Our 5 merry Goodgymers went on planting trees on this nice and sunny Saturday afternoon. Trees needed to be moved and planted elsewhere. Wheelbarrows were moved, dirt was dug,water was poured and weed was removed : a very efficient session on this island.

But it wasn't without counting on the current drama happening on the island: female duck being courted by 3 suitors (or 2,maybe only 1 and the others were there for the fight, it wasn't really clear). A story we didn't have the end of. Hopefully on the next episode/session, things will have calm down on the island for the wildlife.

A beautiful spring afternoon saw Nivi, Rachel, Christine, Anne-Laure and Sheila join the weekly work party at Ray Mill Island. Anne-Laure was keen to do raking of leaves to help expose the grass, and Nivi helped another volunteer paint tree signs. Meanwhile the others tackled the enormous Phormium plant which needs removing from the new nursery area.The team last week had done a good job of starting to dig it out, so our task was to try and finish the job. Armed with spades, loppers, a half-moon cutter and a pruning saw, we started attacking the plant. Some side shoots of the plant were saved for planting up to generate new plants. It was a tough old job, but we kept at it and eventually we were victorious, severing the plant from the earth.

Six GoodGymers helped out at the Big Read at Maidenhead Library. New GoodGymers Holly and James braved the cold and welcomed families to the event by giving out event programmes and directing them to the many activities. Tessa helped in the children's corner, answered lots of questions and gave out stickers. Roberta, Christine and Angela helped out with craft activities and encouraged families to enter the treasure hunt and other competitions. The highlight of the session was watching Maidenhead football team join in a session with poet Simon Mole!

A call was put out for people to knit or crochet bookmarks for Bisham C of E academy. Five Goodgymers responded to the challenge, creating over a hundred bookmarks between them in a range of colours, and even a couple of hearts. Well done to Hannah, our taskowner, for producing the lion's share

There were plenty of worms to be found though as Jen and Christine got stuck into planting Snowdrop and Bluebells near the Plane tree. We then added some violas and pansies to the Goodgym planters whilst Mick repositioned the planters and did some general cutting back and tidying up and Anne-Laure joined the sub team raking leaves up from various areas , for the compost.