It was a Cool(ley's) evening in Eton Wick, so we started with a warm up including lots of hopping about, before power walking along the river to our task at Coolley's Meadow.

Our first achievement was finding lovely task owner Claire in the dark. She always has Eton Wick-ed tasks lined up for us and this evening was no exception. Our to do list included fruit trees to plant, litter to gather and a buddleia to relocate. She also had a torch that resembled a light saber and some garden forks, which tee-d Lou up nicely for our report title.

Gillian and Lou took on the litter challenge, and filled 2 big bags with rubbish, much of which had gathered in the arches under the A322. Clara and I planted a cherry tree and plum tree and dug holes ready for the buddleia, which Georgeta and Rachel were busy wrestling and cutting out of the ground with Claire in the adjacent field. Clara and I weren't sure exactly how many holes were needed or how big, so it was a bit of a stab in the dark!

The team re-grouped after about 45 minutes and then we worked together to wedge the buddleia shrubs into their new homes. The clock was ticking so there was no time to beat around the bush(es). We were a bit concerned the leggy buddleia might get blown over before the roots had a chance to take, so Gillian whizzed down the line and cut them back.

We can't wait to see them bounce back in the Spring (fingers crossed!), and no doubt the pollinators will be buzzing too. In their old home the buddleia was normally mown back just at the moment the butterflies would enjoy it most, but together with the fruit trees, in its new position it helps create a 'pollinator positive highway' towards the crop in South Field.

In all the excitement of the January Challenge over the last few days, I failed to realise that Gillian would be achieving her 50th good deed this evening. Indeed Gillian has done 17 of those good deeds in January, and 8 in the last week! Loads of litter picking, crawling through thorns to remove tree guards, sorting donations at the Baby Bank, doing the first timers' briefing at parkrun, and surveying birds are just a few of the brilliant ways Gillian has made a difference in our community. Gillian, huge congratulations to you, and apologies for not celebrating this evening! We will be sure to celebrate soon. Cake makers take note...ready, steady, bake!

At the end of a busy January of GoodGyming some of us have been feeling a bit spaced out. We're ready for February...and beyond! And we've been making sure the library is ready too, by making space themed decorations.

The decorations will go up soon as part of the countdown to the Maidenhead Big Read Festival, which will blast off over the weekend of 4th and 5th March, with lots of free events to inspire everyone to love reading.

This task was more creative than physical, but GoodGymers were also motivated to get some extra steps in whilst delivering their creations to me, and it has been a treat for me to receive them.

I've returned from a GoodGym session to find rockets and astronauts on my doorstep, I've received an amazing spaceship with beautifully crocheted aliens at a Pilates class, and I've even answered the door to discover the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Well done to everyone who dived into the tin foil, paint, cardboard, wool and sequins and made a contribution. You're all stars. We have an amazing mix of fantasy, fact and fun, and it's going to look fabulous!

I'm also delighted to report that this session rockets us into our biggest month of GoodGyming ever. We've really started 2023 with a Big Bang!

The parks and streets across Windsor and Maidenhead are so much cleaner after our mammoth litter pick. Areas included Belmont / Furze Platt, Taplow, Riverside, Harvest Hill Road, Clewer Hill Road and Hatch Lane Windsor and the Pirate Park in Dedworth Windsor. Together we collected over 10 bin bags full of cans, bottles and rubbish and cleaned up in more ways than one!

Great work Windsor and Maidenhead! Whoop Whoop!

Rachel, Gillian and Sheila returned to Ockwells Park to resume removal of tree guards which we had started last week, and this time we had the welcome addition of Amy. We came more suitably attired for the conditions and with some PPE to protect against the thorns and low-growing branches. Not our most stylish look, but effective. We also brought bags to put the guards into as we went along. So we entered the thicket on our hands and knees, but with the 4 of us, and an improved technique, we made great progress. Fortunately, the trees started thinning out after a while, which made everything much easier. Well done to everyone for sticking with this difficult task, which we were able to complete, and resulted in mounds of plastic being removed from the environment.

There was a merry band of us today and we moved masses of mulch onto the footpath of Spinney Farm to make it easier for Windsor locals to enjoy woodland walks. We surprised ourselves with how much we achieved thanks largely due to the strong shoveling of Garry, Sheila and Tessa and our new comers Sarah S J and Charlie Charlie. Sarah was a great set of hands for the shovelling and Charlie was superb leading the way to get out initial raking in good order before Amy set us a challenge to rotate tasks after every 3 barrows.

We then took it in turns to shovel, run the wheelbarrow to the ever-lengthening path, and rake and stomp it down. Stomping all the mulch down felt a bit like stamping grapes but sadly there was no wine at the end of it!

One more session and we will have this path fully mulched.