The gorgeous Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park covers 27 acres and is home to a wide range of wildlife and plants.

Volunteers offer support to Park Manager Ken and his team to help manage the site, including the maintenance of its many pathways.

16 GoodGymers gathered this evening to help remove cow parsley from one of the pathways.

We welcomed Jasand Carina to their first Monday night task before Ken greeted us with a short briefing, tonight's pun and some good guidance on the task ahead...

Why cow parsley?

Cow parsley can spread rapidly and dominate open spaces, overshadowing smaller plants. Managing its spread helps keep a balanced and varied landscape.

The team spent a productive hour in the overgrowth, performing many squats to carefully uproot the stems, and taking it in turns to wheel loads around the corner to the green waste pile, before hurling armfuls of greenery onto this great big green mountain.

By the end of the evening, pathway clearings were more visible (see Emma’s before and after pics) showing immediate results of tonight’s effort.

It was gone 8 when we gathered gloves, forks and wheelbarrows and headed to the nearest bench for our final group pic! Ambling back through the park, we concluded it was something of a relief to enjoy a task in the daylight, complete with warm sun.

Until next time.

A team of at least a dozen goodgymers (I lost count) came to help out the lovely Janet and Eileen at Cranbook Community Food Garden. Thanks to the clocks going forward we were treated to some actual daylight for the first time in ages. Shout-out to John for reminding me to take some photos to prove that we weren't slacking off in Laura's absence.

We split off into mini groups, each with a dedicated task. Some performed quality control checks on folding tables, keeping the good ones and retiring the rest. Others sorted out sheds at the back, clearing out any rubbish. Litter and leaves (oh the leaves) were were picked/raked/bagged up. Special mention goes to the new rake sourced by Janet which was red and white - a homage to our Goodgym colours perhaps? Or most probably, just a rake.

By the end of the task, the impact of a hard-working group of Goodgymers was clear with Eileen showing her appreciation by bestowing a bar of chocolate on us (thanks Eileen!)

We parted ways (without a stretch this time) having all enjoyed an evening in fine company.

Shout outs to:

• Vidur and Jason on their first Goodgym task. A very warm welcome to you both!
• Ilana on her 50th task. Congratulations!

Until next time...

For some we arrived at a new location on the Hollybush Estate at the Keddlestone Walk Community Centre, for the more senior members of our group they were in a familiar spot.

A group of 7 joined Margaret and Ash to help clean up the garden of the community centre with the main focus the litter strewn about my the foxes, one even made an appearance while we were picking up their mess. A nice assortment of diapers, bottles and wrappers were collected and thrown away leaving the garden spotless.

We were also tasked with tidying out the shed that was filled with numerous lawn movers, saws, cups, paint cans and tarps. See the size of one of the massive tarps below! Laura also made an appearance towards the end which was a nice surprise.

Thank you to everyone that came along to help out and to Margaret and Ash as always. We will be back soon on the Hollybush Estate including some weekends so keep an eye out for the listings.

Please enjoy the pictures below of the group in action, apologies they are not at the usual standard!