At 10am on a grey Saturday morning (no sun-Shine for us!) four goodgymers were Back (for Good) at Fulham Palace to help out senior gardener Pete. Beth was first to arrive following parkrun. Divy appeared bang on time just as Michelle rolled up on her bike, and the trio walked down towards the courtyard to meet Pete. As we headed down, Tasha jogged up behind us to complete the goodgym troupe. After signing in and having a quick chat by the toolshed whilst Pete finished opening up, we walked over to the small triangle by the moat, where our task today was to rake up and bag the cuttings scattered across the area. We admired Pete's handiwork in the moat, as it looked far tidier now than it did last time we were here. Everything Changes at Fulham Palace between our monthly visits - Could It Be Magic? Nope... instead it's such a testament to the hard work of the gardening team and their small army of volunteers.

As we set to work raking the cuttings into piles, we got chatting (goodgymers are a lovely bunch!) Conversation was as diverse as always - we covered everything from our love of sport to our day jobs, from covid vaccines to party themes... we Said It All! Tasha explained that this was her first goodgym mission in Hammersmith & Fulham, and that it was only her second goodgym task - welcome to the gang! It was nice to hear of your family connection to goodgym Oxford, and we really Pray that you enjoyed your first H&F task & stick around for more. 😊

Time flew by, and (with a little Patience) we managed to fill all of the waste sacks which Pete had brought over for us. We focused our remaining efforts on raking the leftover cuttings into piles to make it easier for Pete's apprentices to finish off what we had started next week. By 11:20 we had completed the task - it seems that GGers have what it rakes to make light work of gardening jobs these days... we could well Rule the (weeding) World!! We posed for a quick group photo together before heading off to enjoy the rest of our Saturdays - it was the Greatest (start to our) Day!

With the evenings getting darker earlier we raced over to Marston to complete a bulb-planting session with Marston Community Gardeners before it got too dark to work.

Working in pairs we planted hundreds of daffodil bulbs all along the road heading out of Old Marton towards the ring road. No messing about on this evening session - we knew we probably only had 40 minutes to get the job done, even with head torches and portable lights helping to extend the work time.

We all admired the professionalism of Mary's bulb-planting tool - the ultimate way to plant several hundred bulbs without getting repetitive strain injury! - although most of us made do with spades and trowels. That's something for the GoodGym tool wishlist for sure, right below our own scythe! We picked up a bucket full of litter along the way as a bonus good deed.

Finishing in the dark, we were promised hot chocolate all round for all volunteers on our next bulb-planting mission on 31st October meeting at the Up in Arms. Check it out and sign up in the Sessions listings.

This is our 3rd year in a row planting bulbs in Marston. I very much hope that we'll finally get to see the resulting flowers next spring - 2 spring lockdowns mean that we haven't made it back to see the display yet!

It was perfect running weather, so the group run to and from the task was a joy.

Welcome to GoodGym Tasha and Rosemary :-)

Report title courtesy of Bethan. Thank you!