When I was walking through the Grove farm to reach the meeting point, I spotted Mike and Ana, from Friends of Grove Farm, carrying the tools for today's task. They both came back from vacation and another due who is about to go on a vacation, Kash and Sevan, ran and met us at the meeting point. Today the Friends of Grove Farm had a lighter team due to the bank holiday on Monday. But 4 from GoodGym turned up. Adrienne came back for her second good deed.

Similar to previous missions, the team is split into two. One team to make the pathway inside the forest and the other team to clear the fences. Mike, Kash, Sevan, and I geared up with googles and loppers and went inside the forest whereas Ana and Adrienne took a side of the fence and started trimming the hedges.

Mike started cutting the trees with his trusty electric saw and the rest of us started clearing the logs on the way. Then we went a bit deep inside the Grove farm and had to tackle brambles and hedges.

Mike asked me to go to the other side so that he get a clear picture of the path that we wanted to create.

The bright red GoodGym t-shirt was easy to spot - Mike

We agreed on the spot and Mike and Kash started cutting the brambles from one end and Sevan and I started chopping the brambles from the other end. Sevan after some time went and joined Adrienne. Mike left us to do some tree-cutting. So Kash and I finished the remaining. After raking and doing some finishing touches the path was beautiful.

When Kash and I went back to join the remaining team, 2 more volunteers had joined. They were litter-picking around the fences. Ana couldn't believe what we did in the given amount of time. Meanwhile, Sevan and Adrienne had fun pulling the hedges from the fence. After taking the group picture Kash, Sevan, and I started walking towards Northolt via the path that we created for our next adventurous mission and Adrienne decided to stay back and help the Friends of Grove farm for some more time.

This Saturday GoodGym Ealing teamed up with Friends of Grove Farm for the second time to fight with the Bramble Empire for freedom of wooden enemies... I mean wood anemones!

Adrienne was first to arrive at the task and it was her first GoodGym session - well done Adrienne! 🎉

Grove Farm is probably the furthest North site supported GoodGym Ealing. It hides a beautiful woodland area which is absolutely worth a journey all the way to North Greenford. The Three Brambleers, Jenni, Sevan and Kash, who teamed up for the second Saturday in a row to battle brambles on the borders of Hounslow, it was a long way up North, so they had to cheat a bit to get to the task on time - but worry not - all three did a fair amount running and walking afterwards to get to their third mission of the day. Gen cycled from West Ealing for her bramble bashing and raking workout, then cycled back. Adrienne needed only a short walk to get to Grove Farm but a very long distance to cover to reach GoodGym Ealing - she came to London all the way from the US!

After a briefing from Friends of Grove Farm Anna, the GoodGym team got into action with shears, loppers and rakes to remove the remaining brambles by the path and make space for wood anemones. They will hopefully get enough sunlight to start flowering in March and turn the place into a massive flowery carpet 🌼 We raked the enemies of anemones back towards the dead hedge to show the brambles living on the other side what happens if they cross it! Gen felt pangs of conscience cutting the brambles, imagining a little bramble begging for its life, surrounded by a pair of sharp blades. Anna assured her we spare a lot of brambles and let them live behind the dead hedge where they provide a home for many wild animal species.

Our main incentive for today's job was biscuits 🍪, shortbreads to be exact, which Anna passed to us more than once - how good does that sound for joining the next Grove Farm task? Another bonus was a talk from Martin by the end of the session who shared his knowledge about wild service trees - very rare trees from the rose family that grow on clay grounds. The wild service trees (Sorbus torminalis), along with wood anemones and bluebells, are indicators of an ancient woodland growing on the grounds of today's Grove Farm over 400 years ago! We learned that the fruits of those tree species are called chequers and were once used to flavour beer. That's apparently why some of the pubs have the chequer board 🏁 as their symbol.

Next month we will be back at Grove Farm for another conservation day - no more bramble bashing but an equally solid workout. Watch this space!