Twas a chilly September evening when 10 Goodgymers gathered at the edge of Petersham Common to continue their work helping with the conservation of the flora and fauna around this wooded area. We were glad to see Carla join us on her 2nd goodgym mission, and were all eager to congratulate our Richmond Hero Anita on reaching her 200th Good Deed. This milestone is even more impressive considering that Anita only got her 100 Good Deed wings at the start of lockdown! Another Lockdown Legend to add to the growing list :)

After the ceremonial Cape was donned, task owner Ken talked us through the task du jour, where he announced that we would be shovelling s**t from one side of the path to the other to create an environment conducive to growing indigenous wild flowers, and then doing some litter picking around the edges of the common.

So half the task was a load of horseshit, while the other half was a litter better! To begin with, we manurevered up the path through the wooded area where horses should neighver be allowed to take a dump, only to discover a whole lot of poo in the ditch running along the the side of the path. Despite the s**t getting real, we made our way up the path singing along to 'One Two - shovel the poo, Three Four - pick up some more'... no mater how much crap we have to deal with, we'll find joy and carry on singing!

The second half also involved picking up crap of another sort! With bin bags and a variety of litter pickers in hand, and head torches on full beam, we paired up and headed into the woods to clear away the shocking amount of trash that people carelessly toss or leave behind :(

Once we had cleaned up the area, we headed over to a local pub to toast Anita's achievement with a drink and some specially made celebratory brownies :) I hope we get to cut some more trees down in next month's edition of the Petersham Common mission!

A bright sunny Saturday morning greeted us on the Ham Lands as we gathered for our regular second-Saturday meet up to help develop the Ham Lands natural habitat. Sufiyo and Sharon were there to greet us and explain the work which needed to be done - which was to clear and uproot the invasive brambles and small trees which were causing problems for other plant life.

A big bunch of Richmond regulars was joined by several new and nearly-new joiners - welcome to Alice and Gemma for whom this was their first task, and Freya who joined in Kingston this month - as well as visitors from Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow and a very welcome extra pair of hands in Adam, who was visiting for the weekend.

After the briefing we all grabbed tools and set to work. Some of the brambles proved to be pretty resistant to our efforts, and those with spades found it tough going but fought valiantly on. Elsewhere those armed with forks and mattocks were making faster headway. The sheer number of us meant that soon enough we were winning the fight and the yellow canvas bags started to fill up with the piles of brambles and weeds we had pulled up.

Much of the discussion as we worked was on the impact the government's new social gathering restrictions might have on community missions, but as work and volunteering appear to be exemptions we expect to be able to carry on. Fingers crossed...

The next session helping the Friends of Ham Lands is already listed, so go ahead and sign up and we look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday 10th October: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/helping-the-friends-of-ham-lands-d1be2023-19fc-42d6-b4b1-05a48ab715f3