Since last year's cutback session at Hobbayne's Half Acre Woodland, the GoodGymers doubled in numbers, while the brambles, nettles, hawthorn and other nasties encroaching the public paths seemed to weaken. Our task owner, Dee, believed the drought was the reason and that a bit of rain would make the overgrowth explode as it had in the previous years.

Six GoodGym runners met in front of Ealing Broadway station for a 3.5km run to Hanwell and the same distance back. Among them was a new joiner, Kristian, who had thought the 7km would be a good challenge for him. While running in a group with Steph Ducat, Conor, Sevan, Chris and Kash, the distance turned out not to be such a challenge after all - Kristian kept a good, consistent pace all the way. Welcome, Kristian, and congratulations on your first GoodGym run!

Maria, Scott and Amy cycled, and Harvey walked to meet Dee and the runners under the Wharncliffe Viaduct near the Hanwell station. You may not know that the viaduct is quite a big thing in British industrial history - constructed in 1837, it was the first major design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the engineer responsible for the rest of the Great Western Railway and the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.

I couldn't resist that bridge tangent. Let's get back to Hanwell.

After a short ice-cream themed icebreaker, Dee handed the GoodGymers shears and suggested the best section of the path to tackle would be the tarmac way closest to Station Road. Doomed were all the brambles, nettles, hawthorns, ivy, and, surprisingly, bamboo plants that dared to grow through or over the fence. The most ambitious GoodGymers even cut tree branches with shears (and some solid willpower) alone! A sackful of rubbish was uncovered while cutting back the unruly plants, bagged, and diligently binned before the end of the session.

Shortly after 8pm, most of the team disbanded to make their way home. Conor, Kristian, Sevan and Kash decided to run back to Ealing Broadway. Little did they know, they were racing the Elizabeth line, which Chris decided to take. And they won! Was it a testament to GoodGymers' prowess, Hanwell station being underserved, or Lizzy's unreliability? I'll let you decide.

Next week, we are off for a similar route to reach the Stables in Brent Lodge Park and help sort the festival equipment after the Hanwell Hootie fever finally settled down. Sign up now to join us!

Another hot Saturday in Southall offered everyone a bit of relief from the heatwave, with a gentle breeze reaching Western Road Urban Garden.

Four GoodGymers and Janpal from Southall Community Alliance were the only participants at the community day until one of SCA's trustees and a member of the Southall community joined them.

Before getting to work, Janpal showed the GoodGymers the recent developments in the orchard and the polytunnel. The dwarf fruit trees, planted less than three years ago, were already bearing copious amounts of fruit. In the polytunnel, exotic plants like karela and snake gourd, and more familiar ones like aubergines, cucumbers, watermelon and bell peppers, had started producing crops as well - and we'd only watered them last month when the plants were still small. What an incredible growth!

Today's task was simple: remove weeds from three sections of a vegetable plot to free up space for more food to grow. Sevan, Amy, Freya and Kash tackled thistles, nettles and bathua, which Janpal described as a staple green in North Indian cuisine. The plant, although healthy and tasty, had completely taken over the veg plot, so it had to be removed. Luckily, it was easy to pull out. We cleared the whole patch with ease, leaving only two rogue tomato plants that had introduced themselves from the neighbouring plot.

After a break to grab some water, fruit and samosas that Janpal had brought for us, we continued by clearing the plot closest to the fence - removing not just weeds! The amount of broken glass we keep finding in the soil never ceases to amaze us, even though we've dug that area several times and many of us know Western Road's past as a derelict allotment and a fly-tipping hotspot.

Time flew by. We chatted not only about football, but also about Southall Community Alliance, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Janpal has been with the organisation almost from the beginning and told us the story behind the charity, its focus on bringing community groups together in Southall, and tackling important local issues such as inequality, poverty, mental health and social isolation.

We entered the woodchipping phase and covered all the soil and the remaining broken glass we hadn't been able to remove. We're sure we'll find it again at the next opportunity to dig that section!

The highlight of the session was tasting the delicious apricots from the orchard. Janpal had covered the little tree with a net to save some of the fruit for the volunteers. The method had proved a successful defence against the fox, who loves to steal the fruit before it gets ripe.

"He won't be getting his one of five a day now," said Janpal.

Thanks to that, we could get a little closer to our fruit and veg quota, munching on sweet, juicy apricots straight from the tree. You won't get that kind of taste from the supermarket!

If you want to help out at the urban garden and find out what will be ready to harvest in August, join us for the session next month. Sign up here!

Sixteen months have passed since GoodGym Ealing visited the IMPACT Theatre, a place where adults with severe learning disabilities can develop communication skills and confidence through performances on stage and creative arts.

Just like previously, the GoodGymers were contacted as trusted DIY experts when the time came to redecorate one of the art centre rooms - this time, the Creative Health Room, used for activities like yoga.

