The Rake’s Progress

We kicked off tonight's group run with a look back at the month before, and the incredible results of the January challenge .In a truly barnstorming effort that smashed last year's final numbers, team Hounslow finished up in fifth place on the silver table, which I think we can all agree is a very good result indeed! Overall there was an incredible 8655 good deeds done across the whole of January, which is a phenomenal amount of kindness across the UK. Well done everybody.

Don't forget that we have the extraordinary task award as an extra bit of loveliness this year. GoodGym wants to recognise those who went further to do something good. This can be a group, individual or task that went above and beyond, or which had a big impact on the beneficiary. The final award will be judged by an external panel of friends of GG. All the details are here.

If you're looking out for a community mission this weekend (and one where you can even squeeze in parkrun beforehand) then check out this one in Hounslow helping to create a peace garden at a local mosque. There are even rumours of snacks!

After a warm up and a discussion about our favourite treats - beer, champagne, coffee liqueur (is there a theme here...?) books, snacks, chocolate and Ben and Jerrys - we set off for our task at Gunnersbury Park.

Our job was to carry on clearing a huge overgrown space in the park for reuse. This time we were able to get all of us into the space to start work. Last time we had been there only two of us had been able to start cutting back the brambles as they were too high for us to get in. We had already made great progress, but there was a loooot more to be done still. After a few minutes of hard work, we realised that the floor we were standing on was actually stone, which means we think we are actually working inside the remains of the former lodge. It's going to incredible to see how we can turn the space into somewhere clear of brambles and weeds, and uncover its former glory!

Working seamlessly between hackers and rakers, we quickly revealed more and more of the area. Before long, the beautiful arch was much clearer, and we had released a set of metal fencing pieces from their brambley prison. There is definitely room for a few more repeat visits, but progress is certainly happening!

After returning all the tools and barrows, and our usual fumble with the locks, we headed back to base, finishing the night off with a good stretch. Hope you're up for our usual brand of fitness and fun next week, you can sign up here. Hat tip to Dave who came up with this week's Hogarth related pun. I think you'll agree it's a cut above my usual weekly run report title!