Last summer we headed to INS to prep and paint their garden furniture and today we did the same again after the last sat was sadly stolen from the garden.

With six chairs and a large table to do, it was great to have many active hands to scrub, wipe and paint them black, looking as good as new when we were done!

A huge welcome to Mersa for the first time, ans a thank you to task owner Sarah who always welcomes us warmly and was keen to celebrate Volunteer's Week with us.

A beautiful warm morning welcomed 4 GGers from Richmond for a task of sprucing up the Greenwood Community Centre off Hampton Hill high street.

We were shown the tools and task focus by task owner Graham and we got to work. New joiner Esther and JP focused on weeding the front area including car park, while Suze and Manuela did an astonishingly quick job of weeding the side passageway.

We started sweeping up and found to our surprise that we were able to fill 2 black bin liners, grabbing the last few straggling weeds as we went.

A great job done and a big warm welcome to Esther - we hope to see you again soon!

A good 4km of streets covered to deliver leaflets for the Richmond CVS Volunteer fair happening this Wednesday. Lots of time for chatter while keeping active and doing good!

Six GGers turned out for our quarterly Richmond Furniture Scheme visit.

This included Jenna , attending Richmond Furniture Scheme for the first time, three keen cyclists, one walker and a runner.

Once we recovered from our various exertions the challenge set by Volunteer Co-Coordinator Lucy to clear the assembly point of furniture including a puzzling draws set and shelving.

The fan was started and we edged closer by moving the shelving piece by piece and by the end of the challenge, the assembly point was all clear.

We made it!

Second Monday of the month means GoodGym Richmond Signature task! Starting at the Tap Tavern and giving a very warm welcome to Sam and Kayley joining for the first time, we had a proper warm-up, preparing for this month's fitness session.

Following a run along the river (accompanied by a ridiculous number of gnats!) the group got into some squats, jumps, lunges, pike reach throughs and flutter kicks before getting stuck into the tasks.

Between us we managed to turn the compost, sweep the arcade, dust cobwebs, water the Three Pigeons plot, cut back the pampas, pull out a lot of the riverside weeds, dead head and rake up! There is always more to do at such a lovely spot, and we had some very welcome thanks from passers-by too 😍

The evening finished with drinks and a chat at the White Cross, what a way to start the week!

On a lovely warm and sunny Saturday morning, 6 Goodgymers joined the Friends of Ham Lands for our monthly session of habitat improvement and preservation.

The session started with a short talk from Paul, who explained his work on monitoring insect life in the hawthorns on the Ham Lands, and how it has been a bumper year especially for caterpillars.

Our task for the day, to nobody's huge surprise, was tackling brambles - this time those hemming the edges of bushes and hawthorn trees in an area at the northern boundary. We went at them with gusto, enjoying the warmth of the sun as we built up piles of removed brambles before moving them into the undergrowth.

A warm welcome to Helen who joined for her first session!

June be a skipped month for this mission, we will be back on the Ham Lands in July, on Saturday 11th.