the reindeer runners to head out.

A shorter route there, in case we needed extra task time, both groups arrived simultaneously. Michael rang the doorbell and we were let in.

Michael also works for the Salvation Army at another hostel that we have helped, so tonight he was also task organiser. A quick chat about what the hostel is, and it was time to make our way to the back yard and get busy.

Task ahoy

Tonight's task,

• Sweep the yard
• De-tangle the bramble from the clothes lines
• Weed the stones
• Cut back brambles growing from the train tracks
• Put up the lights around the railings
• Unpack and put out the new table and chairs.

Everyone got to work as tasks were handed out, Lucy and Jonathan grabbed the secauters and got chopping. Owen and Kareem we're raking it in as they weeded the gravel. Martin straight in with the brush, bum bum. Neda got down and dirty weeding the yard. Emily, with tool in hand, was on light duty. Each set of lights had to be unscrewed for the batteries, then put back together so that they were waterproof. Then cable ties secured them giving us the way glow that was needed in these Winter months.

Greenery collected was put back on the land behind the fence, where it will rot down and feed those hungry worms. All that was left was to unpack the furniture, Neda and Martin got to work on this.

We bid farewell to the support worker as we left, and took to the streets for a slightly longer run to make 4.5km in total.

Along the way, managing to pick up a student who ran with us nearly back to the Glassworks, but he had to head off to the train station. Will we see him again, who knows....

Once back, we went into the Glassworks for a games night and lots of laughs.

Congratulations to Kareem for winning telestrations and Emily for winning Exploding Kittens.

See you all again soon. 🎄

After three weeks of tackling this wild garden, Kevin, llana and Kareem finally finished! Each session ran for almost two hours and felt like we were on an adventure. The place looked like it hasn't been tended for a very long time and was completely overgrown full of brambles, trash and loads of thorns (had our fair share of scratches along the way)

We even found animal carcasses hidden in there (not the kind of treasure we were hoping for). The highlight was a neighbour's cat who watched us like a tiny supervisor making sure we didn’t slack off.

By the end we cleared everything up and piled all the cuttings in one corner for the council to collect. We also fixed up the fence and did a bit of woodworking. Kevin came prepared with the right tools and some spare wood!

It was hard work but super satisfying to see the transformation. Now Ms A actually has a garden she can enjoy instead of a mini jungle. A great team effort all around and mission accomplished!

9 GoodGymers Lifted the Curfew in Camden!!

Every October GoodGym teams up with This Girl Can to back the wonderful #LetsLiftTheCurfew campaign.

As the evenings grow longer this campaign is all about creating safe spaces for everyone – and especially women – at night.

And this lovely group – of Emilie, Gary (who's recently joined our Camden crew – welcome!), Jackie, John, Kareem, Lydia, Siobhan, and Steve – created a brilliantly safe and inclusive space last night!

Amidst the evening bustle of Camden Town, we set up shop at Cecil Sharp House, where a bountiful haul of fallen leaves awaited us.

Following a lively group warm up – where we nearly counted to 30... – we grabbed brooms and gloves and rakes and bags, and we started clearing up this special communal garden :)

Within 60 minutes this group made a visibly brilliant difference – thank you so much, everyone!

Here's to next time!!

“We’ll give it a go, and we’ll get a lot done, but we won’t clear all of it” was my opinion. The task was to dig out a deep, wide load of soil from a planter - which got firmer and firmer, the deeper we got - and shovel it into large bags and wheelbarrows

Others were more optimistic, and I should have dug deep into my memory to remember the many times we’d achieved such an objective in the past. And it was the whole team who dug deep into our physical resources to complete the task – including demolishing and disposing of the planter - with fully ten minutes to spare!

Star of the task was Tom, who’s speedy shovelling of huge amounts of soil had to be seen to be believed. But everyone was on top digging form – and a similar exercise was going on the other side of Rocky Park

The good news is that friends-of-GoodGym Margaret and Ash have somehow raised enough money to build the last of their new community garden beds, with improved accessibility. So we’ll be back in December to help them with that!

Meanwhile, join us on Sunday at 10:30 to help our old friends Catherine and Liam, at the allotments just off Roman Road: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/improving-allotments-near-roman-road-2c26b74e-d164-411a-946b-406aeb52aebd

And next Monday night we’re back at the Parkview Estate: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/the-big-monday-night-task-painting-and-gardening-on-the-parkview-estate-be901ab4-f1c1-495c-9758-1ba4ddd819cd

Autumn leaf clearing for Mrs A in a lovely little cul-de-sac garden, tucked away from the hustle and bustle, complete with cats and Buddhist sculptures. Enjoyed a warm cuppa and some wonderful conversation with Kevin and Mrs A, reminiscing about the past.