Last Tuesday, Walpole Park was an arena for a foot-orienteering race, an unforgiving bramble bashing and unrestricted cake munching. Steph, Sevan and Kash met Hounslow GoodGymer Gus, who came for his first session in Ealing and astonished us with his Houn-fast pace on the run to the task! Feeling that we were ahead of time, we added an extra half-loop around the park to the distance, running past confused Ijo and Milly, who were waiting for us at Rickyard.

Jon the Ranger asked us to tackle three rogue bramble colonies, and we decided to take on the big one, closest to the northeastern entrance to the park. That is where we met Claire and Clare, the latter with her trusty hand secateurs. Undeterred by the sight of thorns, we pressed on, encircling the cluster of brambles from all directions. We decided to leave the wheelbarrows at the tool store and bring a proper siege machine: the big trolley. We meant business.

Long loppers, thick gloves and bear claws were good protection against the brambles. The biggest challenge was... signing Steph's birthday card in secret! Yes, that's right - the Ealing group run night coincided with Steph's birthday.

Well-timed birthday, Steph. Joyeux anniversaire!

Having cleared the whole patch of brambles in one location, we sent Steph to dispose of the last full trolley of cuttings, so that we bought ourselves time to prepare him a surprise. Sevan accompanied Steph to help him / slow him down. When they returned to Rickyard's backyard, a chocolate fudge birthday cake was on fire. Steph saved the cafe by blowing all the burning candles in one go. Woohoo! He also brought an alternative cake himself (apparently that's a French custom). That meant a double cake for us and, for Steph, running with a cake - not an unusual sport among Ealing GoodGymers!

Speaking of sports, tonight's monthly social, organised by our indispensable Milly, took place in Boom Battle Bar, where we enjoyed crazier golf and a couple of pool games.

Removing invasive brambles from the park may seem like a small thing, but helps the rangers and a few volunteer gardeners keep the paths safe and accessible to the public.

Next week we will be helping the William Hobbayne Charity cut back summer growth at Half Acre Woods. We are hoping to see you there - don't forget to sign up!

That is the question. At today's evening task, we contemplated the life and death of a hedge. Bee Coop from Northfield Allotments invited us to clear space around a tree to build a dead hedge - Frankenstein's monster among the hedges. The structure erected from lifeless branches was to give a new life - to an entire metropolis of insects!

One of our GoodGym teammates, Clare, was an insider at the Bee Coop and welcomed us to the plot and introduced us to the other beekeepers: Chloe and Kathy, the boss of tonight's task. At the back of the plot, we noticed the beehives behind the green netting.

Safety briefing ⛑️

"The bees should be calm at this time of the day, but be careful.
Do not lean on the green netting.
Do not touch the green netting.
Do not throw anything behind the green netting" - Clare

"Do not look at the green netting.
Do not speak about the green netting" - Kathy

Despite the fight club rules, some of us brought sharp blades to a fistfight - we could see you with that saw, Steph! 😱 Others sneaked in loppers and secateurs. With so many people in a small space with pointy branches, twigs and tools, we managed to - thanks to our excellent health and safety standards - not hurt anyone, except for the branches, which Ijo, Sevan, Madhan and Steph cut down into smaller pieces.

After Kash removed the nettles and weeds from the hedge construction site, Claire, Clare and Divya erected poles to support the structure, and then started laying foundations using thick logs. On top of those landed big branches, then smaller branches, followed by the tiniest twigs. In less than an hour, the hedge was ready to serve as home to the new generation of bugs to improve biodiversity in the area.

Luckily, no one got stung today - at least not by the bees! Claire and Kash couldn't say the same about nettles. We didn't taste any honey this evening, but Clare and Claire prepared another sweet surprise - birthday cupcakes for Madhan! Happy birthday! 🎂

We finished the task with a tour around the allotment, featuring attractions such as:

• Anderson shelter
• Claire's pro plot
• Fruit garden and Madhan's adapted plot

A big thank you to Madhan and Clare for organising today's task! 🤩

Next week we are helping Walpole Park tackle the bramble issue - sign up now! Oh, and look out for the social next week after the task 👀 it's coming soon!

Disclaimer

No Ealing bees have been smuggled to Hammersmith on a bike.

...Or were they?

A last minute change of task brought GoodGym Ealing back to Lammas Orchard, where task owner Trevor had prepared a giant new pile of woodchip for the team's wheelbarrowing pleasure. In addition, there were raised beds to water and an explosion of invasive plants to trim back.

Claire, Kash and Steph Ducat started by moving woodchip onto the untreated paths and managed to complete the main routes through the orchard. Meanwhile, Clare, Alaa, Milly and Sevan were chopping away at brambles, pulling sticky weeds and taking down anything else spiky and likely to put people off from walking through the orchard. There was a lot of cat talk going on in the group and no mention at all of current affairs, with everyone sticking to furrier ground.

Milly took on the final task of looking after the raised beds that sit outside the orchard. The roses in the raised beds were already in bloom, while the strawberries and redcurrants were still working on being juicy enough to be eaten. Milly tended to their affairs, watering the redcurrants to make sure they achieve their destiny this summer.

Satisfied with their work, the GoodGymers returned their tools to the storage area in the Rickyard with some elegant formation wheelbarrowing.

It's part 2 of the painting task and the same team assembled like the previous one. We had two more GoodGymers joined this time. Nishy ran from Hanwell and Alaa joined us for her first GoodGym task.

Welcome to GoodGym Ealing, Alaa

We didn't have a problem wearing the aprons as we had experience from last time. Mandie got us some watermelons, pineapples, and water bottles to keep us refreshed. It was getting warm after some time.

Kash, Nishy, and I used the big rollers and went up and down whereas Claire, Clare, and Sevan focussed on touchup using small brushes. Tbh using the small brushes was a niche work and required more effort and care. This time we got a ladder and Claire was covering the top of the walls for some time. It was Alaa's first painting task. She took regular rollers and covered the area near the windows.

We got lost in time and it was almost noon. We then wrapped up and Claire owned the cleaning up like last time. Sevan was busy finishing up his artwork and was going at it till the last minute. We had some bites of watermelon before the team dispersed.

So if you feel like you missed this one don't worry as we will be coming back for another painting session sometime end of this month or next month.