Our now regular visits to St Mary's churchyard always bring new challenges to tackle and today was no different. There were 2 choices offered by Cliff, our task owner. Either removing nettles from between old graves (the "monuments") or weeding the crescent shaped flower bed near the church. Sevan chose the crescent to have a different type of task and also because the danger level was lower. There was a smaller chance of being stung by nettles in the flowerbed.

Cliff asked the team to pull and dig weeds from the bed. Mostly long, dried grasses, brambles and thistles. One plant that the GoodGymers were specifically asked to keep were the geraniums, so everyone was extra careful with those. Ariane was in her element, having become a gardening expert in her short time with GoodGym. Over time, Cliff's advice changed to allow more of the earth to be cleared:

"If in doubt, pull it out" - Cliff

That covered a lot of vegetation. Mostly growing, some already dead. Cliff pointed out something that was dead. A tree trunk that was at the wrong angle. With a bit of weight, the roots gave out and it tumbled to the ground. Cliff wasn't sure about the other trunk of the tree, but it also looked dead to the GoodGym gardeners. Steph and Sevan gave Cliff a hand and geronimooooo! It hit the deck too.

Cliff decided that everything growing around the ex-tree could go too, so Sajeel got stuck in to remove them, doing a great job. In all, more than half the crescent was cleared in an hour. Well, we had to leave Cliff with work to do until our next visit, which will be coming soon...

St Mary's churchyard had undergone big changes since GoodGym's last visit 3 weeks ago. Human power to remove weeds [last time] had been replaced with the electric power of a hedge trimmer that task owner Cliff was using like a strimmer, at ground level. There was still plenty left for today's GoodGym group to help out with and they weren't being replaced by power tools just yet.

Some GoodGymers had been expecting to be battling nettles, so wore leggings or running tights. The main job for today turned out to be covering the cleared area with wood chip to stop the weeds from springing back, so in the warm weather, the shorts wearing duo had chosen well.

The wood chip piles to relocate had been left in front of the vicar's house, so tidying that space would put Cliff - and GoodGym - in the new vicar's good books. Andrew, Michelle, Kash and Sevan got shovelling, ferrying wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow into the churchyard and tipping them out to cover the areas that had been cleared of weeds. Andrew in particular was having great fun powerfully flipping his wheelbarrow over to empty it.

While the group worked away, they kept themselves amused talking about holidays, imposter syndrome and the "Ealing Feeling" that was wafting over from one of the churchyard's visitors. Meanwhile, Cliff was continuing to cut away at anything green that shouldn't be in the garden. By the end of the session, there was great coverage of wood chip and a whole new area to be cleared. There were more weeds to be wiped out too in other parts of the garden, so keep an eye out for another session later this month.

You might have heard in the past that Thursday is the new Friday, but in Ealing, Thursday is the new Tuesday! This week, we trialled a non-Tuesday evening group run to give people with schedules different from our regular group a chance to get fit while doing good.

After a brief warm-up - as the evening felt nice and summery - Sevan led a group of four runners 1 km south of Ealing Broadway towards St Mary's Church. Although the run was short, two GoodGymers took an extra challenge: running with laptops in their bags, coming straight from work! Among them was a new joiner: Ayesha. Welcome to GoodGym, Ayesha!

At the destination, GoodGymers Sevan, Ayesha, Steph Ducat and Kash met Cliff, a volunteer passionate about keeping the church garden in shape. That job became a challenge when the weeds shot up in the spring after a group of garden volunteers shrunk earlier in the year. Cliff was determined to make the garden presentable for the arrival of the new vicar in early August. He chipped away on that task every now and then on free evenings and weekends, but the weeds were a formidable army that kept coming back.

Cliff decided on a section to be cleared today and handed our team forks, adzes and a mattock. The overgrown surface was not a small one, so we got right into the task. Cliff was surprised to discover that a heap of weeds he had cleared earlier has moved. Was that a ghost from the cemetery in the garden? After closer examination, we revealed that the pile of garden waste was concealing a lime bike! Hiding a lime bike in your garden is naughty - but disguising it in a graveyard under a heap of weeds is a totally different level of mischief! Interestingly, just a few minutes after the bike was freed, it disappeared, taken by someone in need of a ride. It was reassuring to know that the lime bike was alive and not ready to end up buried in the graveyard.

