The first Tuesday of June marked an abrupt and definite end to the May heatwave, with hailstorms and thunderstorms raging over Ealing in the afternoon. Six GoodGymers who weren't scared off by the weather, caught in the worst of the rain, or stopped by the tube strikes were lucky enough to miss the downpour and even catch some shy rays of sunshine. Jumping over puddles, Freya, Steph, Sevan and Kash ran through Ealing Common to Popesfield Allotments to meet cyclist James and walker Anna.

The goal of the task, commissioned by the horticultural charity Cultivate London, was to clear a vegetable patch to serve as a communal starter plot for people on the allotment waiting list. The idea was to give them a chance to learn, practise, and enjoy growing their own fruit and veg while they wait for a plot of their own. As you may know, waiting for an allotment space in London can take years, so the GoodGym team was ready to take on the weeds that had spread across the patch and give those keen future gardeners the best possible start in food growing.

If you think the session was a typical power-weeding-raze-everything-to-the-ground-total-destruction affair, then think again! The veg patch was already planted with a variety of legitimate plants, so uncovering all the plot's secrets hidden beneath the overgrowth proved to be quite an educational experience. Although the GoodGymers were physically on their own at the allotment, Romina from Cultivate was on the other side of Kash's phone, providing live support. The team trusted Romina more than Google Lens and happily sent over pictures of questionable plants for identification.

Among the plants the group recognised on their own, or with Romina's help, were poppies, tarragon, sage, artichokes, broccoli and other brassica plants, African kale, and curry plant (not to be confused with the curry tree, which actually produces curry leaves), to name just a few. The remaining greenery, classified as weeds, filled nearly two half-tonne bags, later hauled to the green waste disposal area. In less than an hour, the two-sided plot was unrecognisable and looked like a veg patch once again – if you can identify your veggies, of course!

Next Tuesday, we are off to Elthorne Park to keep burdock under control before it spreads too far, prevents other plants from thriving, and produces the burrs that get stuck in your dog's fur! Let's tackle this spiky troublemaker before it starts producing its prickly hitchhikers. Sign up now!

Mrs J's late husband was the computer whizz. Mrs J had worked a secretary in the past and she'd never gotten to grips with the relatively new Windows 10 laptop at home. She still held a fondness for her old, chunky Sony laptop that had stopped working. Now, with Mr J no longer able to help, it was time for the 96 year old Mrs J to learn some new skills.

Getting a laptop set up for an older person to use was challenging for Kash and Sevan. They had to make setting changes as they went to make it easier to read or to use, which left Mrs J's head spinning. She must've felt like she was at the optician.

"Do you prefer accessibility option A or B?"
"A...?"
"...or B?"

There were some things that the GoodGymers couldn't change, like adding physical, clicky buttons under the trackpad. They did what they could. Mrs J was still unsure though and her eyes and brain needed a rest, so with her laptop configured, the next session to help should be easier.

Sevan and Kash decided to spend their day of GoodGymming in three different boroughs outside their home area of Ealing. After leaving the Chiswick Eyot in GoodGym Hounslow, before it got cut off from the dry land by the Thames high tide, they continued their journey eastward. The 3.5 km run took them to GoodGym Hammersmith & Fulham, where Mr A awaited their help with sweeping leaves in his tiny back garden.

"I don't know how you are going to do that without a shovel. Last year, a man came with a shovel to do it." - Mr A.

The GoodGymers also learned that their predecessor was an Englishman proficient in gardening. Since neither of them was an English gardener, there was no point in measuring themselves to such distant standards. They decided to simply get on with the job. Kash went downstairs to evaluate the difficulty of that seemingly insurmountable task.

"We will just do it with our hands." - Kash.

As it turned out, Mr A had brooms and dustpans, so using only hands was not even necessary. In 30 minutes, Sevan and Kash swept and packed up not only dried leaves, but also all the creeping weeds they had pulled out, then they moved six sacks of green waste to the front garden. Unbeleafable!

For this time we had quite a team with Sevan, Kash, Maria and Amy joining us from Ealing! Most of use were here early, joining the existing volunteers of Thames 21. They publish these events broadly and as a result, on top of regular, they always have a few new faces as well, one of them who came all the way from... Stratford! We also meet Annie who has been joining the a few of the Eyot missions by herself until now. After a long and detailed briefing, covering the ins and out of Balsam, we depart towards the Eyot, equipped with Thames Mud Proof Wellies. Despite the sunny weather of the past few days the mud is as sticky as usual, since the Thames tide never stop. Getting into the island, we spread thin as each person hunt for Balsam. The bravest ones, such as Sevan, go and open up a new path in the middle of nowehre to hunt for the invasive one. After a couple of hours of slashing, searching and uprooting the team finally disband as some of us need to go to the next task. A nice bounty from this session!