"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

Elthorne Park saw many battles between the burdock and Ealing GoodGymers. Maybe not a hundred, but at least eight in the recorded history. The ninth encounter was going to be a special one.

"Take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

Five GoodGymers unexpectedly descended on Elthorne Park on Thursday, breaking the four-year-old rule of confronting their enemy on Tuesday evenings. They came from different directions, using diverse modes of transport to surprise and surround burdock. Richard and Kash ran to the park, Amy and Shree cycled, and Dora walked. All GoodGymers were carrying sharp loppers and protective gloves.

It was the very first GoodGym session for Shree, whom we warmly welcomed as she went into battle with the invasive plant with unwavering enthusiasm.

”To know your enemy, you must become your enemy.” - misatributed to Sun Tzu.

Some of us took that advice to become the enemy quite literally, letting the sticky burrs cover us head to toe, to the point where we had more burrs on us than a real burdock plant!

It took us one hour in total to locate a burdock-ridden area along the path from the Bambi statue to the River Brent, just ahead of Osterley Lock, and cut back large patches of the invasive plant. We dropped all the cuttings behind a nearby woodchip pile, creating our own heap towering over its neighbour, to avoid the spread of burdock seeds outside that area. Hopefully, next year we’ll see fewer burdock clusters in the south of Elthorne Park!

If a conservation session in Hanwell like the one above (minus the burdock) sounds like your thing, why not join us on Saturday the 12th September at one of community orchards in Hanwell?

If you don’t want to wait that long, we have an outdoor session for you this Saturday at Horsenden Farm, followed by team lunch. Sign up to be part of it!

On a late August Thursday evening, Richard, Sevan and Kash met with Tom, Linda and Nicky at Havelock Estate in Southall to help We Run Ealing spread the word about a beginners' running programme starting very soon - on 2nd September. The programme, led by the running coach Linda, was aimed at women who wanted to progress from walking to running their first 5 km.

Sevan and Richard ran along the canal to the task, while Kash clocked in a 10 km evening walk through green spaces and towpath on the way to and from the session before it got dark.

The team spread to post 500 leaflets through letterboxes on different streets of the estate, including, fittingly, Post Road. The area wasn't large, and the group agreed to meet up again at designated points.

"Let's meet again at the Islamabad Road."
"Where?"
"Oh, that's Isambard Road. I cannot see it on my phone screen, the map is so small."

If you are a bridge enthusiast like the author of this report, you may link the road name with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a 19th-century engineer who designed the nearby Three Bridges landmark. Interestingly, there are only two bridges in that crossing: the aqueduct carrying the canal over the railway tracks and a road bridge over the canal. Don’t let that disappoint you - seeing the rail tracks underneath you and the road overhead, looking from the towpath, is still unmissable!

Hopefully, in less than an hour of leafletting today, we helped the women of Havelock Estate bridge the gap between walking and running this autumn.

3 Goodgymers were up bright and early to volunteer at Southall Parkrun.Jacquie walked while Richard and Steph Ducat ran. Sunny Saturday and roughly 124 runners/walkers completed the course after doing 3 laps around the park and getting confused with the magical roundabout. Go around it 3 times then go left to the finish. All finishers were welcomed by Jacquie as was on token duties and then getting scanned by Richard. Steph Ducat was marshal at point 2 which is the double marshalling point as parkrunners go past on both sides.

This was not your typical GoodGym session in Ealing: Wednesday evening tasks are a rarity for us, and we usually venture to Southall in daylight on a weekend! But not this time!

The session was organised at short notice last Saturday to finish off the concreting job from last weekend. But then came the plot twist: after over 50 dry days, the rain finally came, although not much of it. Seeing the forecast, Ash, our task owner, was worried that the concrete wouldn’t dry and set properly, so he decided to finish the task himself earlier in the week.

Little did he know that eight GoodGymers - a number surpassing even last Saturday's attendance - were already planning to turn up for the Wednesday session! And little did we know that Ash had already beaten us to it.

For such a big group, Ash had a plan B: bringing a couple of other projects to fruition.

🌱 Task 1

Not far from the newly concreted area, next to the two 1,000-litre water containers, Scott, Freya, Afshin, Alana and Janet got to work clearing the area. They removed logs and weeds, levelled the ground and, finally, covered it with woodchip - which turned out to be Janet’s favourite activity!

Once covered with a membrane and grid, the cleared area will become a seating space where people from the local community can come together. It will also leave room for a greenhouse.

It was the first ever GoodGym task for Alana and Janet, who decided to try GoodGym together. Welcome, both - hopefully we’ll see you again soon!

⚡ Task 2

You could simply call it digging a trench, but we have a better name for it! Electrifying Western Road!

Steph Ducat, Richard and Kash picked up their mattocks and got to work digging a trench for a pipe that will carry electric cables from the solar panel to the shed, passing through the polytunnel. It was hard graft! The team managed to reach an acceptable depth (although not the ideal 40cm) just as it started getting dark.

There wasn’t enough time to line the trench with terram and cover it with sand, so we had to leave the newly opened chasm secured for another day. Before leaving, we secured the area with a rope after discovering that children would be visiting Western Road the following day. Safety first!

We didn’t get around to naming our new canyon. Any ideas? Put them in the comments!

What's next?

If you fancy another Southall session, there’s one coming up next Thursday, when we’ll be spreading the word about a beginners’ running programme and helping people in Southall get active. And if you’re curious to see what’s next for Western Road, join us next month for a Saturday morning session!