Having arrived late from Rickmansworth parkrun, and nearly heading for the wrong location, I eventually joined Sheila, Rachel, Viv and Bradley (welcome to your first task) at out What3Words location.

There had already been a lot of activity despite the rain. One of the regular volunteers, David, had dug the turf up with a whizzy machine, so that we could dig holes and plant bulbs and plants. We planted one section which we then covered with wood chip that some of the team transported over by wheelbarrow.

8 Goodgymers met with Helen from Wild Maidenhead to help take back a formerly neglected space in Desborough park.

Weeding a bed and laying bark chip over was the plan and we all cracked on and got it covered.

Too much bark in the end so some left over but plenty of feel good vibes in the setting sun from a warm afternoon.

Pun Gent!!

That was the order of the day as 5 Goodgymmers met Dave and Catherine from Friends of Oaken Grove Park to help clear more sludge from the pond.

With everyone having been before we got stuck straight in using spades and wheelbarrows to scoop the sludge from the pond.

The sludge was then moved to the edge of the park, avoiding getting it on the bike track.

The majority of Park users were pleased to see the pond getting some attention, although others found it a bit stinky!!!

With the water level in the pond clearly reduced we were pleased with our efforts but relived to head home to clean up!

Sheila went to help the Friends of Oaken Grove clear out the pond. Recent rains have resulted in the task being altered, so we set to work removing all the objects that had mysteriously found their way into the half-drained pond. We recovered a traffic cone, loads of branches and bits of wood, several dog balls and frisbee rings, 2 fishing nets, metal rods, a sock and a bike front sprocket. The second task was to wheelbarrow chippings from the car park over to the other side of the park to mulch some new fruit trees. Hard work, but we were rewarded by finding a lovely fat frog. We were pleased we achieved our goal and we ended up with 10 beautifully-mulched apple trees.

Last night we met at Oaken Grove pond where 2 volunteers from "friends of Oaken Grove" were already hard at work chopping down overgrowth and making a start on sludge removal. Jacqui from RBWM then brought us the equipment we needed to get going - it was a relatively simple task, relocate sludge from pond area to some overgrowth nearby. Simple but stinky, very stinky! All GoodGymmers that attended got stuck in (the mud), some with wellies in the pond area shoveling the sludge into buckets and others moving the sludge via wheelbarrow to the overgrowth. And repeat. A great upper body workout for sure! We came away rather covered in muck but it was good fun and an amazing team effort that made a real dent in the work that needs doing to the pond this year. We were also treated to a beautiful full moon and red skies which made for some nice photos. Well done everyone!

Jess and Sheila went to tackle some more of the ragwort in Ockwells Park, continuing the job started by Wild Maidenhead and Goodgym. We soon got our eye in to tell it apart from the other plants in the meadow, and it was evident that there is still a huge amount there We pulled out as much as we could, and gave ourselves a target of heading for a yellow patch a few yards away. Armfuls later, (and a backwards roly poly from Jess as one plant suddenly gave way) we achieved our goal. We felt that are still only in the foothills of the ragwort mountain, but we have still made a difference.