The first 2016 GoodGym of Spring yesterday, a more intimate group than normal - 6 stalwarts in total. Where is everyone else hiding?! Must be in intense training for the Hackney Half, the only plausible explanation.

We hotfooted it down to our new task. Abbey gardens, situated next to Abbey rd (not that famous place where people take pictures in an effort to replicate a Beatles album cover and fail miserably, no, somewhere else).

Very excited to reach our new destination, with 12th century Abbey relics, it's a protected site, and rightly so. A really gorgeous open space greeted us, with loads of growing beds suitable for the plants and veg that these wise gardeners grow so well.

Our job wasn't to gently nourish and tend to the plants, but a more brutish display of GoodGym'sbpower and 'get it done' philosophy. We had the challenge of turning a large compost bin through. This was done with minimal fuss by Sarah and Tim, as they forcefully drove and twisted their upper limbs in order to aerate the compost. Mairead and Alice were tasked with emptying one compost bin into a wheelbarrow, which was then ably emptied by Alison into the larger unit behind. A no fuss approach was adopted, before I knew it the guys had pretty much completed said task. So we quickly moved onto our second job.

Lead gardener Aiste, gave supremely explicit instructions (with pictures) - essentially idiot proofing the jobs - we must have met before. She asked us to also top up some of the many growing beds, another physical challenge, approached with a nonchalant ease by the team. We filled and raked three large beds in no time at all, whilst trying to even them mouth out as well as the eye could see.

A really rewarding task, hope you all enjoyed it as much as i did. Have sublime bank holiday weekends and see you soon!

Brahma