Back to Mrs A back garden for more berrying on with the overgrown brambles and weed behind the garage against the fence which you cannot see at the moment. Ploughing through and started to see more and more grapes amongst the berries. Then a metallic water tank with taps appeared : Mrs A son said it was previously against the garage and collected the rain water from the gutters...well it moved and was in the middle of the bramble jungle. Found more gold balls - not a surprise. Then a wired fence, some wooden panels and a wooden seat made from a tree appeared. Reached the neighbors fence!!!It could not be seen up to now as the brambles were so intense. Mrs A was speechless as didn't see the fence for ages. Another 2 bins filled, but still some work to be done.

On Saturday 8th August 2026, the day before the actual big milestone date, GoodGym Ealing celebrated its 10th birthday. A decade of doing good (over 11,900 good deeds and counting) by 990 GoodGymers (local and from afar) deserved a truly Ealing-style party - no pomp under any circumstances! A small crowd gathered on a meadow in Brent Lodge Park for a picnic by GoodGymers for GoodGymers - and some of our wonderful partners, too!

The location allowed us to borrow a few pieces of festival furniture thanks to the generosity of the William Hobbayne Charity and the Hanwell Hootie team, both represented by Andrea, who joined us on the day. We were visited by the Running Mayor Tom Kerry from We Run Ealing and the leads of Hanwell and Norwood Green Orchard Trail (HANGOT), Hilary and Clive, with whom we watered the trees and cut back a hedge at one of their public orchards in the morning.

While Linda from Blondin Pavilion couldn't make it to the party due to existing commitments, she was with us in spirit - more precisely, in the lemon drizzle she had kindly baked for us. It was a delicious treat!

TaskForce Iram, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Harvey (the latter sadly unable to make it to the party) received a well-deserved shoutout from Area Activator Kash for their incredible work behind the scenes and their support in making the 10th birthday happen: coming up with ideas, sending invites and bringing fun and tasty things to make the day even brighter.

The historical side of the celebration was boosted by the presence of GoodGym veterans like Bryon and John, who had been GoodGymming before GoodGym Ealing even existed! It was fantastic to see a range of newer GoodGymers joining at different times: Ealing regulars like Maria and Ashley, the more recent active members Jo, Andrew and Zuzanna, and the newest additions to the team: Giles - starting his sessions this week - and Beverley and Helen, who had their first opportunity to meet our team today. A lovely surprise was to see Mohamed, a dedicated member last year, who carved out a bit of his busy schedule to come and reunite with the team.

As time went on, the tree's shade receded, and we were forced to keep retreating to the ever-shrinking shade. The only thing that should be baked for a birthday is a cake - certainly not GoodGymers! We even opted out of setting the birthday candles alight on such a hot, dry day to mitigate the risk of a wildfire - or maybe no one thought about bringing a lighter!

The message of the day was simple: everyone is welcome at GoodGym Ealing and every time GoodGymers show up, it counts - for the community and for themselves. Whether you have just started your journey, come for one session a week or a month, do five tasks a week, or have had to take a break for a few months or even years, you are equally welcome, and GoodGym will be waiting for you. No matter if you walk, cycle or run to GoodGym tasks, it's an incredible way to get to know the unique places in your borough, learn about its diverse communities, and meet new people. So come and explore! GoodGym was there for you 10 years ago, it's here now, and it will be waiting for you over the next 10 years too! On to the next decade of getting active together!

In recent years, GoodGym Ealing's birthday celebration has lined up with a morning session with HANGOT, trimming the hedge at The Piggeries orchard. Today was a little different as the ongoing drought added some extra jobs to the To Do list, watering the trees in 3 orchards!

Steph and Jo volunteered to haul buckets of water out of the canal, over the lip, onto the towpath and into a 100 litre bowser. They then wheeled the bowser to each orchard when full to fill watering cans.

The water carriers first covered Bernd's Orchard as it was close to HANGOT's base of operations, then they moved to Elthorne Triangle. This was the toughest orchard to water as it was up a steep hill from the canal and the pair spent the longest time here watering 7 young trees. Next was The Piggeries where everyone else was trimming hedges, then finally back to HANGOT's base to fill the bowser, ready for use in a few days. Great work Steph and Jo, you're made of tough stuff and walked over 3km during the task too!

