A glorious sunny morning welcomed a grateful eight to the Ham Lands today, as we welcomed two new joiners for our monthly session helping the Friends of Ham Lands in their habitat preservation.

We set up in the same location as last month, near the Thames Young Mariners, and Sharon briefed us on the morning's task to cut back and clear the wild clematis and giant dock which had clustered (to make my punny title work) in one particular area.

The team selected digging tools and shears and got stuck in, digging out the clematis by the roots and cutting down the giant dock low to the ground, being careful to remove it without dislodging too many of its seeds.

We made fast progress as everyone worked steadily, clearing the low lying clematis and clusters of dock and filling sack after sack, which were regularly dragged to the undergrowth to be emptied on a compost heap.

Sharon was on hand with refreshments and we stopped to wet our whistle with the best cuppa ever to be served from a plastic cup, before a final push to finish off. Shear delight!

As usual, we rewarded ourselves for our efforts with a visit to the famous Swiss Bakery for coffee and snacks. Big shout out and warm welcome to Alex and Ann - hope to see you both again soon!

Next time at Ham Lands is on 12th July. You can sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/goodgym-richmond-helping-the-happy-ham-landers-4b814934-05f6-47e4-a6b2-cf6839ee6cc6

We were greeted by Jane (Head of Therapy) who introduced us to the Purple Elephant Project. Its focus and core values behind an intrinsic nature of supporting families and the key message being that 'children should be heard'.

In quick succession, we got down to the list of prepared tasks. The major areas included tidying up the garden and indoor play therapy centre, filled with toys, art materials, sand trays, and other creative tools were located. We also had senior play therapist Tracy on board, who performed an initial assessment with us to identify what sections needed tidying up. A stop and think exercise before tackling a job was a good shout. Our mission was to create an environment where therapists could reach out to the objects in those sections, that would later help the children to express their emotions and process trauma. We agreed and got cracking with the jobs.

Honor went guns blazing and took care of the therapy garden (and bringing along her own mower) whilst Mazin helped inside. Some of the tasks required fixtures and fittings to doors, shelves, units, a new screen along the fence, a replacement garden hose, the cooperative outdoor games, bedding, planting, mowing, general cleanup etc.

It certainly looked holistic by the time when we were done. It was a magnificent show of support from the entire team including our young special guests, Esra and Felix who helped create a magical atmosphere! Their bursts of role-play and act out scenarios clearly on display meant that everything was tickety-boo. The adults continued to tackle the rest of the jobs and before we knew it, it was close to lunch.

A job well done!

Lunchtime session at GoodGym Richmond‘s sponsored plots in Buccleuch Gardens: scouting for tasks to tackle during the evening group run session and undertaking a miscellany of saw and secateur wielding jobs.

Chris and Anita worked to create new supports for the self-seeded hop plants that have been coiling across the Three Pigeons Plot. Heading into the overgrown water meadow area by the river, a band saw was the perfect tool for harvesting Willow poles but also proved a useful implement for hacking a path through the monstrous nettles, Himalayan balsam, gunnera and Hogweed.

Meanwhile Ken did a brilliant job tackled the brambles which have become an increasing problem in recent months ( and only brambles were bashed, no plane trees were harmed ).

The beautiful deep pink ‘Duchess of Dalkieth’ rose donated by the Duke of Buccleuch also benefited from a little gentle deadheading.

Honor, Chris, Ken, Anita and run leader Liz achieved best possible performance on Monday’s group run task combining quality, speed and humour to transform seven benches in Buccleuch Gardens at zero cost.

Before and after shots of all the benches taken with added zest!: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKtzvMrI9_e/?igsh=Y3d1c2JxYmVsa2R4

Eight wonderful Richmond GoodGymmers were out in the June evening sunshine to help with the annual maintenance of the boat house doors along the glorious Richmond Riverside.

Led by Lucy, the gang took a scenic route past Old Deer Park, along both sides of the river and over two bridges to get to the Boat Houses, where we met Vic from the Boating Scouts, who let us loose on the doors.

We got sanding and scrubbing, and used a cocktail of the finest Thames water and white spirit to clean some of the residual mud at the bottom of the doors. We then wiped the dust down and dried up before the brushes came out! The doors got a lathering of teak oil, top to bottom. Kudos to the taller members of our group for reaching the top bits, and to the shorter members for risking themselves being dripped on for the lower to reach bits!

The scores on the doors were in. We were all winners, when doing good and getting fit in such a fantastic location on such a splendid evening, as you can see from some of Anita’s stunning photos.

In the words of the terminator, ‘Oil be back’… in three weeks time to complete the second coat!

Ultimately, it was two Teams on either end of the Church grounds making a small difference. One mission was to clean up the war memorial and the other, involved two sections where we had to lift up some of the turf a few inches off the ground.

Thanks to the tools we had available. This included a post basher, a tape measure, a string for the border, some wooden posts and a small shovel. It was pretty evident that the surrounding lawn around the Church was steeped in history so we took note of that from the beginning. The two areas in question was pretty close to a previous trench that Goodgym previously got involved back in 2024, where we also spotted the sow that reaped its rewards with full flower.

We took a section of the lawn at the back of the church (or depending which way you look at it) and started digging. We found no artifacts, perhaps some dust from previous stone diminished.

Shortly afterwards, we completed our mission. The vicar invited us in for some refreshments afterwards. It's pretty amazing when a team comes together!