(rag)Wort a lovely evening that was!

On our journey out, we walked or ran the scenic route, about 2km along the Thames Path and through Battlemead Common. Many thanks to Juli for leading the walkers and Gillian for showing the runners the way.

At Battlemead, our task was to go into battle with ragwort, a plant with distinctive yellow flowers, which an be dangerous to grazing animals such as horses, if not kept under control. Battlemead Common has been acquired by RBWM within the last few years and is maintained as a haven for wildlife. Grazing is an important part of the plan, so we needed to pull up as much ragwort as we could.

Armed with gardening gloves and with long trousers to protect against prickles and stingers, we fanned out and hunted down those yellow shrubs. There looked to be a lot and we wondered whether we might end up with sore hands and ant bites, and singing the rag(wort)-time blues, but the ragwort was easy to spot and came up with a good tug and a satisfying pop.

We worked for about 40 minutes and made surprisingly good progress. Check out our group photo to see the heap we had pulled up by the end! That's the magic of GoodGym - teamwork makes the task as easy as falling off a log...or so the phrase goes...Sol can tell us whether it's true as she managed to do both this evening. Glad you're OK Sol!

We then had fun with a quick fitness session including such delights as spotty dogs, aeroplane arms and mountain climbers. Well done everyone for joining in!

Then it was time to walk and run back to our start location and homes, taking the more direct route this time, but still chatting merrily as we went.

Special mentions this evening to Amy R, who did her 10th good deed with GoodGym this evening, and to Matthew, Rachel and Scarlett, who were out this evening for their second good deeds of the day - fantastic!

In the shadow of Windsor castle 7 goodgymers met at Windsor cricket club to help out with some much needed garden maintenance of the overgrown storage area. Luckily there were no knights to say Ni tonight

We set about cutting back and clearing as much of the overgrown weeds, ivy and nettles (lots of very stingy nettles!) that were covering the fences and floor of the area.

After 90 minutes a number of nettle stings, an appearance from mickey and an old cricket ball we had cleared a large amount of shrubbery and left it in a large pile for onward removal from the club

After tidying up, and returning the tools to a safe place, we made our way back to our own carriages before the clock struck midnight (8.30) and made our way home

12 GoodGymmers didn’t let the rain put them off for their own epic evening. Rather than holing up in a warm cinema, they ran and walked to help Wild Maidenhead and the RBWM parks team to clear sludge from the pond in the Nicholas Winton Memorial Garden in Oaken Grove Park.

To the tune of Barbie Girl:

‘I’m a Goodgymmer in a Goodgym world,

Life in plastic (waterproofs) , it’s fantastic

We de-sludge a pond and litter pick everywhere

Rain won’t stop us, just make us laugh more,

Come on Goodgym, lets go help out!!!

Baby newts, metal stakes, what an underwater world,

Dress up in waders, welly boots, I’m your helper,

Grab a shovel, rock and roll, oh what a stink!

Fill the barrow, dump the sludge, 30 times more

It can rain, it can pour,

But Goodgym just shouts for more!

I’m a Goodgymmer in a Goodgym world,

Life in plastic (waterproofs) , it’s fantastic

We de-sludge a pond and litter pick everywhere

Rain won’t stop us, just make us laugh more,

Come on Goodgym, lets go help out!!!

Tennis balls, baby dolls, find whatever you please,

I can jump in a pond, crawl around, find frisbees,

Come join in, goodgym friend, let us clear up this mess,

Find coins, kids toys, thats one pound, thirty-five!

Come on Goodgym, we all helped out!

Ah-ah-ah, yeah!’

Despite the incessant rain the team made great progress, and after ~30 barrow loads of sludge and ~15 tennis balls they headed for home to get dry and warm up!

It was brilliant to see Ann for her first Goodgym task and we hope to see her for many more!!