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

Our April Saturday trip to our sponsored riverside plot at Buccleuch Gardens, led by Susannah. This time the area was really showing the joys of spring with everything in abundance, including a variety of weeds! Lots to do for our group of happy chatty GoodGymmers for the long Easter bank holiday weekend, including first timers Rory and Jenna, welcome!

Leaves were removed from the lawn, beds were weeded, saplings pulled and the beautiful tulips were given space to breathe, an excellent impact all before midday on a Saturday! 🐣🐰

This evening's task had all the emotions as we chopped, diced, sliced and peeled our way through mushrooms, onions, celery and cheese sandwiches! After a food delivery from City Harvest, it was all hands in to make sure food was prepped before the freezer, ready to feed the hungry hoards over the Easter holiday at AFC Powerstation.

Three GGers ventured out to the Petersham sea scouts.
Nina, Lucy and Adam wood be assigned by Scout Leader Russell to collect wood that could be used for fire wood in upcoming Scout events.
Following Russell's instructions, Lucy, who was taking a break from her long marathon running, logged how to load up the wood for both Nina and Adam to wheelbarrow it up to the storage area.
Before we knew it we would be logging off and chopping it up to a job well done!