Next level of litter picking - not on land but on water. Paddle litter picking for 4 Goodgymers. After a small debrief and training at Kew Bridge, they were then set off on the water guided/lead by Sophie from Active 360. Headed out on the river for a paddle around the local islands where we stopped to collect litter along the way without disturbing the local wildlife. Collected the usual rubbish but also found a plate, a sock plus a jacket hanging in a tree and a bubble wand which still worked...Bubbles were made here!!

We paddled roughly 2.5 km before going back to Kew Bridge, but it seemed much longer - what a great session. Nobody fell in the water and we were a bit muddy

Michelle returned today for a second mission for Mr G, with Kash and Sevan joining her. Michelle had told them that there was a big job to do and more hands would help her blitz through the task, making Mr and Mrs G much happier about the their garden.

True to Michelle's word, there was a lot to do. Apparently there was only supposed to be grass in the garden where there were actually all sorts of invasive plants growing. Virginia creeper was a new one on Kash and Sevan, but they'd seen snowberries and hawthorn before. Plenty of them had grown over head height and surprisingly, there were no brambles or nettles to be seen.

With a strimmer and 2 pairs of shears, it was hard to know where to start. Kash strimmed everything on the ground, Michelle attacked the boundary with the neighbour and Sevan started chopping the snowberries and huge mass of sticks in the middle of the garden that kept him busy all the way through the task. It was hard to imagine that the huge lump of growth in the middle shouldn't be there at all.

Part way through, Kash created a portal to the garden next door, so the neighbour came to say hello. He was happy to see Mr G's garden being brought under control and also asked the GoodGymers not to go too far cutting things back as he enjoyed the flowers that bloomed in summer.

After an hour and a half of chopping, strimming and bagging, Michelle, Kash and Sevan had made a big dent. The garden looked much better and it was now more manageable for Mr and Mrs G to look after themselves.

The industrious Athena of Chiswick, patron goddess of heroic endeavour, called upon the heroes of West London for two epic missions in the far reaches of Hounslow on a Sunday morning. Hermes, the cunning god of adventurous missions, answered the call and ran swiftly between Ealing and Hanworth, aided by his winged sandals. Artemis, the wild goddess of the hunt, accompanied him, having transformed herself into a deer to keep up. Together, they ran 10 km and met Athena in Hanworth, where she briefed them on their two missions.

The first adventure required the three to enter Ms L’s back garden, which was in a state resembling the Augean stables: overgrown, littered with rubble and pieces of a greenhouse, with the occasional pile of cat poo lying around. There was even the mostly decomposed carcass of a small bird, which Artemis carefully packed into a black bag, while Hermes escorted the soul of the deceased creature to the afterlife.

Hermes and Artemis ventured deep into the green yonder, cutting through brambles and vines, while Athena cleverly chopped the trimmings into smaller pieces so they could all fit into two brown wheelie bins. From time to time, Artemis would even jump into a bin to compress the cuttings and make room for more green waste. The Trojans would surely have approved.

The three Olympians soon realised that they had encroached upon the domain of another god: Dionysus. An abundance of grapevines hung from the garden wall, and among them they discovered one surviving bunch of grapes. Ms L explained that they were terribly sour and suitable only for winemaking. Athena, Artemis and Hermes therefore decided to cut back all the grapevines, preventing any ritual madness from taking place in the garden and, hopefully, stopping the mess from returning.

Arriving at Feeding Ealing today, there was already a large group of volunteers there. More than had been at the site for months. Walking through the growing area, compared to August plenty of harvesting had already been completed as growing beds had been picked and cleared.

Joseph was glad to see the GoodGym team again and had tasks ready for us to do. In the polytunnel, there was produce still shooting upwards and ripening, which sounded like a nice problem to have. Hiding behind the polytunnel were raised beds, where potatoes had been been growing and were ready for harvest.

Team To-may-to

Giles, Therese and Sevan made up team To-may-to. Their goal was to untangle tomato plants that had gone rogue. They were mingling together and not sticking to their own bamboo stakes, making them hard to support with the canes and difficult to spot ripe fruit and harvest from when the time comes.

