A mild January sunday afternoon saw a large group of volunteers meet by the Pear Tree Park cafe for some tree planting. The trees were, you guessed it, different varieties of pear trees.

A lot of work had already been done in an earlier session, but that still left digging, pile driving fence posts into the ground, spreading compost and mulch and finally applying a protective cover. There were a couple of unfortunate mishaps, including someone who planted 6 trees in one hole and a bucket that didnt survive the attentions of an excited dog. But overall it was a very successful and satisfying bit of community action - one that will hopefully bear plenty of fruit for years to come.

The recently established Pear Tree Park was named by children from a local school, drawing inspiration from Perivale, where the green space is located. Perivale, in turn, can be loosely interpreted as “a valley of pear trees”. Wouldn’t it be appropriate then to have some eponymous fruit trees in Pear Tree Park - let’s say, fifty of them?

On a Sunday morning, five GoodGymers met in a café in Pitshanger for a 2km run or walk to the place that had once been a golf course, now transforming into a vibrant, green space for everyone. Steph Ducat, Zuzanna, and Kash ran through Pitshanger Park, past St Mary’s Church, while Devi and Sevan walked a different route, with the Brent Viaduct and Sixty Trees Lane as the main landmarks. Harvey ran directly to the task and met the rest of the team at the Pear Tree Bistro.

In the afternoon, Pear Tree Park was going to host a family-friendly pear tree planting volunteering session, and the organisers grew in confidence, seeing six pairs of GoodGym hands, keen to help with digging ahead of the event. Richard from Ealing Greenwayers and Diana, the bistro owner, brought spades and wheelbarrows, and marked on the grass where the holes were expected to appear.

Digging techniques and hole shapes varied from person to person. From Harvey’s perfect squares, through Steph's pizza slices, to Sevan’s and Kash’s whole round-style pizzas. Topsoil with the grass was systematically wheelbarrowed away, in case it contained traces of weed killer, thanks to its golf course past. The deeper the spades went, the more rocks they encountered, and digging became tougher.

Devi, who chose Pear Tree Park as her first GoodGym session, faced the demanding task head-on, excavating and wheelbarrowing soil like a pro, and even choosing more digging over a coffee break. What a determination! That said, we can safely report that Devi had been socialising and caffeinating with us earlier on, and is great to have around for a chat. Welcome Devi!

In 90 minutes, we got just a bit less than half of the required holes dug, which proved to be a great advantage as a starting point for the afternoon event!

It was another busy day at Pitshanger Junior parkrun, with plenty of runners, volunteers and 7 GoodGymers in total. It was great to see Chris back at one of our tasks after a bit of a break and she was marshalling along with Maria. Chris is not be confused with Chris who was one of many funnel managers.

The first of the 119 finishers was timed at a hair over 7 minutes by Sevan, which is rather speedy. There was more drama to come at the other end of the field as the last runner (let's call her Joan for the sake of the pun) collected an army of hi-vis clad troops in her wake. They included many Duke of Edinburgh marshals and tailwalkers Kash, Steph and Angela, who got up early to attend her first GoodGym session. Welcome Angela! 🥳👏🙌

Joan's poorly camouflaged army marched towards the funnel and stopped just short. There was a stand off, with everyone in the funnel wanting Joan to peacefully cross the line and Joan being a bit grumpy and threatening at the gates. Eventually, Joan's army was dispersed and her mum convinced her to complete the 2km and collect the last finish token. Disaster averted for another week.

A band of two-armed band-its met on Sunday morning at Pitshander Park to bend their joints and bond with a bunch of elastic bands. They didn’t need any weights to give their muscles a kick!

"You didn't run here, did you?" - Ms C.
"Yes, we did. From Southall." - Sevan.
"No way!"

A repeat mission for Ms C of South Ealing, whom Sevan and Kash helped most recently less than a week ago, focused on creating access to a plug socket in a cold and humid bedroom ahead of an electrician's visit. Despite Ms C being reluctant to ask for such a big and heavy (in her opinion) job, GoodGymers quickly cleared the wall of large suitcases and stacked them temporarily on the bed. Freeing the socket on the wall suddenly freed up time to explore what was hiding in a wardrobe Ms C wanted to review as a part of her decluttering journey.

Sevan and Kash uncovered a collection of colourful, stylish umbrellas.

"You know, I have a sort of an umbrella fetish." - Ms C.

In the cupboard, the GoodGymers found plenty of makeup products, body lotions, bath salts (which Ms C couldn't use as she didn't have a bathtub anymore) and perfumes - the latter tested on Kash.

"How does it smell?" - Ms C.
"Like someone who ran from Southall today!" - Sevan.

Kash eventually turned down Ms C's kind offer to take one of the perfume bottles. Kash loved most the smell of GoodGymming in the morning. And in the afternoon.

