What a gorgeous morning! Glorious sunshine, the beautiful scenery of Widbrook Common, views of Cliveden catching the sunlight across the valley, and another stretch of stream bursting with weeds for us to wrestle with.

All of this of course made even better with excellent company - Friends of Maidenhead Waterways volunteers Dominic, Tony, Ian, Phil, Mick and David, and GoodGymers Sheila, Alex, Clara, Tony and Dominic. Yes that's right, Dominic and Tony appear in both of those lists - superheroes are real!

As is usual for these Autumn/Winter work parties, our aim was to clear enough weeds from the stream (usually 1-2m width) to allow water to move freely, enabling a flow into the town centre streams and keeping the stream ecosystem healthy in the process.

It is always a laugh getting started - greeting familiar faces, dressing up in waders and other PPE, trudging out to the target area carrying equipment like rakes and pallets and listening to Dominic's safety briefing to try to avoid getting 'that sinking feeling.'

Then the real adventure began. We worked as a team to drag, heave, cut and yank weeds out of the stream and onto the banks, from where any disturbed critters could make their way back to the water. It is really heavy work and it is incredible how much vegetation can come out of one little stream.

Phil and Tony were like machines, harvesting great armfuls from the water, while the rest of us created a range of soggy weed mountains, marking where we had been. We agreed that the pointy rakes were better than the more rake-y rakes, but that it also works fairly well to 'get in touch with your inner hippo' and wallow around on all fours using your hands, arms and body weight.

We powered through the first hour or so motivated by the promised half time snack and hot drink - a Twix AND chocolate fingers plus coffee. It didn't disappoint - thank you Dominic! The second half also flew by as we really got into the flow and became fully immersed in the task (you didn't think I could get through the whole report without some watery puns did you!?)

A highlight of the morning was watching a little coot, who came along to see what we were up to and to feast on some of the wildlife we had churned up. Another was witnessing a different kind of wildlife: Tony's post-session yoga practice - a round of single leg downward facing dogs designed to empty half the stream out of his waders.

Thanks to Clara and Ian, who helped me look for my lost car key at the end. That'll teach me not to run, walk or cycle!

Clara, Sheila, Amy, Tony, and Sol made their way to Cookham to join Wild Cookham volunteers to remove weeds and overgrown trees from the pond.

All volunteers split into two teams. Tony and Clara joined the tree cutting team and helped clearing branches leaning over the water.

Amy and Sheila took to stearing the boat to try to measure the depth of the pond. They also helped to cut reeds in the middle of the pond.

Sol put on waders and helped to clear reeds from the bank. It was a muddy task to pull reeds one by one and not to get too deep into muddy waters. This helped to clear 2 meters from the bank. Other volunteers helped to take weeds to a compost pile.

All in all it was a sunny Saturday morning and everyone was in a good mood to spen time outdoors for a good cause.

20 goodgymers signed up for this session - the most we’ve had since the launch! We met at the community centre for a briefing about the task from Amy and an exchange of window puns (I’d steal them and pass them off as my own but I don’t want to make this too paneful) and then walked and ran the 2km to Braywick Health Nursery. The task owner Kit had a number of things that needed shifting so we were divided into two groups.

One group helped clear equipment from a very rickety shed (which, despite its intentions, did not fall down) and store everything away safely so the shed could be sent to ‘live on a farm’. As well as the expected shovels and rakes, we uncovered a huge connect four game (sadly only the frame so we couldn’t have a go), a couple of snails, and a lot of wooden Christmas trees, which are about as hard to store sensibly as you’d imagine. We finished that quickly but it wasn’t curtains just yet - we were set to window cleaning, which goodgym has helped with here many times before. We managed to make quite good progress, especially when wet cloths were replaced with Gillian wielding a hose!

The other group stayed inside in the light and helped move furniture, something goodgym started last time we visited, so the space can be used as a new staff area. This required the use of trolleys and a lot of strategic planning to make sure everyone left with the same number of toes. They also replaced some of the old ceiling tiles with new ones, so I think it’s fair to say that goodgym both literally and figuratively raised the roof.

After we’d completed the tasks and regrouped at the front of the nursery, we finished the night with a fitness session involving many creative variations of the Mexican wave. Then we set off home, amazed (and I do hope I’m not jinxing it for next week) that we hadn’t been rained on!

