The heat may have been huge, but the desire to GoodGym on a Monday eve is bigger!

Starting with a warm up in Richmond, we headed across the green and down to the river to run across the lock and back along the river on the north bank into East Twickenham, turning in to St Christopher's Fellowship.

We are very familiar with the garden there and get on with weeding, litter picking, cutting back and sorting out without needing instruction! The brambles had been weaving their way around everything and weeds were clearly loving the heavy rain followed by sunshine, until we turned up!

45 minutes later the large garden felt more under control again, even if our own temperatures were not so much!

We are back there next month to keep on top of the summer growth.

Five GoodGymers came out to St Mary Magdelene Parish Church in the centre of Richmond to build some hurdles. We welcomed 2 new GoodGymers on their first mission with the same name: Jamie. Anita was at the War Memorial getting the beds ready for planting and Ken was on the other side struggling with some new sticks to make them into hurdles around the wildflower area. Jamie (both) got stuck into cutting sticks and sharpening the ends while Emily set about making holes on the posts for the sticks to go through. It was a hot day and while we made good progress finishing some bits off there will be more stick work on Monday as the task was not completed but a good effort was made.

After the heatwave broke, it was time to get a second coat on!

Temperatures hadn't plumetted that much in reality but our task this evening was the complete the task we started three weeks ago: protecting the boathouse doors for the scouts. This evening we headed out to put the second coat of teak oil on.

Starting with a good stretch in the sunshine on Richmond Green, half the group started walking to the river while the other half did interval sprints around the green, getting six sprints in before jogging off to the riverside.

Armed with brushes and oil, the doors were soon looking well-fed and happy, giving us time to go and get well-watered at the busy pub next door before sunset!

Honor, Chris, Ken, Anita and run leader Liz achieved best possible performance on Monday’s group run task combining quality, speed and humour to transform seven benches in Buccleuch Gardens at zero cost.

Before and after shots of all the benches taken with added zest!: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKtzvMrI9_e/?igsh=Y3d1c2JxYmVsa2R4

Lunchtime session at GoodGym Richmond‘s sponsored plots in Buccleuch Gardens: scouting for tasks to tackle during the evening group run session and undertaking a miscellany of saw and secateur wielding jobs.

Chris and Anita worked to create new supports for the self-seeded hop plants that have been coiling across the Three Pigeons Plot. Heading into the overgrown water meadow area by the river, a band saw was the perfect tool for harvesting Willow poles but also proved a useful implement for hacking a path through the monstrous nettles, Himalayan balsam, gunnera and Hogweed.

Meanwhile Ken did a brilliant job tackled the brambles which have become an increasing problem in recent months ( and only brambles were bashed, no plane trees were harmed ).

The beautiful deep pink ‘Duchess of Dalkieth’ rose donated by the Duke of Buccleuch also benefited from a little gentle deadheading.

Eight wonderful Richmond GoodGymmers were out in the June evening sunshine to help with the annual maintenance of the boat house doors along the glorious Richmond Riverside.

Led by Lucy, the gang took a scenic route past Old Deer Park, along both sides of the river and over two bridges to get to the Boat Houses, where we met Vic from the Boating Scouts, who let us loose on the doors.

We got sanding and scrubbing, and used a cocktail of the finest Thames water and white spirit to clean some of the residual mud at the bottom of the doors. We then wiped the dust down and dried up before the brushes came out! The doors got a lathering of teak oil, top to bottom. Kudos to the taller members of our group for reaching the top bits, and to the shorter members for risking themselves being dripped on for the lower to reach bits!

The scores on the doors were in. We were all winners, when doing good and getting fit in such a fantastic location on such a splendid evening, as you can see from some of Anita’s stunning photos.

In the words of the terminator, ‘Oil be back’… in three weeks time to complete the second coat!

Ultimately, it was two Teams on either end of the Church grounds making a small difference. One mission was to clean up the war memorial and the other, involved two sections where we had to lift up some of the turf a few inches off the ground.

Thanks to the tools we had available. This included a post basher, a tape measure, a string for the border, some wooden posts and a small shovel. It was pretty evident that the surrounding lawn around the Church was steeped in history so we took note of that from the beginning. The two areas in question was pretty close to a previous trench that Goodgym previously got involved back in 2024, where we also spotted the sow that reaped its rewards with full flower.

We took a section of the lawn at the back of the church (or depending which way you look at it) and started digging. We found no artifacts, perhaps some dust from previous stone diminished.

Shortly afterwards, we completed our mission. The vicar invited us in for some refreshments afterwards. It's pretty amazing when a team comes together!