Painting is not new for the Ealing GoodGymers who showed up at the West Ealing library. Last year, we painted the Open Ealing Art centre on a hot summer. This time the weather was pleasant, and the wall is not that tall.

I arrived a few minutes before the task and Mandie, who is the founding member of Open Ealing, had already put all the painting materials needed for today's task. She gave me a quick walk-through of what needed to be done and left us in the safe hands of West Ealing library manager Nashab.

Clare arrived soon after for her first GoodGym task and her first visit to West Ealing Library

who is not new to GoodGym as she was a task owner from the Northfield Allotments.

Sevan and Kash came running and we slowly started getting into the task. Sevan and I didn't know the secret behind the plastic apron and were wearing it like a bib, till Kash showed us how to properly open and wear it.

After some vigorous shaking, Sevan poured the creamy paint onto the trays and Clare didn't wait a single minute and went straight to the task.

In the meantime, Mandie came back with refreshments (A box of Millionaire shortbread and flap jacks and a few bottles of water). We also had tea/coffee options available as there was a kitchen inside.

Sevan took the long rollers and focussed on the pillars. Kash picked the wall on the right and I chose the centre. Clare's expertise suggested she paint the edges first and was doing a pristine job.

Claire joined us then after completing her 99th park run in Osterley and assisted Clare in covering the wall on the left side.

Kash was doing more than painting. Her strokes looked more like graffiti than a regular paint job as she was using an unwashed dried-up painting roll. So she switched to a new painting roll and could see the difference and smoothness.

I on the other hand can't stop imagining butter, custard cream, and everything yellow after seeing the creaminess of the paint. So I controlled my temptations from licking the paint and letting the brush do the job.

Soon we covered the major areas and switched to painting the edges. We were sitting, crouching, climbing, and rolling on the floors to get the edges painted.

With 15 minutes left, Claire switched from painting to cleaning. She started removing the paint from the frames and corners using sugar soap. We didn't have to spend much time washing up the rolls like we did last time as Nashab said he would take care of it.

We were amazed after seeing how perfect Clare has painted her side of the wall

We managed to cover 25% of the area and we might come back to finish the rest sometime next time month. Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement soon.

Do you remember the decimation of the shrub population at St Andrew's Church outdoor space last year? After many months and continuous email correspondence between Kash and the project owner John, a date was pinned down for the return of GoodGymers.

When Annabel, Sevan and Kash arrived after a rollercoaster run (there were plenty of uphills and downhills on the route around North Ealing!), the stumps of shrubs were no more. In their place, the GoodGymers found a couple of raised beds with recently planted salad leaves: radish, spinach, radicchio, and rainbow chard.

John warmly welcomed the part of the GoodGym team that arrived ahead of time and gave them a quick tour of his new project: the Pocket Garden! Then he pointed them towards two tonne bags of gravel. The contents of the bags were to be distributed in front of St Andrew's - not to create a shingle beach (beachwear in the vicinity of the church? 🫣 no way!) - but to make paths around the raised beds.

Annabel and John were at the forefront of the transformation, shovelling the shingle into a wheelbarrow and buckets, and making a lot of racket. Claire who just made her way to the task, couldn't miss that noise. As the gravel transportation roles (carrying buckets and driving the wheelbarrow) were filled by Kash and Sevan, Claire joined Carol, one of the Pocket Garden designers, in raking the stones unloaded by the beds.

Halfway through the task, Sevan recalled he had an announcement to make. He declared 750 good deeds an officially recognised milestone in GoodGym Ealing and presented Kash with a new secret GoodGym prop. Forget milestone sashes! Such a commitment to doing good deserved a bright red milestone hi-viz 🦺 which Kash wore with pride despite it looked a bit too big on her.

Once the shovelling team had hit the bottom of each tonne bag, the bags were tipped over and the contents spilt on the ground, then raked. The whole job took John, Carol and the GoodGymers less than an hour.

"It would take us weeks to finish!" - Carol

You may think that fewer GoodGymers means less done. In tonight's case, it was quite the opposite! A smaller group worked in our favour as no one was getting in each other's way and we seemed to have just the right number of hands!

"Thanks again to you and your team for a brilliant stint of gravel spreading this evening. We are absolutely thrilled with the results." - John

Next week we are staying close to Ealing Broadway and running to the Transition Garden in Lammas Enclosure to continue the maintenance work there. Sign up now!

