Must be something in the air or just the first signs of proper Spring weather as we did not just have one newbie, but two. Well, technically, Imogen had done a community session in Hackney a few years ago and Cecilia had another account, but we still treated them as first timers - welcoming them into Old Spike Peckham.

Along with the newbies, Sam met up with Maria, Alex, Sophie and Daryl as everyone came well before 18:45, so Sam could start his intro speech earlier. He did the long version to let the newbies know all about GoodGym and ended with his ice-breaker question which was: "Most memorable or best customer service you have received (either restaurant, experience or issue resolved)?"

Many found it hard as people remember the bad experiences more than the good, but we got a few shoutouts to local restaurants and restaurant providers, retailers that responded to feedback emails as well as Tesco's in Surrey Quays and McDonalds in Wigan for their awesome service.

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It would be wild to "eat around the world"

After a quick warm up on the Green, Sam led the group out of Peckham whilst Daryl backmarked. Within 20 minutes, we ran up Chadwick Road (we always find it tough) and came down the other side to end up in Camberwell to meet Catalina (task owner), Richard, Elena, Folarin and Benjamin at the Wildlife Triangle. Sam also met Annette from the Camberwell Green Farmer's Market who kindly dropped off "Eat Around the World" flyers as this community event will be taking place next Saturday (18th).

Most were up for staying to garden and tidy up the Wildlife Triangle, but Sam and Sophie ran off with the flyers to do 25 minutes of flyer drops on Valmar Road and Crawford Road - tackling the big estates with multiple flats. They definitely hit their climb and step count.

Meanwhile, back at Elmington, the team cut back on the brambles, nettles and other weeds. Yet, they had to leave certain parts of the Wildlife Triangle to be wild. Finally, to ensure the weeds do not grow back as quickly, they put down some woodchip mulch.

Just like clockwork as Sam and Sophie arrived back for 20:00, the group were also finishing up. A quick group photo and then a run back to Peckham for a quick stretch on the Green and to obtain our belongings at Old Spike. Benjamin had run back with us and was up for a drink, so Daryl, Maria and Sam sticked around for a pint at the Angel Oak.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Congrat again to the newbies; Imogen and Cecilia for coming along and hope you had a lovely first session with us. Catalina appreciates everything that we do, so she passes her thanks. Thank you to Maria for taking the photos and Daryl for backmarking. Kudos to all!

Last night, 14 Goodgymmers came out to help out at Galleywall Nature Reserve.

First to arrive at our meeting point, Old Spike, was Steve, who had been away recently. Whilst we caught up, newbie Chong arrived - and then nipped back out to check out a bike shop. Similarly, Isaac came dashing in, only to dash back out to do a quick lap of the Rye. Emma, Sarah, Nelly, Fi, Tim and Katy arrived and stayed 😅

Once everyone had arrived, I started welcome speech, and we gave a proper welcome to Chong. Our ice breaker question this week was related to the task... "Imagine we're going on a nature walk together, what do you see?". Tim started us off with a caterpillar, Chong gave some insight into his favourite sports team, and everyone else built a beautiful scene with a river, a waterfall, some salmon swimming in the river, some light filtering through the trees...🥹. It was a great team effort!

After a quick warm-up, we set off on our 4k run to Galleywall. I think it was the warmest day we've had this year, so it was a sweaty one!

When we arrived at Galleywall, James, Richard, Daryl and Andrada were already there. Eddie from Galleywall welcomed us and explained to us the task: we had to move some logs out of a ditch, and then put them back in a less haphazard manner, so that it would be safe for children.

Even though outcome was clear, we were not certain about how to achieve it initially. Steve came up with the idea of taking everything out the ditch, and then putting the big things back first, to give a stable base, so we rolled with that. We got into pairs and started to self-organise, and we completed the task surprisingly quickly.

Eddie came to inspect out work, and during this, he had the idea to dismantle some of the bug hotels so that people at the bus stop would be able to look through the "windows" to see into the nature reserve. After some discussion and experimentation, we opened up two windows.

At some point Daryl got separately picked to mow the grass.

Just as I started to worry that there may not be enough work for us, Eddie came round with laminated booklets which was a guided nature walk of the nature reserve. We split off into fours and off we went!

We finished at 8pm exactly to run/walk/cycle back to Peckham, perfect timing for our social at Skylarking. 🍻

Despite the threatening clouds and chill in the air the rain held off so we were able to proceed as planned at Thorlands.

Simon got us all to work figuring out how to copy the netted frame completed by GGers in a prior session and we all took our turns with the drills.

After a while the group split to make the most of our time, so Richard and David went next door to the garden to continue some of the work done during the group run and made good headway shifting and getting weeds to where they could be more benefit - the compost heap. Meanwhile Tracey and Jo continued woodworking and managed to get a 3D product ready for Simon to work his magic with the netting!

Waiting outside Old Spike Peckham was Maria and Alex, who had just come back from three weeks out in Australia, Japan and South Korea, so we caught up on his adventures as Lindy, James, Paulin and Josie, who came back for her two GoodGym session since her first back in January as she had other commitments on a Wednesday. However, we welcomed Sarah who came for her first GoodGym session ever! Welcome Sarah!

We knew Emma and Rosalind would meet Paulin and Rose at Denmark Hill Community Gardens and Richard and Jo, who was celebrating her 100th good deed tonight at Thorlands Gardens. However, before all that, Sam had to go through his customary speech and do the full version for newbie, Sarah. Just before leaving for a warm up, everyone introduced themselves and asked the ice breaker snap poll and question for tonight, since its Denim Day as well as Stop Food Waste Day, is it acceptable to wear double denim and what tips would you give for stopping food waste?

It started off mixed for the double denim, but ultimately people would wear double denim. Whether they can rock it is another thing... People gave tips like using scraps for soup, stocks and snacks (batter your vegetable peelings and make it into tempura chips), using Too Good To Go and Olio apps, eating once a day, portioning and freezing food.

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Connected with nature

Since the group had to be split in two for the two tasks we had tonight, Maria and James opted to go with Paulin to Denmark Hill Community Garden whereas the rest went to Thorlands Gardens to meet Simon. Yet, they had to ensure they were nice and warm to avoid injury. With Maria backmarking for Paulin's group and Lindy for Sam's, they went off in different directions.

The Denmark Hill Community Garden group continued with what they started last week by deepening and widening the trench, but they didn't get the chance to plant the hedge saplings. This will be done this weekend.

The Thorlands Garden group arrived to find Simon and Richard in the "Walled" garden getting the tools ready. Jo came shortly afterwards to wear her wings as she hit her 100th good deed tonight! Hooray! We split the team in three: Lindy and Sarah took the wheelbarrows to do the woodchip run as Richard and Josie used the mattock and dutch hoe to turn over the soil and take out the weeds as they pushed to connect the woodchip paths. Finally, Alex, Jo and Sam did some weeding as it had been raining a lot recently. As the wheelbarrows of woodchip came through, these were put on the cardboard that had been laid out after the soil had been turned over and raked to be flat.

We completed the task within the allocated 40 minutes as we were encouraged by the 90s tunes in honour of denim day taking us back through the years. Tune after tune!

After acknowledging our great work with a few group photos and putting the tools away back in the "Walled" garden, off we went back to Old Spike Peckham and made it back for 20:30 to meet the others for a good stretch.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Rose and Simon were really pleased with what we got done as per usual. I hope you'd enjoyed your first and second sessions, Sarah and Josie, respectively. Thank you to Maria and Lindy for backmarking their respective runs.