What a great turn out for our #wednesdaynightisgoodgymnight group run. Sophie was stepping in for our glorious leader Amy once again whilst she is away and we split into a runners group and walkers group, after meeting at the Maidenhead Community Centre. The walkers set off for the 2km journey to Braywick Heath Nurseries whilst the runners did an interval based warm up and some stretching to prepare themselves for the run.

We all met at Braywick Heath Nurseries and Kit, our task owner for the evening, was waiting for us and gave us all an insight into the work they do, how it benefits the community, for example by giving employment opportunities to young adults with additional needs. Kit then explained that our task for the evening was to move furniture from one part of the nurseries to another, stack wood, generally make things more organised for them and create a more efficient space.

We set to work and it was all done in just over an hour, Kit was very grateful for our help. We moved some seriously heavy bits of furniture made of solid wood that had been donated to them, but as the saying goes... many hands make light work. Thankfully no figers or toes were broken during the task, although perhaps a few near misses! Jess even found an old £20 note which she gave to Kit to add to the nursery funds, which we've added to the list of unusual items found during GoodGym tasks!

It certainly wasn't a task where anyone could get (side)board easily as we had so much to do and even went slightly over schedule. We all unit-ed to make sure the task was completed safely and efficiently, despite some shifty behaviour. I'm sure all our spirits were lift-ed after helping out such a great organisation.

We then set off back to the community centre where the runners then cooled down and Sophie waited for the walkers to arrive back. Well done everyone and hope your arm(chair)s weren't too sore the next day!

Four GoodGymers made their way to Oaken Grove Park to help to clear mud from the pond.

This was the third session in as many weeks. The aim was to clean the upper pond. There were a lot of mud in a small space! We did as much as we could.

A big thank you goes to Jen for taking a train and walking from the station to the park. Appreciate your commitment!

Thank you to Clara, who returned for the second week knowing how hard work it would be.

Thank you to Tony for providing even more of waterways expertise in form of wading!

We made a difference!

Weir always up for an adventure, espcially one that combines an excellent Dorkout with a good Weed. And yes that spoonerism (or considering the tools at hand, should that be a fork-erism?) was intentional! This evening's task involved removing lots of blanket Weed from around Green Lane Weir, and according to the urban dictionary, 'Dorkout' means to '... enjoy oneself without fear of looking like an idiot...!'

That's not to suggest that we looked like idiots whilst combining our excellent Workout and good Deeds of course... We looked just as stylish as ever in our red t-shirts as we warmed up in Kidwells Park and then walked and ran through town to our task location. There might just have been the odd dorky moment when I got over-excited about my ability to lock and unlock the Friends of Maidenhead Waterways (FoMW) tool container, when Clara made Juli pose with a rake and some piles of weeds, when Mandy wanted to stay all night to clear the whole waterway network, or when Sol started likening the blanket weed to a sheep...

But I fear I'm drifting off topic...much like small duckweeds, freed by Rachel from the patches of blankety filamentous algae and flowing quietly towards the eel pass...where was I!?

Basically, FoMW needed a hand with removing blanket weed from around Green Lane Weir, and we were delighted to help. Would it be a blanket statement to say that we had it covered? Or should that be uncovered?? It was a beautiful evening and the waterway looked stunning in the setting sun. We (bed)spread out and used long rakes and forks to drag the weed out of the water, and trugs to carry the weeds away from the path and into areas where it could rot down, and from where any lurking wildlife could crawl back to the water (leaving us with no quilty feelings!)

Special mentions to...

• Scarlett and Matthew, who came for their first group run/walk, and their second good deeds, having made a great start on a 'paneful morning' at Braywick Heath Nurseries

• Tony, who is a trained FoMW leader as well as a GoodGymer. He donned his gorgeous orange waders and did an amazing job of guiding us towards the blanket weed and the blanket weed towards us. Never mind 'having it covered', he nearly got covered himself! Perhaps we should call him our undercover agent?

• Taskforce members Nicola, who led the walkers, and Sol, who back-marked the runners. No duvet day for them!

• Roberta, Nicola and Anne-Laure, who filled three big bags with litter from the nearby area.

We didn't quite take the water from Blankety to Blank, but we did have an ex-stream-ly good evening. You might think we're a bit weedy, but weed did it! Duvet you think I should stop with these terrible puns now?