Did you know that Pitzhanger Manor in Walpole Park, along with the surrounding area, will soon be the filming location of the Antiques Roadshow? Because of that, the rangers and volunteers are carrying planting activities, turning the ordinary grass patches into elegant flowerbeds.

A small but effective team of GoodGymers had a go on the planting task one Saturday in April. Tonight, GoodGym was returning with some experience and twice as many people to try to finish off the planting. Was the work easier this time?

There are no great GoodGym adventures without challenges!

⏱️ We were tight on time! It was a group run, so we needed to adjust the timings to account for that (well done Ijo on keeping a steady pace! 🙌)!

🍕 We had a booking for a monthly pizza social! That meant time was even more precious! The planting team - including the newest addition to the team, Georgina, worked extra hard to complete the whole geranium patch - and we did it! We only managed to wrap up on time because we had Milly leading the group to the venue, and Steph staying to help with putting away the tools.

⛔ The code to the lockbox didn't work! Luckily, the ranger was on duty 🫡 and saved the day, answering the call. Otherwise, we might have gone straight home (or for the pizza 😋)!

🖍️ There were no markings on the ground this time! Luckily, Annabel kept her eyes wide open and figured out the exact planting location from the photos we had! Sevan's knowledge of the location from the previous task allowed us to start digging right away.

🌱 The soil was not prepared this time! We had to deal with removing a large patch of grass first. It was a blessing to have Claire on the team, with her gardening expertise and the brilliant idea to use forks, not just shovels, to quickly prepare the ground.

🧱 There were bricks in the soil! In some areas we used brute force, in others we worked around the bricks. The plants may not ended up evenly distributed, yet they made their way to the soil!

🍂 We had to do some mulching too! With a bigger team, not everyone could do the planting. Taskforce Mike, Milly and Steph knew the drill and volunteered right away to wheelbarrow the woodchip and distribute it gently between the existing plants.

Thank you, Amazing Team, for the incredible effort in such a short time! 🤩 You totally deserved the pizza prize after the task!

Next week we are finally back to St Andrew's Church to help create gravel paths in their Pocket Allotment. Sign up now!

On a dark Tuesday night, a couple of officers from Ealing Patrol Service sat in their car, watching hypnotising flashes of the lights mounted on top of their vehicle. It was the most exciting sight they could hope for in the tranquillity of nighttime Walpole Park.

Suddenly, three wheelbarrows rolled in front of their car. The officers blinked in disbelief.

Are those wheelbarrows?!

We are a volunteer group called GoodGym. We borrowed some tools from ranger Jon to help in the community garden across the road. We know it's dark and that it looks weird.

The people with wheelbarrows disappeared into the darkness. The officers weren't sure whether they were hallucinating or not.

In the neighbouring Lammas Park Enclosure, fairies were having a party at the wooden circle in the middle of the community orchard. When they heard loud wailing, they hid in the holes of the trees and under the bark of old logs surrounding the party area. No one would tell that the pixies were having a good time there a few seconds ago. Only a blue plastic carrier bag with an empty beer can inside rolled through the orchard like tumbleweed.

The wailing noises were coming from a wheelbarrow borrowed from Trevor of Ealing Transition, the mastermind behind tonight's movements in the Enclosure. And there were quite a lot of movements happening! First, the GoodGymers, the people who brought the haunted wheelbarrow and three well-behaved barrows, moved the old, rotting logs from the fairies' circle into a dedicated log decomposition zone. They replaced the decommissioned logs with new ones that would make nice seats for the fairies. The GoodGymers even built a coffee table in case Tinker Bell and her mates needed some caffeine to pick them up the next day after the night out. Finally, they spread woodchip from a nearby pile onto the ground at entrances to the Enclosure. Fairies didn't need it to avoid walking on muddy paths. They can fly over the mud after all! The woodchip carpet was made of milled thuja that brought an irresistible forest scent into the Transition Garden.

Once the GoodGymers were gone, the fairies resumed the party, wrecking the new wooden furniture in their magic circle and rolling in thuja chips.

Next week, the GoodGym crew will be wheelbarrowing a different cargo - check out the session in Acton here. We hope to see you there!