Our GoodGym gang defo got the tutu memo - the dressage was out in impressive force. Extra cudos must go to Sevan for making not one but two tutus (sorry!) and Maria for bagging a bin bag tutu!

The kids may not have got the tutu memo, probably because they don’t know what a memo is. But 50 runners got the message to show up and run round Pitshanger Park - bravo!

It wasn’t just a tutu day, it was also a marshal day, timekeeper day and tailwalker day. The latter featuring a pirouetting Stef, still quite taken by sporting his tutu.

Mrs I has a lot to sort out in the conservatory : religious items she is going to give so that is goes back to the church, church items that will be as per her religion needs either to be buried or burnt in a proper way(her choice) and then the remaining that will go to the bin. Today was setting a sorting area so we made space to put a separator from her main lounge and a table to lay out the items we sort together. In the meantime she said she received the local council NewsletterFebruary 2026 edition) which I have seen earlier in the week with Lager Can on the front page with our local hero and Goodgym friend Jacqui with her husband. We talked about it and was surprised what Goodgym and Lager Can do in the community and she was not aware of the amount of charity work happening in Ealing. She already has more space to walk in and out of the conservatory, plus can sit and sort some items when I am not there.

There didn't sound like there was much to do at Mr J's flat. He'd been having trouble keeping on top of things a few months ago when he was referred for help to declutter. Since then, he'd worked through the backlog himself, leaving Kash, Sevan and Mr J wondering how GoodGym could help him. At first, Mr J directed them to a pile of clothes that could go for donation, then, he remembered that there was a "storage" room where things went to be dealt with later.

The storage room sounded promising, so Mr J asked them to organise it by putting similar things together and making it look less like everything had been dumped there. During the mission, Kash and Sevan learned than Mr J had had an adventurous life. He had a trade which he'd worked in until retirement. He also knew how to have fun in his free time.

"I've been under the water diving and above the ground paragliding."
"I love to travel too. I've been all over and I loved India the most." - Mr J

In the spare room, Mr J first introduced Kash and Sevan to a memento from someone else's travels. A pirate chest, apparently from the 1820s. The treasure inside was long gone, unfortunately, so Mr J left the pair to work through the other boxes, bags and envelopes in the room by themselves.

Kash and Sevan found all manner of things from Mr J's life, discovering that he was an intentional and unintentional collector. He had sets of stamps, coins, photos and postcards from his travels, watches and clocks, all deliberately kept. He was very keen on his timepieces. There were also old mobile phones going back to the early 2000s, ceramic pieces and old hearing aids that had just hung around. Kash found containers to group Mr J's belongings together, creating a box for paperwork, for photos, for stamps and for random other bits and bobs.

By the end of the mission Mr J's storage room had become less daunting, meaning that he could now find similar items and sort through them in his own time. Two bags of rubbish had been removed too, which was a huge help for Mr J as he'd been housebound for the last 6 months.

Who knows what an aquifer is? No, neither did Ealing GoodGymers until today's tree planting session in Cleveland Park with Letting Grow. Letting Grow's plan was to put 1,500 trees into the ground in the park as part of today's community day.

Maria arrived early to discover the muddy delights that awaited and started planting the bundle of whips she was handed. Kash, Theo, Lena and Sevan arrived later and were greeted by:

"Welcome to mudland!" - Maria

Task owner Ross had been in the park since the morning and offered the GoodGymers his own advice due to the muddiness of the ground:

"Use our gloves" - Ross
"Have you got an industrial washing machine to clean them?" - Sevan
"No. I have a very angry wife"
"She'll say, I can't believe you've muddied up the washing machine again!" - Ross

Some took Ross up on his offer, making his wife more angry. Those that didn't had their own extra washing to do after the task. The "fun" part of planting in this aquifer was that a puddle would materialise a few seconds after any hole was dug for a tree. This needed special trees - GoodGymers planted sweet chestnut and hornbeam - that could take the damp soil and a special planting technique:

1. Dig a hole
2. Put the top grass layer back in the hole upside down
3. Place the whip in
4. Fill the hole with the rest of the removed soil
5. Heel in the whip
6. Add some mulch

The second step was unusual and Ross said that it would help to keep the ground water away from the roots. The unsaid step 7 was to try and get as much mud off yourself as possible before planting the next tree. Some of the team had more success than others in staying clean and you can play "spot who had the most fun" with the group photo.

Everyone did an amazing job in challenging conditions, with Maria taking the award for champion tree planter 🏆. There were many people from the local area who'd come along to the community day too, so we and they will see in a few months how the whips are getting on in their own private swimming pools.

Nine GoodGymers who visited Western Road on a cloudy Saturday morning were in their element the moment they jumped into action. And the element of the day was water. Somehow, miraculously, it didn't rain in the morning - that, obviously, had to happen at some point. It was the water tanks that served as the theme for the February session at the urban garden.

Firstly, a heavy tank had to be emptied of water and a sludge-like mess, then wheeled on a trolley to a different part of the garden. Secondly, two other water tanks - 1000-litre monsters each - were waiting to be placed in more suitable locations. Our job was to create those appropriate places for them: one high and one low. While Sophie and Afshin were digging a wide hole for one tank, Sevan and Steph were using the dirt extracted by them to build a platform for the other container.

A side quest, not related to water, had Danny, Kash and Steph moving woodchip to a newly planted section of the native hedging, to be raked by Kat and Iram. The fun part? There were only two wheelbarrows, one of them undergoing surgery at the beginning of the session. Once the barrow got a new (puncture-proof!) wheel installed, it got captured by Afshin, who had to move the soil for Sevan, who was building the water tank podium. The woodchippers ended up, again, with a single wheelbarrow between them, but quickly got creative and found some buckets to reduce the need for wheeled transportation.

Lena joined a team (partially including members of Let's Go Southall) whose job was to take down a mound of soil and use the material to even the ground around the polytunnel. And guess which tool was most useful to move the soil? Yes, that extra task meant even more competition for the wheelbarrows!

We managed to do the jobs thanks to teamwork and creativity, then found some time to enjoy fruit and hot and cold drinks in the polytunnel. White strawberries captured the most attention as a curiosity, unseen before by most Ealing GoodGymers.

This was a last minute listing to help local residents plant trees to improve a local green space. Our sole GoodGym rep, Harvey, helped out with mulching around the new trees to help them grow strong.

But the best bit was yet to come. Harvey arrived late so was still working when most people had gone. To his surprise, one last tree had not yet been named, an apple tree, and he was given the honour of choosing! This was an easy decision for Harvey. He chose 'Lizzie ', the little girl his wife and he lost many years ago. Thank you so much. Doesn't GoodGym bring its own rewards?

Grow strong.