Play Tower Hamlets & Dafydd Hughes

Alison Harvie writes:At the junction of Mare Street and Hackney Road the group divided into fairly equal sizes (fitness levels are obviously building with more runners feeling up for a longer run) with our lot headed on the shorter run to Victoria Park in the beautiful evening sun. [Post about the longer run below - ed]We took in what seemed like MOST of the park on the way there – your own correspondent staging a minor tantrum on discovering that we were taking a deliberately long route round – but all stresses melted away on reaching our destination by the lake.There we were greeted by the staff from Play Association Tower Hamlets and (deep breath) a pallet of gravel, two further industrial sacks of gravel, a marked out oval of earth, some spades, two vans and a wooden canoe. Nominally we were there to “dig a trench” – by the end of our mission we had de facto helped install a large piece of art.Said wooden canoe was actually a hunk of sycamore from North Wales, hewn into shape by Dafydd (competition for Paul from the Healing Garden for GoodGym legend status) and one of several new sculptures going into the park as it undergoes a facelift. The twelve of us duly descended on the task – digging the hole for the canoe to sail in, moving the gravel into place, moving the earth from ground to van to ground on the other side of the park and then finally helping manoeuvre the canoe out of a van and into the hole. With canoe secured we then all smugly/grubbily perched on it for a valedictory photo or twelve, congratulated ourselves with badges from Play England and ran home in the now setting sun.Though a slightly longer mission than usual, I think none of us minded in the slightest. Hopefully for years to come, when we walk through Victoria Park, we’ll get to point to a piece of art and say: “I helped install that”.More photos are on the GoodGym facebook page.