Having not personally been to the St Mary’s Forest School for a few months, I was impressed by how much it has changed and turned from a blank canvas to an exciting space with a number of reshaped and themed areas, helped in no small part by a number of recent GoodGym visits.

Upon arriving this week our team split into two groups, with group 1 continuing last week’s efforts formalising the pathways around the emerging gardens many features & areas, whilst group 2 prepared other areas for cultivation with wildflowers. These pathway preparations again entailed the shifting of a top layer of wood chips to reach and also flattening of the earth below, so that weed-controlling membrane could be laid.

Meanwhile, by torchlight, group 2 were raking through and clearing the flower beds-to-be before deftly scattering wildflower seeds and treading them into their new home. As if to support the seeds’ settlement in-situ, we were even treated to a light passing shower mid-task!

Meanwhile, drawing on last week’s experience, group 1’s pathway work was proving swift and efficient as multiple section of membrane were laid and the top-chips returned before being spread and levelled. A final all-hands effort saw additional wood chip harvested from neighbouring areas to ensure the new paths received a good and even covering.

We will return to St Mary’s again next week to continue on this exciting project – who knows what further changes we will see then..!

The first thing I noticed when writing the run report (other than the fantastic pun from Oli) was that it's officially blurry dark photos time!

It was fantastic to see lots of red tshirts gathering outside Glass Mill, some new faces (welcome Pete), some guests from Greenwich and the usual suspects. After a big congrats to our London Marathon runners and a warm up of rock paper scissors, the version that no one is really a winner, we were on our way to The Albany to tackle the litter around the perimeter of the garden space and to tackle some of the weeds in the pavement cracks.

We split into two groups, one group grabbing tools to begin weeding and the other headed into the darkness for the litter pick.

The litter did not disappoint, we ended up with 6 bin bags full of an assortment of litter including a broken record, part of a car, a lot of glass bottles, a lot of chicken shop wrappers, single shoes and a broken litter picker!

Before we knew it, it was time to be heading out and off into the darkness to start our run back to Glass Mill. Thanks to The Albany for having us, we'll be back again to tackle more jobs in the garden.

I've listed a social at the beginning of November and also the Christmas (in November) on the last Friday of the month.

If you'd like to join our whatsapp group then just give me a shout and I'll add you.