Our monthly visit to Full Cycle this evening was less about cleaning bikes and more about a monumental recycling mission.

The main task involved conquering what seemed like endless piles of inner tubes that had accumulated from just about everywhere. Just when we thought we'd rolled up the last of them, two extra boxes mysteriously appeared!

We also shifted a mammoth pile of tyres and worked on the intricate (and surprisingly satisfying) job of removing spokes from wheels.

The sheer volume of recycling we processed made such a difference, as we left leaving some of the floor clear ready for more.... bikes; maybe?! Full Cycle is such a fantastic cause, doing incredible work in the community and we love the variety of jobs we get to help with; sometimes we even learn a bit about bikes 😉. Until next Tyre-time, thanks for having us!

At Canbury Community Garden...

We met up with Marilyn for our evening's good deed before separating into two teams. Armed with buckets and a good sense of humour, Marie-Noelle, and Jana formed the ultimate human river-link, ferrying water from the river to quench the garden’s thirst. Meanwhile, Jacqui and Petra rolled up their sleeves (and their rollers) to fill buckets and cans with liquid gold. Jana, Petra, and Jacqui then went full 'splash squad,' expertly soaking the veggies under Marilyn’s green-thumbed guidance. With Purdey the pooch tailing us like a furry forewoman, we had one hour to turn dry soil into a hydrated haven and we absolutely nailed it. Mission: plant-possible complete!

Tom and Luke helped a former community garden volunteer by cutting up and removing two small trees from her houseboat-garden. They also resisting the tempting offer of a beer each while they worked - showing great restraint on the job!

And on the GoodGym Kingston plot...

The sun had been shining on the GG flowerbed so there were plenty of weeds and laurel to tackle. Ken and Dave set to work on the laurel, brambles and weeds at the back of the flowerbed making sure it looked all neat and tidy.

Marcus dug up the dead plant and the small weeds then headed off to the river to fill lots of buckets with water as the plants were in desperate need of a drink. Meanwhile Claire planted a couple of new plants and tackled the weeds.

The bed was looking very tidy and colourful by the time we left.

Helping create window displays for the BHF is always one of the most enjoyable tasks we do and it was no different on Tuesday.

Summer festivals was the request, so a big team of us got to it. Tom, Petra, Anna, Claire, Jana, Dave, Emily, Laurel and Marcos were up into the BHF's 'Narnia' storeroom and the various spaces bringing down chairs, sleeping bags, guitars, a teepee, plastic flowers and everything in between. Special praise to Emily and Anna for somehow assembling a tent in a very tight space!

We seemed to have done such a good job that it was attracting admiring glances from shoppers outside as soon as it was finished. We rounded the task off with a well-earned drink at the Albion for our GoodGym social.

Sunny Saturday we joined Marilyn at Canbury Community Garden to help with a few chores. Taking on the dreaded bindweeds, doing general weeding around the vegetable beds, topping up the compost heap with the weeds we shredded. and giving the garden a good soak with water fetched from the river. The team filled all the garden containers with more river water ready for the coming weeks whilst keeping an eye on the chicken trying to make a run for it.

Canbury community garden opened in 2016 and very soon after they introduced the first flock of hens.

Tonight's task was to help one of Kingston's amazing local charities, RAK (Refugee Action Kingston) . RAK help out refugees in the area to integrate, live fulfilling, independent lives and become recognised and active participants in their local communities. Part of this involves the provision of clothing and other essential items. Our task tonight was to sort through a load of these donations and help organise their storage system.

As with any catch-all store, there are a few departments at RAK: Mens, Womens, Kids and Toiletries. All of these areas needed reorganising and tidying up. A recent fire inspection suggesting that all cardboard should be disposed of where possible so any items in boxes needed repacking. There were also a whole load of unsorted donations that needed to be split into department or discarded, if the quality was below-par. We separated into groups and did what GoodGym does best - use many hands to make light work. Always amazing how much can be done in a short period of time!

Welcome to Kitty and John on your first tasks! Excellent to meet you and hope to see you next time :)