It's been two years since GoodGym Ealing popped up at Popesfield Allotment for a task - can you believe it? While we supported Cultivate London at their projects in Acton and Hanwell, it was high time to revisit the plant nursery at the youngest allotment site in Ealing. And what did we see? The plant nursery has been doing well, but the membrane underneath the pallets with plant pots needed some TLC.

Steph, Sevan and Kash ran a short distance to Popesfield, but for Steph, the difficulty didn't decrease with the mileage as he carried a huge work backpack, worthy of standing for a military training rucksack. The three met Harvey and Maxime, the latter recently having led his first session as TaskForce - congratulations, Maxime! Maxime had led a weekend task nowhere else but in Popesfield, so everyone was hoping to use his know-how about opening all the locks to get to the site and the tools. Fortunately, the instructions were clear, and the team didn't need to rely on specialist knowledge.

The job was simple: pull out the weeds creeping out from the black membrane in front of the sheds, sweep debris, and place all the waste in a tonne bag. Five GoodGymers approached the big job with zeal and thoroughness, pulling the grass from the membrane like there was no tomorrow. In an hour, they cleared the weeds and gravel from the whole open area of the membrane, leaving only parts of the paths between pallets unfinished.

What a thorough job! I am truly impressed, and you say you are not gardeners? - Romina, task owner from Cultivate London.

Next week, GoodGym Ealing opts for an indoor task at the Tuesday group run (just about when it starts getting lighter and warmer in the evenings!). We will be helping to clean and organise a children’s activity space at St Mary's in South Ealing. Sign up now!

Today's Acton Junior parkrun was full of changes as usual. Before the start, there were lots of swaps being discussed, with a few of the GoodGymers wishing that that could take someone else's role. Harvey could have done without the pressure of time keeping and Maria, who was tail walking, wasn't in the mood for grumpy or crying children today.

Kash and Sevan were pretty content marshalling, along with Hassan who was up bright and early for his first good deed. Hassan had joined for a social run earlier in the year and was back today to help the Junior parkrun run smoothly. Welcome to GoodGym! 👏🥳. Finally, Joanna was cool as a cucumber, time keeping alongside Harvey, trying to ease the pressure.

The main drama was a Greener Ealing van that decided to invade the course and was moved on by the Run Director just in time for the runners to get going. The driver said that they were in the park every Sunday morning, so they should already have known to stay out of the way. Even Maria had a quiet time today as all of the children were happy to be running around the course, from the front of the field to the back.