Steph Ducat ran solo from Ealing Broadway as the usual suspects were away. Early start in cold weather - very cold but sunny. Icy patches on the route, but no ice skating and no falls on the route to Acton Junior parkrun. Arrived and did a small lap around which was in fact the route for the junior runners later. Caught a beautiful sunrise in a freeing park.

Cold but sunny Sunday morning with the sun on the horizon in a frosty park, but this did not stop the 29 children to turn up and run with parents. Volunteers were present with gloves, hats, extra layers and warm coats to keep warm. Some icy patches near the roundabout, but that was it on the course. The ground was hard and the pond was frozen. Alan, Michelle and Steph Ducat were marshals today. Michelle had a new position we did not know about - the one near the logs on the path going up to the top of the park. Joanna was at the finish line giving tokens. Everybody survived the cold and went back safely to their next occupations.

Mr B needed his favourite sofa moved to the next room over to make space for his hospital bed. It would be moving away from his perfectly positioned TV and into the family room.

After clearing the way by helping Mr B off the couch, moving small tables and making sure Mr B wasn't in the path of operation sofa move (he was quite curious about the goings on), Kash lifted one side of the sofa to stand it on its end. Sevan went first through the doors, guiding it through the 2 door frames and 2 left turns later it was in the right room.

Kash gently dropped the 3 seater back to the ground and the pair pushed it against the wall. Job done and they were in and out in a few minutes. The whole thing only took slightly longer than Sevan spent removing and re-lacing his manure covered shoes from an earlier task at a farm 🐄💩.

The first session of the year at Feeding Ealing was chilly, despite taking place at the warmest part of the day. Joseph had a solution for the team, a task to keep them moving and keep them warm. The remnants of a large pile of wood chip and bark would be used to refresh the path into the community growing space.

Steph, Kash and Sevan got shovelling and wheelbarrowing the new path topper. Joseph took on the task of raking it into place, even though he'd recently injured his foot in the orchard. There was no convincing him otherwise.

"I can't sit and watch others work for me while I do nothing" - Joseph

Between the 4 of them, they completed the path in an hour, smoothing out the lumps and bumps of the dirt path underneath. That made the entrance to the growing space accessible to all, even those who are a bit unsteady on their feet.

With the hard work done and the GoodGym team being kept warm as promised, they needed something else to keep that feeling going once the task was complete. Joseph produced a thermos of water, some tea bags and 4 mugs to warm their fingers and stomachs while chatting about Joseph's big plans for 2026 and beyond at Feeding Ealing.

Happoo New Year! What's a better way to start a new chapter than to spend a chilly, but sunny morning at an urban farm, surrounded by nature and good company?

That's how our new joiners, David and Jemma, decided to begin their GoodGym adventure. Welcome and well done for showing up today!

The Horsenden session is a great reason to add some exercise to the day. Iram cycled, Sevan and Kash ran, and Danny and Kat walked a whopping 3 hours from the neighbouring borough to get to Horsenden Farm, setting off well before the sun was up. That's a true GoodGym-style dedication, rewarded by some fantastic nature sights and a wonderful sunrise along the way!

A total of ten GoodGymers, who made it to the session, were assigned two jobs by a Friend of Horsenden Farm, Nick, and they decided to split into teams.

Team Hay (or High?) included the tallest people, working at height. David, Danny and Ash were tasked with taking bunches of dried tree hay off hooks and piling them at the ground level to make them accessible for shorter farm volunteers.

Team Sandwich: Iram, Steph Ducat, Jemma, Thaiza, Kash, Kat and Sevan were assigned the job of making two giant sandwiches. They were first transporting green waste onto two piles of manure, creating a sort of "lettuce" layer, which would then be topped by more manure. The vision resembled a sandwich structure - and you know what kind of sandwich I'm talking about! 💩

In an attempt to prevent their fingers from freezing, the GoodGymers kept shovelling and wheelbarrowing until the green heap was gone. Ash, Danny and David, having completed their task, joined the unit just when it was going to be promoted from dealing with green waste to brown waste. A huge pile of brown matter was more than enough to complete the sandwiches and compress the veg waste into compost. But what to do with the rest of the poo heap? The short answer: move it to the poo mountain!

GoodGymers love a challenge, so without mucking about, and got right into a vigorous race with barrows to the top of the mountain. The ice on the ground was slippery, and despite running with wheelbarrows was off the table, a couple of people still slipped. Luckily, the falls didn't result in any bruises - merely with a little bit of brownness on clothes!

Digging the cow muck uncovered a real metropolis of invertebrates living in rather poo conditions. But their plight got even worse when the robins found out that the lunch was just served! Looking at the birds savouring fresh worms, the GoodGymers started feeling a bit peckish too, so they finished the task rapidly (but diligently!) and rushed to position themselves in the queue for the pizza, coffee and beer. As volunteers, they were allowed to use the indoor space at the Hayloft for their lunch - a real treat after two hours of work in the chilly weather!

If you'd like to join us next month, sign up now for the February session at Horsenden Farm. We are hoping to see you there!

The third and last mission of a pretty energetic New Year’s Day brought Kash to South Acton for a classic end-of-the-week shop for Mr G. Luckily, Sainsbury’s was open until 8 pm despite the public holiday.

Although the new year just started, Mr G welcomed Kash with his old shopping list, which needed an upgrade at some point. The previous week’s helper had attempted to bring some fresh ideas into Mr G’s shopping basket, and Kash wanted to know what the outcome was.

”I heard Sevan bought you a sweetheart cabbage last week. Did you like it?” - Kash

”I must have, I’ve eaten it.” - Mr G.

Confident that the cute-named cabbage purchase won’t end up in disaster like the infamous kale experiment, Kash put the new vegetable in the basket alongside staples like brussels sprouts and blueberry yoghurt.

Having helped Mr G unpack the groceries, Kash took a heavy rubbish bag downstairs into the bin and set off for a run home, completing a total of 20 km of running on the first day of the year because... why not?