Chive Talkin'

Nobody to pick up at Camden Mind today but Tom was already hard at work when I arrived at Castlehaven Hub. Nichola had five chilli plants ready to be repotted for my first task. Tom came over to join and soon we had all five healthy looking chilli plants in much bigger pots.

Paul arrived and we got started on the next round of repotting - very new chive plants (baby chives, if you will!). These were more difficult to get out as they were in a tray rather than individual pots. Nichola showed us how to use a dibber to get the plant out without damaging the roots. She made it look a lot easier than it was for us! We knuckled down repotting the chives, every now and then coming across a tomato or some other mystery plant.

We talked Roswell, UFOs, Big Little Lies (the new seasons just came out and it's very good), Game of Thrones (what was all the fuss about?) and more whilst we worked.

All told we potted 23 plants!

Tom was on watering duty and gave our newly potted plants some water then we took the chives back into the greenhouse and tidied up the work bench (I managed to make quite a mess). Nichola showed us the wormery and told us that worms stop procreation when there's enough worms for their environment size. So clever! The worms are busy making delicious rich soil which then gets taken out and used and they continue to make more. Genius!

Whilst we were there a crew from the BBC were picking up their stuff - they'd been using the hub as a base for a new comedy show called Alabama. I'll be keeping an eye out for that one.

Nearly out the gate and Nichola said we could take home chive or chilli plants if we wanted. I needed no encouragement - I've been looking for a chilli plant to call my own! Tom and I took a pot each and we went round the corner to do some fitness which OF COURSE incorporated the plant pots into goblet squats (great thinking Paul).

After a stretch Tom headed off home - a long walk to carry a chilli plant the whole way! And Paul and I headed back to Mind where we had a last minute discussion about puns. I think we nailed it!

GoodGym and Healthy Minds will next meet at midday at Mind in Camden on Wednesday 19th June. The session runs from 12-1.30pm. Details can be found here).

See you next week!

Lucy J

A merry band of three headed to Castlehaven outdoor hub this afternoon from the Healthy Minds coffee morning. We were accompanied by the soundtrack of Lullatone and various lovely piano pieces with names like 'highly organised cleaning equipment' and the like. Paul, Tom and Lucy were met by Nichola who gratefully accepted her gift of coffee grounds from Paul and showed us to our task.

Amazingly - it being June (!) - someone had just donated a Christmas tree to Castlehaven. The owner was surprised that it had started to go brown as it had done so well since Christmas until now. However, after a little investigation it was clear what the issue was: overwatering! The soil in the tree's pot was absolutely sodden and there were no holes in the bottom of the pot for drainage. Our poor tree was drowning!

First things first, prepare the new pot for the tree. This meant shovelling out all the rather ripe smelling dirt from inside the pot we were going to use. Whilst doing this we found a worm. Unfortunately not the right kind of worm for the wormery so we set him free into the raised beds.

Today I saw a little worm , Wriggling on his belly, Perhaps he'd like to come inside, And see what's on the telly. Spike Milligan

Pot ready, we started the mission of getting the tree out of its sodden pot. No mean feat! Some tugging and twisting wouldnt do it so it was time to get the pocket knives out. Tom and Paul took it in turns to cut into the pot until we had enough wiggle room to pull the tree free - hooray! To our surprise under the first pot was ANOTHER POT. The second was much thinner and easier to get off so finally our tree was free.

• A tree-mendous success

The tree successfully re-potted, we can't wait to see it green and flourishing in the weeks to come. We then helped with some dead-heading and went around the corner for some fitness fun - from squats to lunges to shuttle runs to star jumps and more squats!

Great work everyone :)

See you next week!

Lucy J

Fabulous forward planning

A small, but very productive crew headed to Castlehaven this very wet Wednesday lunchtime where Nichola, our fabulous, forward planning task owner had prepared a variety of interesting indoor tasks…

Greeted by gastropods

On arrival at the centre’s Horticultural Hub, I found Tom and Nichola hunched over the Nursery’s Snail House! What a glorious gastropod greeting. Here we learned from Nichola that the house is indeed a spacious and safe environment for the snails (away from predators in neighbouring parks) and - I feel duty bound to bring you the answer to this question (in case, like me, you had wondered and worried about it): snails do perish if you tread on them and break their shells. All their internal organs lie in the shell (sorry to be the bearer of bad news). So watch your footing, folks.

A picture is EARTH a thousand words

Moving on to the designated tasks for the day, we settled nicely into the Hub’s spacious indoor work stations where Tom potted and planted sunflowers, and I potted the succulents we had left to take route in test tubes a few weeks ago.

We then moved outside to the garden area, and proceeded to spend the remainder of our time planting outdoors, and indoors, before moving to the fruit finale task of the week: planting small wild strawberry plants into hanging baskets.

This was way more time consuming and fiddlier than either Tom or I had anticipated – we agreed on a spiral pattern in the hanging basket, but getting these titchy little plants to stay standing was a test of patience (and deft fingers). And then Tom was tasked with negotiating the chain and getting it to hang. It was a task of tolerance, I can tell you.

And we ran over time-wise! Ahem. But we had previously agreed to head to the Castlehaven Park for a total body workout (Me: What do you fancy for fitness today, Tom? Lower body, upper body, abs? Tom: A bit of everything?. Me: Great! So, a Metabolic Meltdown then? Tom: What’s THAT? Me: Current fitness marketing term for age-old body weight exercises. Tom & Nichola in unison: *eye roll*. Oh, got it. ).

