On a beautiful sunny morning, 6 Goodgymmers met up with Karen Davies at Spital Cemetery for one of their regular clean-up sessions. Although Margaret has been helping out at the cemetery for a long time, this was her first session under the Goodgym banner, so welcome! We set about clearing some huge piles of branches and grass left by an unknown person, who had been spotted clearing some graves so he could take an image of the inscriptions. Unfortunately he left a trail of devastation behind him, which needed clearing away. Sue and Margaret worked on one area, while Matthew, Scarlett, Sheila and Tessa worked in another. Matthew started chopping up the branches already left by the side of the headstone, putting them in a dumpy bag, while Sheila and Tessa tackled cutting down the remains of the bush. We realised as we worked, that it was the 75-year anniversary of the death of the lady who the grave belonged to - Bessie Nicholls died on 25th April 1949. The bush was a pyracantha, which was extremely prickly and difficult to deal with, but Matthew was up to the task and bashed and cajoled it into submission. We disturbed a beautiful yellow moth, which was later identified as a brimstone moth. Scarlett worked on a different grave, that of Edith Wilcocks who also died in 1949. By the end of the session, an incredible 6 dumpy bags had been filled, and are awaiting collection by Tivoli. Great work by the team to get the cemetery looking tidy again.

Tessa, Sue and Sheila turned out to help Friends of Spital Cemetery with their first tidy-up session of the season. We split into two groups, with Sue's group tackling a bush which had completely covered one grave. With 4 people tackling it, the bush was soon removed, and the gravestone and surround are now visible. What a transformation! Meanwhile Tessa and Sheila tackled a few smaller projects, removing ivy before it could take a proper hold. Unfortunately we could not read some of the inscriptions on the stones - we would love to know some of the family stories. Unfortunately the Heavens then opened (appropriately enough!), and heavy rain stopped play for now

Sheila helped out at a workparty at Spital Cemetery in Windsor, and joined other volunteers Karen, Sue, Margaret, Paul, Mary and Marion. Karen and Paul planted some purple crocuses to raise awareness of the Rotary fight for a polio-free world. The rest of us set to work on a couple of graves that Sue had started on previously. We snipped, chopped, pulled and sawed at the brambles, wild rose, pyracantha and ivy that had established themselves on the grave. Once most of the greenery had been removed, we found a myriad of insect life underneath, especially ladybirds and some iridescent beetles. We decided to leave the tangle of roots in which they could over-winter. We were treated to sun, rain and a beautiful rainbow.

On a beautiful autumn morning, Sheila joined Cllr Karen Davies at Spital Cemetery for one of the regular sessions. While Karen showed the cemeteries manager around the site and discussed future plans, I set to work cutting the laurel bushes back from over a set of headstones. Laurel is an extremely hard wood and tough to get the loppers through. Some of the thicker branches had to be left until we can bring a bow saw to do the job. But it didn't take long before I had accumulated a large pile of branches, which Karen helped me drag to the path to be collected. The headstones and memorials uncovered were for John George Carey, his 2 wives and 10 of his children, 6 of whom had sadly died before they reached the age of 3. A quick Google revealed a newspaper report that he had been a father to 29 children by his 2 wives! We may have several more gravestones to find!

Sheila and I returned to Spital Cemetery and speedily got to work releasing the fallen angel from the ivy that had entangled her for so many years. Once she was free we started to cut back the thick stems from the headstone, a trickier job than expected. We were on red alert as we discovered a nest of red ants and so refrained from sitting down...no one likes ants in their pants! We had a welcome break as we joined the other regular cemetery maintenance team. The lovely Sheila offered us some delicious chocolate morsels which were devoured with gusto...yum. Here at the far end of the cemetery three large family grave stones were discovered and a massive mausoleum of a grave lay hidden behind thick undergrowth ....watch this space, more will be revealed on our next visit.

Note from Sheila: I think that Rachel forgot to mention that this was her 100th Good Deed with Goodgym today! Epic! Massive congratulations! We had so much fun today, and it was an honour to be there when she notched up her century. Watch this space for a bigger celebration with the rest of the group soon!

Sheila joined a small group of regular volunteers at Spital Cemetery for one of their regular clean-up sessions on avery warm morning. The indomitable Sue and I continued work on a grave that had been covered by a huge ivy bush when we first started work on it in May, and Sue has continued to work on it since, joined by Goodgymmer Sol last weekend. Some very tough, twisted stem remained, strangling a fallen cross. We gradually chopped our way through it, and eventually got to a stage where we could manoeuvre the cross away from the base to work on the underside. And the inscription was revealed! It was dedicated to Rose Patch (d. 1928), and then later to her husband Albert. After a quick Google, I found an Albert Patch recorded in the 1881 census as living at 3, Peascod Place, Windsor . I love it when we can find out who they were, maybe I'll see if I can find out some more! On my way out I found a delightful pyramidal orchid. Love it!