Rachel Cook from Wild Maidenhead invited us to help maintain their wildflower bed in Kidwells Park. An amazing 8 Goodgymmers turned up to help out and celebrate the end of the week. Our task was to remove as much of the grass as possible that was growing in amongst the wildflowers. Rachel asked us to behave like sheep, so some of us pulled up grass on our hind quarters, and some on all fours. We chatted as we worked and herd about Roberta's exciting holiday plans. By the end of the session we had filled a whole dumpy bag full of grass. The bare soil will allow the yellow rattle to grow which should help control the grass in future. Sol also planted some teasels in the uncovered earth, which the birds will love next autumn. Its great to see such biodiversity in our local park But we weren't just celebrating the end of the week, but also Sol's 50th Good Deed. Well done Sol! Amy presented her with a well-earned medal. So after grazing the grass in the the wildflower bed, we moved on to graze on some raspberry and white chocolate muffins in the Nature's Haven garden. As Amy put it so beautifully:

Sol has done 50 good deeds, but since she always gives 200%, that 50 is worth 100! 'Sun' by name and sunshine by nature, Sol's infectious enthusiasm and positive energy has brightened up so many of our sessions and with her mindful approach, she inspires us all to 'find our own enjoyment'. She started out graffiti cleaning with us and has since litter picked all over the place, enjoyed lots of allotment sessions, shifted furniture, built a French drain, cleaned a fridge, become an expert wader and more! As a Taskforce member, Sol has also led 12 sessions, enabling even more 'sharing of the love and joy' of GoodGym. Well done Sol! Thank you also to Sheila for the yummy cakes.

What beautiful weather for a Wednesday GoodGym session, and what a beautiful turnout! Great to welcome tourist Louise for the first time in our area, plus lots of lovely returning faces.

Thanks to Georgeta and Rachel for leading the walkers, Nicola for back-marking the runners and Gillian for helping to keep the runners on track. Well done to the cyclists too, particularly Kanika, who still made it despite a flat tyre and still had energy left to heckle me. Between us I estimate we covered over 40km!

Our destination was Oaken Grove Park, where we met task owner Rachel from Wild Maidenhead, plus some of her group and Parks Manager Jacqui. Rachel dished out tools (may the fork be with you!), gave us some safety advice and set us to work on the wildflower bed. Our aim was to dig out invasive grass to give the wildflowers a fighting chance, and to boost the mix with some more seed.

As there were plenty of us, Sara, Georgeta, Gillian and Roberta forked off into the park for some energetic litter picking and to clock some more steps.

We had a great time chatting while we worked. We covered everything from Louise's GoodGym journey, to Jacqui's running goals, Diya's brilliant Cycling Without Age plans, Tony's Pilates plans, Rachel's Tapas plans, Sara's running goals (you can do it!!!), Shindig and more!

After an hour of looking for (and digging up) lawn, some of us were looking forlorn. With such a big group, we had hoped for a spectacular before and after result, but all we could see was a slightly more patchy patch. There was a feeling of 'I fought the lawn and the lawn won'.

However, I think this one will be a case of 'watch this space'. In around 8 weeks we hope this patchy patch will be springing to life, full of colour and buzzing with happy pollinators. Can't wait!

Before we headed off into the sunset, I challenged everyone to a mini fitness session. There were jumping jacks, there were squats and lunges, there were mountain climbers or planks, and everyone did really well to know what number they were and to run in the right direction - go team!

For this evening's photos please head over to our social media accounts (and be sure to give us lots of love!) Instagram and Twitter @goodgymwm Facebook @goodgymwindsorandmaidenhead

How many GoodGymers does it take to plant 500 native daffodil bulbs? 10! Plus a pre-party, a lovely task owner, a secret milestone, and a whole lot of rain.

We started this evening's session in an unconventional way - with a party! The foundation stone event for the Windsor and Maidenhead Eco Action Hub a the Nicholson Centre to be precise.