Sports specific training

Tom and I took a leisurely walk over the to park, where he brilliantly executed tough balance moves, such as the single leg squat, Bulgarian split squat, side plank crunch (on a very damp steel park bench no less), decline push ups... Amazing work. And hopefully useful, as one of Tom’s aims is to work on sports-specific goals, for his badminton and yoga, the other Healthy Minds activities he’s been enjoying.

The time flew again, and no sooner had we dumped our bags, were we picking them up again and talking a walk to the High Street.

What a wonderful session: loads done, fitness and gardening-wise. And all in spite of torrential Spring rain!

Can’t wait ‘till next week, when we meet again…(GoodGym and Healthy Minds will next meet at midday at Mind in Camden on Wednesday 15th May. The session runs from 12-1.30pm. Details can be found here).

Coffee morning means new recruits...

It was the first Wednesday of the month, which means GG effectively gate-crashes the popular Healthy Minds coffee morning in Barnes House, in a bid to head out to the day's task with some new recruits.

Established GoodGym/Healthy Mind-ers Paul, Tom and Neil were in attendance making the recruitment of first timers Kenny and David that little bit easier.

Litter-picking galore

And so a good sized crew of 8 of us in the end headed out, marching the short route just around the corner, expertly led by Neil, to Castlehaven's Des Res area where task owner Nichola had carefully laid out bundles of litter-picking kit for our mission today. We distributed litter-pickers, gloves and buckets before heading to our favourite mural for some mobility exercises ("Warm up your lats, folks, we need to warm up your lats, and hip flexors for litter-picking."). And the pun requests started... (today's pun, btw, is brought to you courtesy of Tom, although Kenny deserves a very big shout-out for her brilliant suggestions en route back to Barnes House).

We then divided into two teams to take the two main sections of the park. Tom, David, Paul and I headed in one direction, while (other) Tom, Kenny, Cynthia and Neil took the other section of the park. Between the two teams, a lot of rubbish was collected - the teams blitzed both park areas and had full buckets come 1pm. Impressive.

Full-on fitness

And so we met next to the sports pitch for today's serious fitness session. First up, was our favourite greyhound-and-hare game. Neil and Cynthia started us off, with a 45-second start, power-walking a lap of the park. After a set of jumping jacks, the rest of the team set out and tried to catch them up. But alas, Neil and Cynthia were too fast even for speedy pacer Paul, and they returned to our race start with their leaders title in tact, before we all gathered to cheer in the runner-up walkers.

Then it was mine and David's turn which was truly a battle of the wills, ("I'm walking at my own pace, I won't be speeded up by anyone" vs pushy PT: "I'll see about that."). But we retained our leader title. And then we gathered in a circle to play "Name a body part you want to work." Kenny kicked us off nicely with hamstrings (single leg deadlifts if you don't mind - go, team); Tom continued with a request for a delts exercise (impressive), and Cynthia completed the requests with 'something for the back'. What a collaboration. We were un-stoppable today.

Before we knew it, it was 1.30 and we headed back to Barnes House, feeling like our lower body in particular had been put through its paces, but with our spirits high.

Thank you all, for another wonderful Wednesday lunchtime. And don't forget, we do it all again next week...

GoodGym and Healthy Minds will next meet at midday at Mind in Camden on Wednesday 8th May. The session runs from 12-1.30pm. Details can be found here).

The early bird catches the worm (literally)

It was an efficient operation in North London today, as a keen team were not merely on time, they were ahead of time. Tom, returning from Week I (hurrah), had made his way straight to our task at Castlehaven to make a head start on the borders we were helping the team prep, ahead of a big rambling rose planting project.

He’d wasted no time in getting a hoeing tutorial from task owner Nichola, and was already an hour in to this great gardening task by the time the rest of us arrived.

Meanwhile, I had arrived at MIND’s Healthy Minds session early, or so I thought, only to find Elvis ready and waiting, backpack in tow. While we waited a few minutes for any latecomers, we sat in the sun and discussed the merits of being early arrivers.

After enjoying a lovely leisurely walk over to Castlehaven, we were met by Nichola and Tom, who proceeded to show us our work for the lunch hour, joining Tom hoeing, digging and weeding along the border of the large community park. It was tough work – I was lucky enough on be on digging, but Elvis and Tom made a fine job of mastering the hoe, getting a thoroughly good upper body workout in the process.

New Kids on the Rock

Before we knew it, it was time to transition from gardening to glutes and we made our way around to the other side of the park, where I’d spotted some boulders, the perfect multi-gym for our alfresco fitness session. We dived straight in with rock push ups, the perfect push up alternative for gardening-weary upper bodies, allowing for pecs to be worked rather than back muscles. The team worked harder still, and were exceptionally patient as I continually nagged them to, “Bend elbows, lower chest only, no sagging backs.” We moved rapidly on to some planks with leg lifts, seated leg drops for the abs, finishing with lunges and stretches. A fine fitness addition to the week or what.

Well done everyone.

We’ll be back for another GoodGym Healthy Minds session at Castlehaven next Weds, the 17th, meeting at Mind in Camden at 12 (the session runs until 1.30pm).