Let’s get ready to bramble!

There was so much good going on over the weekend that no wonder GoodGym is getting closer and closer to those January targets - overall we have done 6215 good deeds out of a goal of 8000, and run 69148 out of a projected 100 000. Amazing! A huge well done to all of you who participated in the Gunnersbury parkrun takeover, the missions that followed it, the Sunday starter session and the mission on Monday to create a peace garden at the Hounslow Mosque.

• Hounslow is looking very good in the tables, with a whopping great 91 good deeds and 675 kms. You've already surpassed the number from last year, when we managed 74 good deeds but we've still got to beat the 932 kilometres run in January 2019. We can do it!

• If you've got a free lunchtime next Tuesday, why not pop along to this great mission near Clapham Junction to help out a charity which supports young LGBTQ+ young people in the area. We need help shifting furniture, and as its a community mission you don't even need to be DBS checked.

• Welcome to the group, Irene, it was lovely to meet you!

After a warm up outside the town hall and a quick discussion on our favourite sports to watch - all the rugby, figure skating, cricket, football football football, basketball and even curling - we set off on our 6km run.

Our task for the evening was at the beautiful Gunnersbury park, a public space and home to our local parkrun. After overshooting ourselves a bit and a quick grapple with the locks, we let ourselves in to a very empty park, and found the wheelbarrows and tools that park manager Chris had kindly left for us. A short stroll across the park, we arrived at the 18th century lodge and its overgrown garden. When I say overgrown, the brambles had taken over the whole garden, making it impossible to enter. This was going to be a challenge, but we were up for the job!

We formed a human chain while two or three GGers armed with secateurs made the first forays into the bramble jungle. While they chopped and snipped, hacked and lopped, the rest of the group got busy cutting the brambles into pieces and loading them into big bags. Before long we could fit more people into the garden and the operation escalated, revealing a huge walled garden. It was incredible to see the space growing and what it could be used for in the future. Hopefully we can come back in a couple of weeks for the next step - watch this space!

After a group photo and a locking up system that felt like we were leaving the crystal maze, we set off back to base. Well done everybody, hope you didn't take too many brambles home with you! Next week we are off to Ealing rd church, a foodbank, clothesbank and community centre to help out with various jobs. Sign up here for more Wednesday fun. Run happy, GoodGym!