Alain Tallier

The Baby Bank provides essentials for vulnerable families in Windsor, Maidenhead and the surrounding area. Alain and I helped out this morning by making up packs of toiletries suitable for either women or babies. What we did was a drop in the ocean (or bath tub?) in the grand scheme of things, but every little helps! Thanks to Lauren, Rebecca and Amy for welcoming us. We hope to be back soon to help some more. We both took the scenic route on our runs home to get some miles in for the January Challenge and to make the most of a sunny day.

I headed off on a rather cold morning run to the Baby Bank. Where I was greeted on arrival by some very friendly and enthusiastic ladies. After the usual Covid protocols, I was shown the ropes and let loose to perform my duties for the day. The time flew by so quickly but sadly I had to be on my way to wrap up some more kilometres on a light snowy run home. I think I shall have to return on another mission as there is plenty of work to help out with.

Today was GoodGym's third tree planting session at Ockwells Park and another tree-mendous outing! It was great to see Laura, Jordan, Alain and Kelley returning for their 14th, 3rd, 2nd and 2nd GoodGym good deeds respectively, and we were delighted to welcome Denise, Sara and Georgeta for their first community missions. Great to meet you all!

Once again our session began with Amy changing out of a festive costume (a snowman today) whilst others looked on bewildered. In case you were wondering, Amy is running 5km every day in December in Christmas fancy dress as part of our December #Magpies150Challenge. GoodGym have taken on a different '150 Challenge' every month to support the Maidenhead Magpies Football Club's goal to raise £150k for 15 local challenges in their 150th year. In September we collectively ran 150 miles, in October members each collected 150 pieces of litter, and in November we collectively donated over 150 items to charity appeals. This month between us we are going on over 150 runs in Christmas costumes and spreading some Christmas cheer while we are at it. You can find out more and join the challenge here or sponsor our efforts with a donation here.

The first challenge on a tree-planting mission at Ockwells is getting everyone to the planting site without a mud-bath, but thankfully local gal Kelley was on hand to show us a lovely path around the top of the site, which was luxurious underfoot compared to last week's slip n slide round the bottom. Thank you Kelley!

At the site we met Alistair Will from Groundwork South, who is part of the team based at Braywick Nature Centre responsible for outdoor education, conservation and managing the area's countryside. Alistair briefed the group on our task for the morning, and how it fits into the borough's wider vision to create a corridor of wonderful biodiversity-boosting, wildlife-protecting, carbon-absorbing woodland by filling the gap between two surviving patches of ancient woodland.

We understand from chatting with the Braywick team during these community missions that creating a woodland is by no means quick or easy. The trees planted last Winter did not thrive due to the incredibly dry Spring this year, and it will take decades if not centuries for the new wood to resemble the older areas. However the benefit to wildlife will be felt far sooner. As soon as the saplings grow leaves in the Spring they will provide food and shelter to creatures like caterpillars, butterflies and moths, which will have positive ripple effects.

Alistair gave us a quick demo: stick the spade in the ground, move it about a bit to make a gap, grab a whip, stick the roots in the gap, cover the roots with soil, stick a cane in next to it, curl a plastic tube around it to protect it from the rabbits. Done! So now you know what I mean when I say we had fun with whips and canes...

He then directed us to a stretch of the perimeter where we could plant thornier varieties like Buckthorn and Blackthorn to create a protective border, as well as space further from the deer fence where taller broadleaf varieties like Willow, Maple, Elder, Spindle and Dogwood will hopefully thrive.

As we got stuck in we worked rhythmically and happily, chatting away and marvelling at the beautiful Winter sunshine. It was such a tree-t to be working in this big green space in such glorious weather! We estimate we planted about 180 trees today. Added to the estimates from our first two sessions, we are now up to about 500. Great work team!

There are still hundreds if not a couple of thousand more trees to be planted this season. We hope to list more sessions for January, and we may even squeeze one in between Christmas and New Year, so watch this space!

Photo credits to Alistair Will and Jordan Tolner as well as Amy. The mistier shots were taken on Jordan's and Amy's runs before the task. What a stunning morning!!

Today was GoodGym's second tree planting session at Ockwells Park. Again we were delighted to meet lots of new people - a very warm welcome to Kelley, Milena, Joanne, Alain, Catherine and Krys! And again Amy welcomed the group in Christmas fancy dress following a 5km run in aid of GoodGym's December #Magpies150Challenge. Today's run was with Lara the elf and Mrs Christmas (also tree-planter) Juli and prompted lots of friendly waves and smiles from the residents of Cox Green. Read more about the challenge and join the fun here...

On today's 1km walk to the planting site we had the extra challenge of carrying the spades through the mud, but we all made it without mishap and, as ever, it was wonderful to escape into the green expanse of Ockwells.

We met Ranger Tom at the planting site and he gave us a quick demo: stick the spade in, move it about a bit to make a gap, grab a whip, stick the roots in the gap, cover the roots with soil, stick a cane in next to it, curl a plastic tube around it to protect it from the rabbits. Done! And as long as we put thornier varieties like Buckthorn and Blackthorn near the edges to offer some protection, then we could plant the rest (all native species like Willow, Maple, Elder and Oak) wherever we liked within the deer fence... Bizarrely, this was the hard part. We are not used to being given such freedom! We stood there for a minute getting used to the idea that we didn't need to conform to a particular shape or pattern and then we got stuck in.

As we worked, conversation flowed happily, trousers got muddier and time flew. We estimate we planted around 180 trees out of the 1000 targetted for this year. Added to what we did on Saturday GoodGym are now up to about 320. Well done team!

Introducing the project to us at our first session, RBWM Countryside Manager Jason Mills explained that the site where we are working is between two areas of ancient woodland - Thrift Wood, which is accessible to the public from Ockwells Park, and another area privately owned by the neighbouring turf farm. The long-term plan is to fill in the gap between the two, creating a corridor of wonderful biodiversity-boosting, oxygen-giving, carbon-absorbing woodland to benefit generations to come.

Creating a woodland is by no means quick or easy. The trees planted last Winter did not thrive due to the incredibly dry Spring this year, and we know that it will take decades if not centuries for the new wood to resemble the older areas. However it was heartening to hear from Jason that the benefit to wildlife will be felt far sooner. As soon as the saplings grow leaves in the Spring they will provide food and shelter to creatures like caterpillars, butterflies and moths, which will have positive ripple effects.

It was hard to tear oursleves away from such an enjoyable task, but the departure was made more attractive by the opportunity to climb over the big fence on our way out. A big thank you to Kelley, who showed us a new and far less muddy route back to the car park on our return journey, and kudos to Alain, who was the only one to run home after the morning's efforts. Well done everyone!

We are back at Ockwells for more tree planting next Thursday. Sign up here! And watch this space for more tree planting sessions in the New Year...