Our latest monthly visit to the Richmond Furniture recycling charity saw six GoodGymers: Chris, Emma, Sam, Suze, Rosie and Adam, brave the variable weather conditions. Simon, the manager of the scheme, presented us with the task of chopping and sawing back the overgrown brambles and branches to tidy up the car park shared with the 2nd Teddington Scout Troop. The work inevitably required brute force as well as precision, both qualities at which GoodGym members excel! By the end, we could clearly see the difference we had made and the car park looked a lot more spacious. We will be back here on Saturday 15th April, see link below.

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions

After hearing the news that Kingston GG is reaching new heights in accumulating new members and listing new missions, Rachel led the team to the loft heights of Surbiton Library. Ivy - the plant not the person - had taken strangle hold of the plants out of the front and needed some classic GoodGym treatment. 7 of us hacked and pulled and bagged at least 6 bags of it all from one side, but after looking up and around it was clear that this was just round one.

Welcome back to Emma on her 3rd mission and don't forget all to check out more missions for this weekend and April too.

The Friends of Ham Lands welcomed 6 cheery GoodGymers (and Hunter the pooch) on a much brighter and drier Saturday morning than was expected for a second go at the brambles along the pathway we worked on last month.

It’s always great fun to get together with the FoHL and help them with their ongoing efforts to preserve the green spaces of the Ham Lands for the benefit of walkers and local residents. This time, Sharon brought along a couple of boards showing an aerial photo of the area in 1944 and a map from 1841, when the topography of the area was quite different from today.

We were armed with loppers and shears and headed out along the path in twos and threes, cutting back the brambles and gathering them in large canvas sacks, all the while catching up on each other’s news and the events of the moment.

Those brambles can be nasty and the murmur of chat was punctuated by the occasional “ouch” (or a slightly less polite term) as several of us received our scratch of the day, but these didn’t spoil the merry mood as we did our bit for nature to get the weekend off to a good start.

The prospect of a visit to the Swiss Bakery helped our motivation and we soon settled down to excellent (tiny) coffees and delicious flammenkuchen and quiche as reward for our efforts. Guten Appetit!

Next visit to the Ham Lands is on the Easter weekend so we will be updated soon on whether this will affect it. Keep an eye out for changes to the listings!

Last night our group run took us to Growbaby. We met at the Quaker Centre for a catch up and then headed for Fairfield Park for a warm up. We certainly saw the sights on our way round as we came across a heron which was an unexpected treat.

At Growbaby we had a list of jobs that needed to be done and being a small environment we split into three groups so there was a working party in each room. Emma, Sabir and Jorge stayed upstairs to sort out the bookcase and the kitchen. Emma squealed with delight when she saw the drawers and the cupboard under the sink and went straight to work removing duplicate products and throwing. Sabir and Jorge sat down with a book or two to discuss the literary merits of writing for children.

Claire, Jana and Jade went into the first room in the basement and mended the hanging rail. The bottom rail had slipped on one side meaning that half the clothes were draped on the floor. The coats were organised and hung in size order with any broken or dirty items removed - and the same was done with the dresses.

Dave, Tom and Adam went into the second basement room and moved the shelves holding the equipment. Once the big move around had been completed they got stuck into the toy boxes and played, I mean sorted out, the action men. What nostalgic fun!

On the run to the Albion for our monthly social we saw a heron! Was it the same one? Who knows but it was another unexpected treat.

Well done to everyone that came to help at Growbaby! It's made a massive difference to the running of the hub and will help local families in need.

Tonight we headed to St Christopher's Fellowship for our monthly visit to help look after their lovely premises where they in turn help to look after others.

It was on a trip to the same place in July 2019 that Cathy tried GoodGym for the first time so it was a wonderful celebration of all the good she does and positivity she spreads that we returned there today for her 100th task.

Setting out from the Tap Tavern, Cathy donned the traditional golden wings for the evening. A run group and a run/walk group took different routes across the river to meet others at the task.

This evening we helped to clear the herb and veg patch area ready for some of the residents to start growing their own crops. We also cut back hedges, weeded, litter picked and swept up leaves, the kind of tasks that make you forget you're working out but are great for the whole body.

After the task, some walked and others ran back to the Tap to celebrate Cathy's achievement with wonderful cheesecake brownies baked by Salwa.

As well as Cathy's big night, we also welcomed Rebecca and Liam for their first tasks, and gave a cheer to Monika who hadn't realised it was her 150th task! Congratulations to all of you.