They joined another volunteer in the very densely packed tomato patch who'd been at it for 2 hours already. The volunteer was teasing the vines apart to try and have a single stake per plant, from the roots to the shoots. The plants were brittle though and easy to break, so there were some casualties along the way.

This was Therese's first task and she asked if they were all like this. Complicated and difficult to complete? Well, it's not unknown and GoodGymers often need to use their ingenuity to solve problems at tasks. Today's was particularly challenging though. Well done on your first good deed Therese and we hope to see you again soon 👏🎉.

Team Po-tah-to

Team Po-tah-to was larger, with Delphine, Kash, Maxime and Dora, who's become a regular recently. They found that some potatoes had already been removed from the soil in the morning and Joseph said to leave the rest to be harvested later. Instead, the team was asked to tidy the area around the veg and potato beds to help the remaining produce grow stronger.

Time To Call It Off

The weeds were removed and Team Po-tah-to were successful, with plenty of time left in the session. They were even able to flex their muscles and move a heavy table too 💪.

Inside the polytunnel, Team To-may-to admitted defeat against the renegade tomato network. Between the heat, the density of plants and not having a good way to keep each one supported and separate to the others, they let Joseph know that it was best to leave things as they were.

Despite the tangled tomatoes still growing wild in the polytunnel, Joseph was very happy with what the team had achieved and decided to call it a day.

Just as we thought the 2026 heatwaves were over, the first Saturday of September hit us with a blast of scorching sun before noon - but we liked it! On a beautiful, warm day, ten GoodGymers gathered at Horsenden Farm to help the newest residents settle in nicely. The new additions to the farm animals gang were two ponies. One of them, a retired mare, Trixie, had already arrived, and we saw her grazing behind the orchard. Her companion, a working pony, was due to arrive over the next few days.

Today's task was to create a new paddock for the ponies. We didn't need to worry about building the fencing - the job required clearing an overgrown meadow, full of thistles that had outcompeted even the frequent offender among the invasive plants - blackberries. We collected thick gloves, shears and loppers from the tool store and headed up the hill, saying hi to the two goats and the farm cat on the way.

The result of our nearly 2-hour chopping extravaganza was spectacular. Thanks to teamwork, the satisfying feeling that cutting back activity offers, and staying well hydrated, we managed to clear a large area that would certainly be comfortable for more than two ponies at a time. Or at least we thought so. We really tried to look at the paddock-to-be from our customers' perspective.

"If I were a pony, I'd like to hang out under those trees." - Iram.

The task owner, Elsa, was delighted to see how much had been achieved in such a short time. We hope that Trixie and her new pony friend will be equally pleased with their new space.

On the way to the seating area, where we'd devour pizzas and drink locally produced beverages as a reward, we spotted that the harvest mice were back in town. The cute tiny rodents hiding in the glass terrarium got the adult GoodGymers as excited as kids! It might have been one of the last chances to see the mice this year, as they are released into the wild every summer and autumn to rebuild the population of a species that had been extinct in our borough until Ealing Wildlife Group had reintroduced them.

If you missed this month's Horsenden Farm session, worry not! The next visit to the hidden gem of Ealing is in October - save the date now!

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.

Series one, episode two has dropped!

And it was some GoodGymming for the ages. A dozen of us met at the Castle Centre and jogged a lovely route down the quiet roads and across Burgess Park to meet a few more GoodGymmers at the Trinity College Centre, an amazing long-standing community space in the heart of Camberwell. We split up into teams and set to, one taking on clearing up the garden, the largest group deep cleaning the kitchen walls - the kitchen gets a lot of use as they offer free meals in partnership with local charities - and a third sorting through a magical mystery room that needed a bit of a refresh.

With an honourable shout out to Hilary for getting up the ladder to deep clean the extractor fan; the session highlight has to be the team of Lorna Jorge James Sevan Theo and others turning their talents to surgically deep cleaning the insides of two huge ovens - getting in a solid bicep workout and transforming them to look almost new.

Site manager Kevin was delighted and was already asking when we can come back. With a seamless return jog where we stayed perfectly as a group and definitely didn't split into three smaller groups, we capped the evening with a gentle cool down.

A small gang headed to the Four Quarters for some OJ & lemonades (king of drinks!) and to plot our next running events.

See you all for episode 3!