GoodGym and Camden MIND

On a beautiful sunny day, two enthusiastic people walked briskly to Castlehaven to clear away the weeds.

Another sunny Tuesday, hooray! One of the regular volunteers commented that we always bring the sunshine; we try! This week Paul had another great task for us to get stuck in to. Gathering up trugs, trowels, mini-forks and gloves, we headed to the big raised bed near the nursery. It was looking rather lovely, with aliums standing proud and a general lushness all round. Our job was to get down and pull out all the little weeds that have come up in response to the rain at the weekend.

We were eager to get on, so made use of the kneeling pads (these are marvellous!) and set-to picking out the tiny weeds and tugging hard on the tougher, bigger ones. I always pick up a pair of gloves, but usually end up discarding them and getting all muddy, not because I like being muddy, but because I like to feel what I'm actually doing! It's amazing how therapeutic this kind of task is, you can chat, you can work in silence and you can drift off in your thoughts, engrossed in a very focussed activity. Mrika commented that she has really enjoyed these sessions and might like to come along to one of the regular sessions held at Castlehaven.

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up. Just look at all the weeds we cleared (see photos above)! Great work!

Before heading back to our start point, we did some core work and talked a little more about the wonderful Couch-2-5K, a great little podcast that can help you start running - lots of people use it to get active and to build up their fitness gradually. It turns out Mrika downloaded it after last week and has already been out and had a go!

Our next sessions will be in September, so keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing you again soon.