"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

Elthorne Park saw many battles between the burdock and Ealing GoodGymers. Maybe not a hundred, but at least eight in the recorded history. The ninth encounter was going to be a special one.

"Take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

Five GoodGymers unexpectedly descended on Elthorne Park on Thursday, breaking the four-year-old rule of confronting their enemy on Tuesday evenings. They came from different directions, using diverse modes of transport to surprise and surround burdock. Richard and Kash ran to the park, Amy and Shree cycled, and Dora walked. All GoodGymers were carrying sharp loppers and protective gloves.

It was the very first GoodGym session for Shree, whom we warmly welcomed as she went into battle with the invasive plant with unwavering enthusiasm.

”To know your enemy, you must become your enemy.” - misatributed to Sun Tzu.

Some of us took that advice to become the enemy quite literally, letting the sticky burrs cover us head to toe, to the point where we had more burrs on us than a real burdock plant!

It took us one hour in total to locate a burdock-ridden area along the path from the Bambi statue to the River Brent, just ahead of Osterley Lock, and cut back large patches of the invasive plant. We dropped all the cuttings behind a nearby woodchip pile, creating our own heap towering over its neighbour, to avoid the spread of burdock seeds outside that area. Hopefully, next year we’ll see fewer burdock clusters in the south of Elthorne Park!

If a conservation session in Hanwell like the one above (minus the burdock) sounds like your thing, why not join us on Saturday the 12th September at one of community orchards in Hanwell?

If you don’t want to wait that long, we have an outdoor session for you this Saturday at Horsenden Farm, followed by team lunch. Sign up to be part of it!

There is a true "tomb" romance between Goodgym Ealing St Mary's church : we were back for more weeding and clearing the tombs around the church. Todays group run became a group walk as only 1 runner and it was quite close so plenty of time to get the the church. Jo cycled to the church and Harvey ran to meet the walking "dead" at the church - dont believe everything I say as the walkers were really alive.

Welcome to Neal and Max for their 1st session. We carried on from our last session here by weeding and doing a great tidy up left and right of where we left it last time as we were 8 - so 2 groups of 4. This avoided us walking on each others "bones". Divide to better conquer the bramble territory. We also removed a lot of broken glass between the tombs but also near the path near the church.

The tomb raiders did a great job today. Well done team.

Another month and several Goodgymers stuck to their "litter pickers" to remove trash off the streets of their borough. Usual trash with loads of bottles probably due to the hot weather.

Keep the good work up team.

Goodgym were back to help UFO s -Urban Fox Orchestra Steelband break down the carnival truck after Notting Hill carnaval. Maria and Steph Ducat braved the wind to help with the steel arms - steelpans, drum and other equipment had to be taken down for the high truck and put back in storage. The crew gave us a warm welcome and in no time the truck had a different look than when it arrived after the carnival. The 2 Goodgymers have arms of steel - lifting and lowering the steel drums then wheeling then to the storage in Acton

Another Session in Mrs A back garden : found more golf balls, a winnie the Poo ball, a bicycle wheel, a trolley, a hand made trolley used in the garage and a bench that we just made free of the bindweed and brambles. Bench engraved for Mrs A brother. We now have a clear path to the back and now we can see the slabs that were put there ages ago. Green way to the back garden. Mrs A will be able to sit on the bench when she comes out of hospital

Alan cycled and Steph Ducat ran to Acton Junior parkrun where both were marshalling this Sunday. As I was early I had the pleasure to put together the table. We had a few speedy children this morning and the girls beat the boys to the finish line. 1st and 2nd position for the girls. well done to all runners and walkers.