This was a great opportunity to meet and network with members of other groups, who are leading the charge for action against the climate and biodiversity crises in our area. We heard some really inspiring speakers and had a chance to share our ideas for how we can contribute. We also got yummy cake and drinks - yay! We hope some new tasks and/or new members will come from connections made this evening, and that together we can make a difference.

7.30pm rolled round quickly and it was time to tear ourselves away from the party and head to our task. #WednesdayNightIsGoodGymNight and we couldn't let the evening pass without getting fit whilst doing good. It was also time to get wet! The closer we got to the task location, the more it poured. Task owner Rachel Cook, from Wild Maidenhead had said we would need rain to soften the ground for digging, and the weather gods did not disappoint!

Kudos to Gillian and Angie, who ran a meandering route to the task while the rest of us walked the 1km up the hill. Once on location we gathered tools kindly donated by the Maidenhead Community Allotment and Braywick Nature Centre and received our briefing from Rachel: we would be planting native daffs, which bees absolutely love; we should plant in clusters, at least a bulb-length deep, and with a bulb-length in between; and we should beware of dog poo!

Wow, there's nothing like a torrential downpour to motivate you to speed up on a task. We quickly set to work and within 20 minutes we had planted the whole box - a whopping 500 daffs! Rachel was impressed and said she will definitely welcome us to help with more projects in future. She will be putting signs up to stop contractors mowing this verge in the Spring, and we look forward to seeing the flowers of our labour.

Huge congratulations to Rachel, who completed her 50th good deed this evening. We were so busy with the Eco hub and dodging raindrops that we didn't take the time to celebrate, but we promise to make up for it next time.

We didn't linger in the rain after the task, but instead said our farewells and legged it home. Well done team! Many people would be put off by such wet weather be we just daffo-dilled with it.

Six GoodGymmers joined task owner Rachel from Wild Maidenhead and some other volunteers to help extend the wildflower bed in Oaken Grove park. The sun was out, the forks were shiny and the task was simple - dig in a line around the existing bed to sow new seeds. Except that the great weather of late isn't suitable for digging! The ground was hard and made for hard going but all the hardened volunteers went hard at it. By the end, we had a solid area around the bed dug up and filled with new seeds. A solid mornings work 💪✅

Juli, Nick, Carina, Jordan and newcomer Monika - welcome to our group - met Rachel and Deb from Wild Maidenhead to give a bit of TLC to the wildflower bed in Kidwells Park which was established last year. Now that the flowering season is over, our task was to tidy the bed ahead of winter, cutting down the dead stems and raking over the soil to encourage the wildflower seeds to germinate. A small area was left uncut to provide a safe haven for wildlife and some seed heads for food. We quickly filled two giant bags with the dead stems, and had to employ Jordan to compress the contents so we could finish our task.

Firstly, a big welcome to Roberta, who joined us for her first community mission on this pleasant May morning in Kidwells Park. It was also lovely to catch up with Rekha and Kelly and to meet our task owners, Rachel and Deborah from Wild Maidenhead, for the first time.

This morning's task was to add more wildflowers to a 'nectar bar' that Wild Maidenhead started at Kidwells last year as part of a project to make our local parks more biodiverse and more friendly to vital pollinators like bees.

Today we were planting little plugs including primrose, cowslip and thyme and sowing seeds including clover and vipers bugloss. The varieties were chosen not only to attract and sustain flying pollinators but also to encourage butterfly larvae, otherwise known as caterpillars! They should also provide more colour and interest year round than the varieties sown last year can on their own. You can see the full range of plants in Deborah's written plan in the photos.

As well as masterminding the planting plan, Deborah was super organised when it came to setting up the task. She laid everything out so that we could work at our own socially distanced planting stations and her instructions were very clear so that by the end even the less confident gardeners among us could feel satisfied that we had done a good job.

We were quite late in the season to be doing this planting (there was a delay in the delivery of the plants) so some of these little beauties might need a bit more luck than normal to thrive, but we are optimistic that return visits to Kidwells in the coming months will yield rewarding splashes of colour and the friendly buzzing of more tiny pairs of wings.