We worked away, listening to Cliff's stories about people camping in the church garden and even setting a fire to heat up dinner packed in a plastic container. A charred log we saw was proof it was not some tall tale at all.

In an hour, we made impressive progress, finishing our section and uncovering the path to the compost heap. Ayesha learnt some new skills by trying out different tools. The Thursday group run was a success, and we are already looking forward to another session at St Mary's to help the community make the best impression on the new vicar!

While at South Ealing Food Cupboard, Sevan wandered over to see the "one of your lot" who was busy in the church garden. It turned out it wasn't a GoodGymer at all, but Cliff, the gardener and task owner at St Mary's churchyard who was wearing a red Nike t-shirt. Since the last time GoodGym had visited, spring and a lack of volunteers had caused the weeds to shoot up to the height of the old graves or "monuments" as they were called, so he was trying to reign them back in.

Sevan was wearing totally inappropriate footwear to go gardening, but he said that he'd be back to give Cliff a hand once the Food Cupboard was set up. Sevan did return and grabbed a fork and gloves, spending 30 minutes pulling cleavers - a.k.a. sticky willy - which were everywhere and digging out nettles and blue alkanet. By midday, there was a small oasis of brown soil appearing in the sea of green weeds. Looking across the churchyard there was still a lot of green, so there is plenty more work to do to prepare the church garden for the arrival of a new vicar in August.

A church clean-up task at St Mary's is to GoodGymers what Home Alone or Die Hard are to families watching TV - a Christmas classic! Only a brief run away from Ealing Broadway, St Mary's awaited our sweeping and decorating skills. Although we knew that GoodGym's good friend, Vicar Steve, wouldn't be at the church anymore with his indispensible words of encouragement, the new task owner, Brian, gave us an equally magical treatment.

Tonight's church clean-up and Christmas tree decoration session had a fantastic turnout of 13 GoodGymers, including three (yes, that's right!) new joiners. Makkiya, Raphael and Sudha brought us a lot of enthusiasm and good energy, and we are hoping to see them again soon at another task.

The team split into the dust busters who worked upstairs and the Christmas tree beauty specialists at the altar. If decorating the tree somehow didn't provide enough merriness for everyone, then Claire's Jingle Bells played on the piano did!

Having received praise from Brian on their work, the team headed to the Grove for more festivities to come: the Christmas crackers, buffet, quiz and Secret Santa!

Next Tuesday, we are staying close to Ealing Broadway and helping the ranger transport a pile of woodchip outside Walpole Park into the walled garden - sign up now!

GoodGym returned to St Mary's churchyard for the first time in 15 months and there was a huge change from previous visits. In much of the area, the bramble invasion of the old days was under control and there wasn't a jungle of weeds. Still, with such a big area to look after, there's always more work to be done.

Today's task was to help task owner Cliff and regular volunteer (and today's DJ) Paul to clear the area around the graves on the far side of the churchyard which, once upon a time, were hidden by brambles. Cliff and Paul explained that they'd been working for 3 years to get on top of everything and, as well as tidying up, had managed to do some new planting in the centre too.

Before starting on the weeds, there was a big log to be moved. It was resting on a gravestone, so everyone got involved with rolling and flipping it towards the compost pile. With the heavy work complete, it was on to the simpler stuff.

As the team worked out from one corner, the usual suspects were found and dug up or pulled. Nettles and brambles, then Kash removed ivy from a boundary wall, then holly was found, which led to:

"I hate holly. I hate ivy too" - Paul
"I guess you're not a fan of the Christmas carol then?" - Sevan

Even if Paul didn't appreciate The Holly and The Ivy, he had some music blasting out throughout the task. It started with 80's disco and modern remixes of it. He explained that his children were into 80's music too as part of its revival. Then, there was a change in era and genres to suit Kash and Sevan, with a new playlist that included some 90's/2000's alt-rock and nu-metal like The Cranberries and Linkin Park.

Back on the ground, there were saplings discovered that were growing in places that they shouldn't. Awkward places that needed them to be dug and levered out, which they were. The group achieved lots of little wins that had a big impact and it led Cliff to uncover a grave that was marked with the date 1824. It was still in great condition even after being there for 200 years!

At the task's end, one area of the graveyard had been cleared, and the soil was visible again. With Cliff's dedication and a little help from GoodGym, they'll work to keep it that way.