GoodGymers Melissa, Martin and Alan joined the regular locals to help unload and sort the delivery to South Ealing Community food cupboard at St Mary's church.

As well as plenty of fresh fruit and veg, this week's supplies included large quantities of yogurt and single cream. There was so much yogurt that a local school was put on standby to take any surplus as a lunchtime treat.

In a rare alignment of planets, this month Horsenden Farm did not have any of his standard crew of 'leaders'.

No problem at all and all hail to COMMUNIST GOODGYM! WE ARE ALL LEADERS!

Oopss. I got a bit carried away. 😅

No problem at all. Amy, Freya and Gus met with Magda from the Friends of Horsenden Hill and we got to it (There may have been a quick coffee and pastry stop on the way)

The task today was to help clear up the pond. One of the volunteer hopes to make it less steep for wildlife to get into it but before that the current situation needs assessing and as it is it's just overgrown.

So we got started with moving a pile of logs until.... Delphine made an appearance!!!

We had perhaps been a little too keen on getting started that we did not wait for anyone else that was maybe perhaps on their way. But she found us and got to it straight away too.

Logs piled up. It was time to get to the fun bit! Barbed wire. Amy showcased her wire cutting skills while Freya and Delphine started bashing the overgrowth while Gus helped dismantling the fencing. After a little bit of tea discussion we actually got offered a lovely cuppa from Magda. That was needed to help finish the job.

While there is more to be done, a large part of the fencing is now gone and a good chunk of the pond cleared up. A pizza well earned!

Until next time!

As I was away in Cardiff, I swapped from Saturday visit to a Sunday visit as back from my trip in Wales today

At lunchtime today I was one of the servers- there was a constant flow of guests so we servers were kept very busy. Ealing Soup Kitchen has a new cooker but the ventilation needs connecting so it can’t be used yet - too risky for kitchen volunteers!
So lunch today was a selection of salads which received a mixed reception. Some of the guests - and volunteers (including me) - loved the meal but several were clearly missing their hot lunch. Clearly cous cous with pasta and pesto salads are not to everyone’s taste. Hopefully next week will see a return to normal service!

I was back on the tea and coffee service at Ealing Soup Kitchen today. In spite of it being a very warm day, tea and coffee was in great demand. Plus the biscuits of course. And the cereals that we started providing last year are very popular - there’s a good selection of cornflakes, Cheerios, Weetabix, Rice Krispies amongst others. Guests then moved on to the Snow Cones for something a bit cooler!

This task was done with help from the lovely people at Cultivate. The amazing Auberon from Cultivate provided the watering equipment, then him and me spread out to tackle the different parts of the garden that needed watering. We also got involved in a bit of weeding.

Overall, the garden is in good condition. With the weather getting hotter, I'm looking forward to making my way down here again.