What a glorious day for a junior parkrun. We were blessed not only with amazing weather but also some great Good Gym volunteers, big shout out to Maria and Moses especially for their first visits to LF junior parkrun, and Nicholas a superb tail walker . Of course, the whole thing can only happen through the efforts of volunteers and DoE participants Daisy, Joel, and Zach are now old hands – whilst super parents Johnny, Melanie, Neil, and Ben made sure we could get underway.
With the 32 runners assembled we welcomed Angiolina, Ines, and Max to their first parkruns, and Sydney’s first at London Fields. We also congratulated Khian on completing his Marathon! it was wonderful to see Paula, who was instrumental in founding the local parkrun and served as RD for many years, returned to provide support. Maya assisted with the warmup before the run began. Herbie achieved a personal best time, leading the group. There were five personal bests in total that morning. As the main group finished, they were met with applause from parents and early finishers. The volunteer crew made quick work of the pack up and it was all over for another week.

Welcome Maria who has recently moved to Hackney from Ealing!

It was a small team led by Eslam this morning but we got a lot done.

Sooz and Maria started by heaving all the finished compost into a barrow, ready to be sieved and then used to replenish the beds ready for planting.

Then, whilst Eslam emptied coffee chafs into the compost heaps - and also maintained a constant flow of fresh compost into the wheelbarrow, Sooz and Maria set to work on the sieving. The group almost filled the entire container, and still had time to do some watering. With all the dry weather, the compost heaps needed a bit of help breaking down the mulch and grass cuttings into useable compost.

A rewarding session. See you next month?

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/the-funday-sunday-task-composting-at-hoxton-trust-in-june

Horsenden Farm is like a neutron star of West London - its gravity pulls in the GoodGymers from areas near Ealing and they just cannot escape its allure. This Saturday the farm stole three people from GoodGym Hounslow: Gus, already a Horsenden regular, and two quite new adventurers: Pezhman and Maxime.

Maria from GoodGym Ealing was another novice to the most popular Saturday session in the area. Gaby and Simon were well acquainted with the farm, meadows and woodlands of Horsenden Hill, but new to the volunteering days. Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash on the other hand, have seen all the animals, tried all the pizza flavours and kept the farm in motion almost every month, moving all sorts of things that needed moving: from unglamorous soil and manure to heavy objects like safes and logs.

Today's task was on the heavy-duty side. Nick, being in charge of volunteers while Elsa was away, thought GoodGymers might be perfectly suited to remove wood and fence panels from the area that was going to become an enclosure for fell ponies - the newest addition to the farm!

"When the ponies arrive, they will be helping us move the logs from the woods." - Nick
"What the GoodGymers will be doing then?" - Kash
"You will ride the ponies!"

The fence parts were to be stacked against one of the sheds (the one that still had some space behind it). There was one problem: the panels were very big and very heavy, also awkward to carry with hardly any grip. Pezhman came up with an idea to use ropes, which was trialled. Eventually, the most utilised tools were muscles and brains. Once all the panels were miraculously fitted around the shed, leaned against three walls, the heaviest log made its way out of the future pony enclosure on a wheelbarrow.

The GoodGymers completed the challenging task with 30 minutes spare (before the pizza oven started!). No one felt like sitting down and relaxing - that part happens at noon! Nick offered our team a bonus task: wheelbarrowing woodchip from the car park and dropping it alongside the greenhouse. That kept us busy until the pizza gods summoned their priest to fire up the oven and feed the hardworking folk.

That is the way of Horsenden, the ritual that happened regularly in the past and will happen again in the future. Make sure you are a part of this tasty and rewarding future and sign up for the April session now!