It was great to see Rainu this morning, I stayed on for the lunchtime session and was again on serving duties - we had thought there weren’t so many people but, when the dining area doors opened at 1pm, every table was full! There was a constant flow of clients and the meal - fish pie and vegetables cooked by chef Andrew - was a great success. The only downside for me was a bruised leg as I managed - twice - to walk into benches in the crowded dining area. Next week I will be choosing different tables!

Friday evening task and I arrived at Ms A flat to take recycling bags out of her place and drop them down in the bins on the ground floor. When I arrived, Ms A asked where my accent was from and we ended up talking about different areas of the world. One was Ireland as Ms A is Irish and as I lived in Ireland she started saying something that all Irish are known for - short stories... Then she looked at me and said : A long story short which made both of us laugh as we talked longer than the task itself took to put away the 7 bags(3 heavy and 4 lighter ones). After clearing the bags and a nice chat, I left Ms A to wonder in the streets of Ealing.

For GoodGym Ealing's third and last Birthday Run, to celebrate our 10 years of good deeds in the borough, the route passed organisations old and new that GGE has helped in central and South Ealing, plus Northfields. There were 6 stops on the way to talk about each organisation, its purpose and how GoodGym has helped them work towards their goals. The organisations on the route were:

Walpole Park where we've worked with the park ranger to maintain the park for many years. We've mulched trees, cut back brambles, helped give away a giant pile of compost to residents, planted a flower bed for the visit of The Antiques Roadshow and moved tons and tons of wood chip.

Ealing Transition and Lammas Orchard was next, which was started when 2 tennis courts were reclaimed to create a community orchard. Similar to Walpole Park, we carry out lots of conservation and maintenance tasks here, like wood chipping the paths, clearing weeds, looking after the new and old hedges in the area and topping up the tadpole pool with water. We have a group run coming up to help Ealing Transition on the 25th of August.

A short dash from Ealing Transition was St Mary's Church where GGE have had many tasks over the years with different organisations. Tidying the church and decorating their Xmas tree is our traditional pre-Xmas party task. We now also volunteer weekly at South Ealing Food Cupboard and maintain the churchyard when called on. Our next tasks at St Mary's will be stocking the Food Cupboard on Monday and gardening on Tuesday for our next group run.

A hop, skip and a jump away down an alley was Grange School. A more recent task location since 2025, they have plans on turning an unused area with a huge pit into a nature area with a pond. We've had 2 sessions with parents and children from the school to clean up the area and turn the pit into a smaller, safer pool of water.

Further south was South Ealing Cemetery where, since 2024, we've had various interesting sessions with Ealing Parks Foundation. Their aim is to make the cemetery a welcoming place for everyone to reduce anti-social behaviour and shady people hanging out there. We've wood chipped paths, learned what a stumpery is and prepared and planted in their flowerbeds as part of the bigger vision.

A slightly longer way later and now heading west, the group arrived at Blondin Park. With the Blondin Consortium we've prepared for building of the pavilion, set up the annual Brentford Festival, installed boot scrubbers and there are always the GoodGym favourites, mulching, planting and watering trees.

The last stop of the run was The Log Cabin. No longer a GoodGym task location, it's an organisation that aims to bring together children with and without special needs to play together. They have a large play area outside that we used to keep tidy and keep maintained. During Covid, we flyered the local area for them too to share free activities to keep children entertained. It was also briefly the Ealing location for All Aboard Club's giant train set, before it moved to Acton's London Transport Museum Depot.

That was GGE's run through history. Organisations past, present and hopefully future. Let's see who's new on the list in 10 years time 🗓️.

Mr G had visitors from his Housing Association when I arrived today so I was dispatched to the supermarket without the usual pre-shopping chat.

The big news on the shopping front was the absence in store of Brussels sprouts - which they told me "are no longer in season". Hopefully they'll be back well before Christmas. In the meantime, I bought an extra cabbage to compensate.

Back to Mr G's just as his visitors were leaving so there was time for a catch-up on the latest with his flat renovations and his holiday dreams.

When I think of Blondin Park, I picture a vast space shrouded in darkness, with a tarmac path lit by evenly spaced ground lights like an airport runway. Above it, a bunch of lights hover five or six feet in the air. They move forward with a slight jitter, so they're clearly not drones. What are they? GoodGymers in head torches, running to meet Linda at Blondin Park Pavilion!