Three runners, Steph Ducat and Kash, led by Sevan, ran to the task from Ealing Broadway, Amy and Richard biked to Perivale individually, and Maria walked to the session, and then decided she wouldn't mind a few extra minutes in the outdoor gym while waiting for the others.

When task owner Peter opened the door, he was a bit surprised to find a larger group than those who had been visiting in the last few sessions.

"Is this a firing squad?" - Peter.

The arrivals turned out to be peaceful, and they decided to direct their energy towards the walls that needed prepping for painting. Who needs sandy beaches on a hot summer evening when you can have sandpaper! Different heights of GoodGymers came in handy while focusing on different parts of the four walls. One surface needed a particular smooth finish - the wall intended to become a projector display.

The team got to sanding, filling the room with constant rustling and raising plenty of dust. Peter equipped GoodGymers with face masks (who doesn't have a stock of spare face masks after 2020?) to reduce the amount of dust they inhaled.

After all the walls became nice and smooth, Richard fired up Henry the Hoover and did a round around the edges of the room to vacuum up the dust. Peter thanked everyone for the great job, then the GoodGymers ran, walked or cycled home - apart from the Frenchmen and Spaniards, who headed to the pub to catch the last minutes of their countries’ semi-final match.

Next week we are back for an outdoor task - but worry not - we'll be safe in the shade of the Half Acre woods while cutting back the wild summer growth to improve accessibility of the public paths. Sign up now to join us!

If anyone tells me that burdock removal tasks throughout the summer can ever get boring, I'll ask them to think twice! Last Tuesday evening's session started like an action film, with three runners: Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash, galloping at race pace and adding an extra kilometre and a half to retrieve a mission-critical item for the evening: the tool store keys that Kash had forgotten at home. What this extreme heat does to our brains!

Fortunately, the legs coped better with the heat than some of the brains. The racing trio arrived only two minutes late, while cyclists Amy and Scott and walkers Yonas, Harvey and Richard were already waiting at the task. The action-film atmosphere continued as Kash navigated the site's complicated security system and finally liberated the tools.

Eight GoodGymers grabbed a pair of wheelbarrows, a couple of spades and a collection of loppers, then set off to face all the burdock in Elthorne Park they hadn't tackled at last month's session and which had had time to grow. Many of the plants had already started producing sticky burrs. Amy and Kash, with hair a bit longer than the rest of the group, could testify to that.

"Actually, those burrs don't stick to my hair. It's my hair that sticks to them." – Amy.

Hitching a ride in people's hair and clothes or dogs' fur is burdock's prime strategy for travelling long distances and colonising new territory. And that's not its only trick. A single plant can produce thousands of seeds, allowing it to spread rapidly and outcompete surrounding plants for sunlight, water and nutrients. That's why GoodGymers regularly visit Elthorne Park in the summer to keep its expansion in check.

This time, the ranger asked us to focus on the outliers - not the dense patches where burdock was already established, but the lone plants and small clusters threatening to spread across the fields and along the paths.

After clearing the path on the way to the main burdock patch, the team spread into smaller groups across the large field, venturing almost as far as the Bambi statue. Everyone did a tremendous job, greatly reducing the spread of burdock across the park. A special thanks goes to Yonas and Scott, who tirelessly wheelbarrowed the cut plants to a pile away from the main visitor routes.

It was Scott's very first GoodGym session, but you'd never have guessed it - he tackled burdock like a seasoned pro. Well done, Scott, and welcome to GoodGym! We're hoping to see you again soon.

After another successful evening keeping Elthorne Park's burdock under control, we're already looking ahead to the next adventures. This weekend we'll be back in Hanwell helping HANGOT maintain their community fruit orchards, and next Tuesday Sevan will lead us to Perivale to support Impact Theatre by sanding walls ahead of painting. We are hoping to see you there!

In a rare alignment of planets, this month Horsenden Farm did not have any of his standard crew of 'leaders'.

No problem at all and all hail to COMMUNIST GOODGYM! WE ARE ALL LEADERS!

Oopss. I got a bit carried away. 😅

No problem at all. Amy, Freya and Gus met with Magda from the Friends of Horsenden Hill and we got to it (There may have been a quick coffee and pastry stop on the way)

The task today was to help clear up the pond. One of the volunteer hopes to make it less steep for wildlife to get into it but before that the current situation needs assessing and as it is it's just overgrown.

So we got started with moving a pile of logs until.... Delphine made an appearance!!!

We had perhaps been a little too keen on getting started that we did not wait for anyone else that was maybe perhaps on their way. But she found us and got to it straight away too.

Logs piled up. It was time to get to the fun bit! Barbed wire. Amy showcased her wire cutting skills while Freya and Delphine started bashing the overgrowth while Gus helped dismantling the fencing. After a little bit of tea discussion we actually got offered a lovely cuppa from Magda. That was needed to help finish the job.

While there is more to be done, a large part of the fencing is now gone and a good chunk of the pond cleared up. A pizza well earned!

Until next time!