If the perfumes weren't enough sensory stimulation, there were also scented soaps to review.

"Shea butter soap? This is very good. Keep it."
"Cocoa butter soap? This is very good. Keep it."
"Irish Spring soap? Ah, this scent is out of this world!" - Ms C.

With so many olfactory masterpieces coming out of the cupboard, there was not that much that could have been thrown away. Ms C definitely wasn't up for parting with her scented candles.

"You know, I have a sort of a candle fetish." - Ms C.

The lady was grateful for the opportunity to go through the contents of the bedroom cupboard with Sevan and Kash, and, in the last 10 minutes of the mission, asked them to put away some of the things in the kitchen she had identified as not needed immediately. The GoodGymers knew the drill from the previous task and promptly moved the fridges out of the way, then packed a few items into the space in the storage they had freed last week. Job done! The kitchen today looked much more organised than last Sunday, which might be proof that the missions are slowly helping Ms C get on top of her decluttering endeavour.

Three GoodGymers thought that Southall Rec green space would be a guarantee for an abundance of litter to collect - at least that's what experience taught them. They were wrong!

They started their litterpicking journey at the Tiny Forest, where they collected a few plastic bags, and then they moved to the paths and outer edges of the park. The bins had been recently emptied, and the space didn't look bad at all, which was a good sign. Steph, Sevan, and Kash still found drink cans, bottles, bottle caps, plastic cups, tissues, and chocolate wrappers. They also encountered cricket balls in different stages of decay - one was saved from oblivion and left near the cricket pitch for the players to collect during their next game.

In 40 minutes, the GoodGymers hardly filled one rubbish bag between the three of them, and decided to call it a day - then ran to their following missions.

The second biggest challenge this morning in Glade Lane Canal Side Park was finding the Letting Grow team. It was GoodGym Ealing's first task organised directly with them and at 10am, the team climbed hills and looked behind them without any joy. After a while, a wheelbarrow rolled up with it's driver, Ross, the task owner. Phew!

Ross led the team up a slippery slope to the top of a hill, which thanks to Jags, everyone would later learn was created with soil and rubble dug out of the old Quaker Oats factory site across the train tracks. It was now a development of new flats. Ross explained that the soil was full of rocks, so their team had been planting at around 1/4 of their normal speed. That sounded like a good challenge for the GoodGymers to go at.

After being shown how to dig and plant, the team started making holes starting at the top of the hill and... working down a steep slope. Everyone zig-zagged their way down, partly to make the planted trees look like they were placed naturally and also because they needed to change location when their spades hit big rocks.

"I feel like a squirrel trying to bury their nuts"
"Every time you dig a hole, there's a problem" - Chris

They were careful not to slip down the hill, but their was no way they could avoid the clay soil that got caked around their shoes and spades. As the recent rain drained down the hill, the lower holes turned into puddles which was a bit worrying for the new trees.

With the digging complete, it was time for a tea break. The Letting Grow team had found a way to perch a gas stove between 2 wheelbarrow handles to make tea. Genius! After the tea and chocolate digestives had recharged the team, it was time to plant 135 native tree whips. Compost, crumbled soil, then a heel or toe to compress it all and remove any air bubbles, with a sprinkling of woodchip on top to keep the moisture in. Time ran out to add the woodchip, so that was left to the volunteers coming in the afternoon. All the GoodGymers needed to do to wrap up was get the caked mud off their shoes and bike brakes for safety before heading off.

With the challenges of rocks and the water to deal with, we hope our 135 trees on the slippery slope will grow and thrive, helping to create better air quality and a more welcoming space in the park in years to come. Letting Grow's ambition is to plant 12,000 trees in Ealing Borough this year, so look out for future GoodGym sessions to help plant and maintain their trees.

Whipped by drizzle and breeze, I ran my usual 3.5 km to South Acton for the end-of-the-week shop for Mr G. He doesn't know that, but he consistently ensures I close work by 5:30pm on most Fridays!

I found him sitting on his sofa, surrounded by ominous stacks of paperwork.

- Did you watch the film Great Expectations?
- I read the book. A long time ago.
- I feel like Miss Havisham!

Stuck in his flat, busy with going through paperwork and making phone calls about his never-ending doctor's appointments and other business, Mr G wasn't very happy, but he cheered up during our chat.

I went to Sainsbury's and purchased Mr G's classics like the chicken & gravy shortcrust pastry pie, baked beans, jumbo oats, and blueberry yoghurt pots. There was a new baked item to buy, pioneered by more adventurous shoppers than me: ciabatta roll.

- Alan discovered these last week, and they're much better than the paninins.

After shopping, I stayed a bit longer at Mr G's for a dose of usual banter and fascinating stories. A good closure to a long workweek, and a start of another exciting GoodGym weekend!