For the last three years, our sessions at Blondin Park have mostly been a winter thing. Linda is one of those task owners who doesn't mind us hanging around the park after dark, doesn't mind seeing us through the coldest months of the year and, most importantly, Linda has hot chocolate. Really good hot chocolate.

But today was different. Picture this: the sun setting over the park's community orchard, its rays giving the burnt yellow grass a golden glow. Fallen apples, tree leaves, people's hair, everything catches the light. If only the massive pile of woodchip we're digging into could turn into gold too! But in a way, it already is gold. It's gold for the fruit trees, protecting their roots and providing nutrients. And it's gold for us too, putting our energy into something worthwhile.

We scrape away the dried grass around each tree as far as the drip line. We load woodchip into wheelbarrows, tip it around the trees, then rake it carefully so it doesn't touch the trunks. There are quite a few of us today: some arrive by bike, others walk or run individually, while four of us run together through three parks to get here. Maria, Amy, Jo, Richard, Kristian and Sevan scrape away the hard, sun-baked surface to reveal the earth beneath. Steph Ducat and Giles tirelessly load the wheelbarrows. Scott arrives straight from work, having battled everything TfL could throw at him, determined to make it - and immediately starts wheeling the queued barrows to empty them. Dora takes charge of raking the mulch spread by Scott, and later by Jo and Kash, neatly around each tree.

The team finishes just before dusk. The golden hour is gone. There'll be no golden glow in our hair or long shadows for the group photo. But that's ok. Ten fruit trees now have a solid layer of mulch around them. Great work, team – especially Giles, who joined his first GoodGym session today, and Dora, who came along thanks to Linda's persuasive skills.

What is no different from the winter version of this picture is the teamwork, the smiles, the satisfaction, and the woodchip, of course. And there is hot chocolate. Linda invites us into the pavilion café for refreshments. Only Steph accepts the hot chocolate offer, Richard opts for tea, and everyone else chooses cold drinks on such a warm evening. The head torches will be back soon enough. Until then, let's enjoy the summer sunshine!

Our Sunday chatty runs are normally very early, before Acton Juniors Parkrun. Today was different as we are 7 days from GG Ealing 10th birthday, so after the GG crew volunteered at the Junior Parkrun, we went to Boulangerie Jade for our usual coffee stop before moving on. After a lovely drink, it was time to set off from the Boulangerie on an historical chatty run through parts of Acton and going towards West Ealing. Roughly a 6.5 km run. Three became four as Maria who just got her wings this week decided to fly with Kash, Sevan and Steph Ducat.

Short run to Acton Market place where 3 keys event/tasks are part of GG Ealing : - Pokopia Garden(Pokemon) : newish task with head office and Cultivate London - St Mary's church Acton : tasks with Ealing Repair Cafe in the church - recycling at its beast - Leafleting meeting point to promote several charities in the area of Acton

Then we set off direction of Action Station to stop in front of the Acton Transport Museum where we had some sessions with All Aboard Club who allow young children with autism to build and play with trains. We started originally in Ealing at the Log Cabin.

After this short stop, we set off in the side streets towards Ealing common to stop and observe where we did several tasks of trimming trees that were quite low. Ranger asked us in the past to trim them to make it safer for walkers, runners but also have a clear view of the park when walking.

We could have sat and chatted in the park, but we had better ideas - run in the back streets towards Walpole park, where we help the ranger throughout the year - a lot of wood chipping in winter!! We also did help when there was a photo competition/exposition in the park.

The next 2 stops were close to each other : St Johns Church and the Salvation Army where GG Ealing volunteer with Ealing Soup Kitchen. ESK are there for the homeless : cooking food, giving food parcels, providing clothing, showers, hair cut and also a place for them to be indoors with others. Sessions happen mainly on Friday but we have also Monday, Saturday and Sunday sessions between the 2 locations. The 2 are separate by Dean Gardens which we ran through and of course some of the Goodgymers volunteered here with Cultivate London who focus on the green spaces.

Then it was time to go to our final point : West Ealing Station. This is one of the stations that GG and We Run Ealing have as stop when we do the Ealing Tube station social runs.