Spring is certainly here! Glorious sunshine and wood anemones (which GoodGymers protected from brambles a month ago) at Grove Farm were the signs of the season of nature blossoming all around.

This Saturday session had two big things to mention:

Madiha's long awaited 50th good deed 🥳 She got to wear the new, glittery golden sash!

and

Lydia's very first session 🐣

All four GoodGymers had a good workout making their way to the session, either walking or cycling up the Sudbury Hill. At the top of the hill, an equally vigorous activity awaited! Ron, the manager of today's project, asked Friends of Grove Farm, Mike and Anna, to arrange some muscle to do some spade, fork and mattock work by the entrance to the park.

We came to dig up trenches, turn soil from the old mounds, remove bramble roots and put aside the rich, clay soil. All of that work was done in preparation for seeding a wildflower meadow in April. We found old bricks, bramble roots and tree roots. Sevan dug out a spoon, and after trying to bend it, both using his arms and the power of his mind, he concluded it had been made of a very strong steel, so he decided to keep the bounty!

After a tea and crisps break, the GoodGymers left Friends of Grove Farm to discover more treasure in the trenches they dug!

Monthly drop-in session at Grove Farm : Would the team be able to make it on time and help Anna and Mike? Goodgymers were busy this morning at different park runs for Ealing Foodbank, then needed to make their way all the way from Hanwell back to Grove Farm. A few members who were not at park run started the mission with clearing the ivy as wood anemones started to come out and needed to ensure the sunlight reached the ground. A few runners then appeared in the woods from Hanwell and went to help clear the fences from the ivy along the path. Then, at last, the walkers arrived after a troublesome journey with delayed bus due to roadworks in the area. Then, the team cleared the ivy, picked up rubbish, and packed the tools. A mission that looked nearly impossible to reach became Mission Possible and accomplished. Another great collaboration between Goodgym and Friends of Grove Farm.

It's been a year since GoodGym's first at Grove Farm. Was it a déjà vu? Three GoodGymers (again!) joined Friends of Grove Farm: Mike, Anna, Livio and Olena in a bramble-bashing endeavour for the freedom of wood anemones (again!).

Today's GoodGym trio included:

• Cherian, who was a guest from GoodGym Barnet that came today to do a whopping four community missions in Ealing!
• Sevan, who ran 8km very fast to the task and felt very warm despite it being -1 degrees in the morning
• Kash, who walked 8km today and had been at Grove Farm a year ago but still couldn't pronounce wood anemones differently than wooden enemies

Do wood anemones have enemies? Oh yes, they do. If brambles grow tall and extensive, they block the sunlight for the wood anemones, which then cannot flower in the spring. Our job was to cut down the brambles while they were still young to prevent them from spreading, then rake them to the side to create a dead hedge.

The 90-minute session ended with tea and biscuits. There was plenty of refreshments for everyone - a real forest fete! Maybe Friends of Grove Farm were hoping for a larger group of volunteers?

Livio was going to visit Horsenden Farm in the afternoon where an ancient Anglo-Saxon ritual of wassailing was taking place. Livio told us about the tradition of blessing the fruit trees in hopes of good harvest later in the year. The ceremony involved singing and making noises like banging pots and pans. Maybe GoodGym can witness that next year!

Next Saturday we are going to visit Horsenden Farm for a volunteering day, and the week after GoodGymers can join Grove Farm at a monthly litter picking session.

The first Grove Farm litterpick of 2024 brought a surprisingly large group of volunteers, despite only one degree above zero in the morning. Anna from Friends of Grove Farm was a solo leader of the session, not sharing the responsibilities with Mike who couldn't make it. She proved she had everything under control and seemed to be everywhere at once!

Miriam was the first to show up at the task, while Runners Sevan and Kash covered an 8 km uphill run. Lizzy came a long way for her first-ever litter-picking session, already sporting her bright red GoodGym top! She made a wise decision and grabbed a hot drink from David Lloyd. The rest of the GoodGymers were freezing their fingers despite wearing double gloves, brrr! ❄️

The clean-up covered mainly the lane between Sudbury Hill station and David Lloyd car park. We occasionally ventured into the bushes to pick up hidden bottles and cans. We had a good reason to do our best to dig them out of there - Anna brought bags for recycling she had from LAGER Can. The nasty brambles were trying to stop us at every step. We are planning a revenge in two weeks. Come and join us!

Today was our last visit to Grove Farm before Xmas and we were supposed to have a nice tree planting task, looking forward to the new year and into the spring by planting new life. Things don't always go as expected, however and the discovery last week of flytipped rubble all along the adjoining road brought a change of plan.

The folk who dumped the waste must've been Olympic level shotputters as they'd managed to get large, awkwardly shaped chunks well into the undergrowth. Christos and Sevan were going to need to train up in other sports to help clear the area. Some of the pieces were easily accessible and the smaller pieces went straight into rubble sacks. Hacky sack was not one of the sports to train in today though as these bags would've crushed their toes.

Other blocks were nestled in patches of brambles, so turns were taken to chop their way through to get access. When larger chunks were discovered, they needed to be lifted like Atlas Stones, carefully, and moved onto a trolley. Christos then launched the very low trolley bobsleigh-like to slide the concrete, round the banking of a roundabout to it's final destination.

Through the task, the team managed to clear one patch completely, then started on the largest area at the opposite end of Grove Farm. There's still plenty more to be gathered, which will undoubtedly be a task for a visit in the new year.

If you can't see the photos inline, try this link instead

GoodGym were once again on hand to help clean up Grove Farm, with this being their last litterpick before Xmas. The grey morning weather may have put off some, but Kash and Sevan tried their best to dodge the puddles on their way to meet Mike and Anna.

"You're going to need a towel and a canoe 😵"" - Mike

Alas, the GoodGymers didn't find a canoe and Mike didn't supply one, so they needed to find their own transport. As Mike led them into the woodland, they collected more and more litter with Kash getting into the Xmas spirit as Litter Claus. The lesser known relative of Santa Claus is known for delivering empty cans of fizz and chocolate wrappers to badly behaved children.

As the ground underfoot got muddier, Mike continued onwards, promising ~~Kash~~ Litter Claus that there was transport ahead that would carry her around Ealing borough on Xmas Eve. Eventually, they arrived at a mattress in the woods. It was no ordinary mattress claimed Mike, it was actually a magic sleigh 🛷

The sleigh was pulled out from the tree cover onto one of the muddy paths, where Litter Claus and Mike loaded it up with waste bags and took the controls. It slid down the slope, but didn't take off. That was a bit of a blow for Litter Claus. It must've run low on magic while sitting in the field, which meant that all of the litter collections and gifting would need to be done on foot this year.

Mike, Anna, Sevan and Litter Claus spent the next hour walking along the main route into Grove Farm, finding the best cans, used wet wipes and lumps of flytipped rubble for the naughty children of Ealing. Maybe some of them are the ones who dumped the litter in the first place 🤔! Some desirable gifts were found too, like a mini Mini and a suitcase ready to head off on an exotic break.

By the end of the session, Grove Farm was a much cleaner place for the local residents to enjoy. As an extra bonus, Litter Claus had built up a good stock of blue sacks which she has squirrelled away, ready for the big day 🎄