While Steph and Jo were doing the tough work with buckets, the rest of the team was having fun giving the hedges a short top and sides at The Piggeries to keep the orchard looking neat and maintained. One group of hedge trimmers were full of giggles and cheer. Had they started the party early? They claimed not. They were having a great time working as a team, pairing up with shears and loppers to cut and grab thick branches growing through the top of the hedge.

The cutting back gave passers by more space to use the canal towpath safely, so many people walking past thanked the team and one even brought some cool drinks to share around. All that was left to do was rake the cuttings to complete the job. That sounds easier than it was as so much had been taken off the hedges that it took many trips to the compost pile to finish the morning's task. The results left task owner Clive impressed:

"I'm really surprised that we've managed to do the hedges and watering. Thank you!"

The last task to tick off was to walk to Brent Lodge Park. There the team met GoodGymers old and new to celebrate a decade of GoodGym Ealing supporting organisations like HANGOT and older individuals in our borough.

Due to other events, Mr G wasn't ready to test out his online shopping skills, as planned. Instead, he asked Kash and Sevan to put his kitchen back in some sort of order after a builder had visited to make some improvements. With everything in it's right place or at least out of the way, including a clock that Sevan re-hung high on the wall, it looked like mission complete for the day...

...until Mr G asked for help to understand a document he'd been sent by a solicitor he'd engaged recently. Neither Kash nor Sevan were legal experts, so as Mr G was fretting about the contents and meaning of the letter, they tried to find another way to help Mr G. The best solution the GoodGymers could think of was uploading the 35 page document to an AI platform and asking it to either summarise the whole thing or ask it specific questions for the AI to answer. After jumping over some technical hurdles, they understood that the document didn't seem to line up with some information given to Mr G, so he would call the solicitor to ask for more details.

A compulsive drive for efficiency in getting stuff done without resorting to vehicle usage made me walk around the borough on Friday afternoon with two golden, giant balloons tied to my rucksack. I had them with me when Ms M's friend opened the door to the older lady's house in Hanwell.

"Hi, I'm Kash from GoodGym. I'm here to help with the garden."
"I thought you were advertising something."
"Not at all. My volunteering group is celebrating its 10th anniversary tomorrow. That's what the balloons are for."

The friend bought into my - completely true - story and called Ms M to the door.

"You will be shocked!" Ms M announced mischievously.
"You will be shocked too!" I replied, raising the stakes.

I brought my two shocking, floating golden companions through the door and explained what they're about. Ms M had a cool impression of a person who had seen it all, including gardeners bringing huge birthday balloons to the job. She was more than happy to let me leave them in the living room during the mission.

When I walked through the door to the back garden, the scene didn't appear shocking to me either. The dried, dead pot plants looked miserable, but I couldn't pinpoint anything particularly sensational there. It was bindweed that was supposed to raise my blood pressure.

Bindweed covered a decent chunk of the paving, flower beds and crowns of the overgrown bushes, but was easy to pull out. I was mostly done with it - at least on the ground level - in the first twenty minutes. I've asked about the overgrown bushes, and Ms M expressed she'd be keen to get them trimmed, but only if I have time to tackle the hedge in the front. I agreed to cut back both the plants in the back and in the front.

Perhaps I chose too short a ladder for the task, as reaching the tops of the bushes took more time than it needed to. Content with my job with the trimming, I swept the cuttings, packed them with bindweed into the green bin, then headed to the front garden.

The hedge was small, and so was the tool available for the job. Ms M couldn't find the shears, so I only had secateurs to trim the whole hedge. I had 15 minutes to complete this, sweep the paving and lock up the tool. I decided it would be better to do a less-than-top-quality trim than leave Ms M with a problematic monster hedge she wasn't able to cut back herself. And that's what I did. Ms M was delighted to see the result, even if it wasn't up to my desired standard.

I reminded myself to take the golden balloons before I left, and embarked on my next adventure.

Went for my weekly social visit with Mr T after having cake at the GG Ealing 10th birthday. As we say the show must go on, so after snacks and cake it was time to carry on doing good