Monday evening saw the return of GoodGym Richmond to the Lynde House care home, one of our favourite places to help out in the local area and where we have previously built a free-standing flowerbed, removed cobwebs from awnings, varnished benches and put up Christmas lights.

Gitana had a new task for us this time, which was to help several of the residents in a session of flower arranging. But before we got going with that, we were asked to plant some pansies outside the front entrance to the home to brighten up the flowerbed there.

The flower arranging took place in the back garden, where six of the residents gathered in the warm evening air. We were provided with flowers including carnations and some greenery gathered from the gardens of the care home. We worked with the residents to help them select the stems they wanted to include in their arrangement and cut them to size for the vase. Everyone was very pleased with the results, with the arrangements being taken inside to brighten up the residents' bedrooms.

There was plenty of chat going on, with many congratulations sent Lucy's way for her successful completion of the London Marathon on Sunday - she even had the medal with her to show everyone. All in all a great mission in which we brightened up Lynde House in more ways than one!

Six GoodGymers turned up to tackle the litter along the roads across Petersham Common with help from Sky (child) and Julia (friend of Petersham Common). We set about to tackle the mostly car thrown litter and soon found lots from pillows, bedside table, hubcaps, bottles and crisp packs galore. In less than an hour we had numerous bags full of litter (sadly there is lots more!). Well done to Sky for finding the hubcap and her enthusiasm was infections as she handed out the chocolate chip cookies at the end to all the GoodGymers! Thanks to all for coming out and making a difference!

This evening we headed over Richmond Green and across the bridge into East Twickenham to visit St Christopher's Fellowship. We know the garden very well and there is always a lot to do to tidy things up but even more so after all that rain followed by sun, the garden had grown a lot since our last visit!

We welcomed Debs from Richmond Council who got stuck in with Liz, Adam and Suze working to clear the vegetable patches of some very abundant weeds! Debs went to town on a stubborn Pyracantha but that one may require a second chapter!

JP and Chris did a lovely job hedge trimming while Jenna, Lucy, Nina and Monika cleared up the lovely drive at the front of the building.

A busy and energetic evening for all with the compost heap swelling by the end!

A big shout-out to Monika who completed a mega 50km hiking challenge yesterday and to Lucy who is running the London Marathon this weekend and Adam who is walking the virtual version. ⚡

After a few days of sunshine during the week it was cooler and overcast on the Ham Lands Saturday morning as 4 of GG Richmond's finest gathered for our monthly habitat preservation work.

This month, we were tasked with tackling an area of brambles. We did this with loppers and rakes, occasionally yelping when attacked by one of the thorny tendrils.

The job was going well and we built up a few large piles of the brambles we had removed, before realising that we did not have the large canvas sacks with us to transport the brambles away from the clearing to the undergrowth.

We overcame the issue with a series of trips carrying brambles by garden fork, rake or in armfuls and soon got the job done.

Time for a quick cup of tea and group photo and we were off to enjoy our weekends!

April's Monday trip to our sponsored riverside plot and there is always a lot to do in spring. Following a fitness session and a big congratulations to Susannah for reaching 200 tasks (clapped on by thousands of gnats swarming around the river!), we tackled the following jobs:

🌷 Dead-heading the tulips 🌿 Raking the cut grass from Buccleuch Gardens to leave the lawn looking great and the previous patches growing well where we put new seed down last year 🪑 Weeding and clearing around the benches 🍃 Weeding the Three Pigeons plot and sweeping up all of the sides

We can already see lots of jobs to do next month, join us on the first Saturday and/or the second Monday too to get involved!

Third race in 14 days but the beat goes on and went all bananas 🍌 Half marathon in Kew Gardens, then London Easter Monday 10km and then finishing with thr Thames Towpath 10 miles today. Thames Towpath 10 miles with some strong winds but nice little run along the Thames. No medal at the end but also pint glass with a banana 😀 Good to see fellow GoodGymers cheering or would say volunteering : Michelle, Alan, Florian and Jon from GG Hounslow