I strolled over to meet Ms V on a beautiful sunny day and was ready to help out in the garden whilst also topping up my tan. Ms V has a lovely garden with all sorts of plants and trees, and she was very knowledgeable, giving me useful information about lots of them. I even wrote a few tips down for my own garden! First I trimmed back the fig tree so that it didn't block out the light so much for other plants. Turns out the figs aren't really edible because it's not hot enough in England to make the lovely sweet ones we eat. Then I hacked away at some brambles, which is definitely my comfort zone seeing as this is a classic GH task. With direction from Ms V I pruned and trimmed various plants and bushes, and then finished off by doing a rough mowing of the lawn using the hand mower, which I'd never used before but actually I much preferred to a normal lawnmower! Luckily the garden waste bin had been cleared that morning so I was able to fill it up again with all the trimmings. Ms V was very grateful for the help and I must say it was a job well done!

It was a bumper session last night at GG Hounslow, where we had the pleasure of welcoming three new faces, and welcoming back one we hadn't seen in too long! So great to have you join us for the first time Cristina, Mark and Nina, and lovely to have you back for a flying visit Johnny!

With a reprieve from the heat of the last couple of days, we had a beautiful summer's evening to make the most of, so there was no time to waste. After a quick warm up (with a bike based alternative demonstrated by Mark!) we set off for the Comboni centre, a centre for spirituality run by Sisters, who care for sick people.

The lucky first few queuing up at the shed to be handed out tools by Sister Expedita got their hands on trowels, forks and other legitimate utensils, while the others received....bread knives! Still, we didn't let it hold us back, and got to work on the lawns pulling out the weeds coming up thick and fast. It soon became clear that only bad workmen blame their tools, as the knives were more than adequate for the task - and Christina even commented that her broken knife was even more effective. That's proper GG spirit!

Meanwhile Nina and Florian were doing a beautiful job weeding around the beautifully scented roses, while Cookie and Biscuits (aka the two Johnnies) were working to clear a large area around the back of the building.

After 45 minutes of hard work, Sister Expedita was pleased with our work, and after a quick photo opp, we set off for Turnham Green.

That wasn't the end of the hard graft, as we took on the three minute mountain leg challenge, followed by an arm finisher! Phew. Great work everybody! If you're looking for a mission this weekend, why not sign up for this one helping set up at Waterman's Park? It's going to be a fun one!

We had a brilliant GoodGym session last night – big welcome to Ariane on her very first run with us. Great to have you on board, and we hope it’s the first of many!

It was a short but sweet run in the summer heat, taking us back to a local church and community centre for another round of clearing, weeding, shifting and digging.

On arrival, we were greeted by an unconcerned rat 🐀 While I may have been a little perturbed, everyone else barely blinked – too small for an fuss apparently!

The jobs for the evening included tackling two big weedy areas, which were soon transformed thanks to some serious elbow grease. On the paths we had to do some weeding and digging before laying down a weed membrane to help keep things clear. The evening's power move was shifting a very heavy filing cabinet down the stairs – big kudos to Steph and Kash for a successful manouevre 💪

In just 45 minutes the place looked so much tidier and Carol, the the task owner said what we did would have taken her weeks so well done team! 👏

We ran back to Turnham Green where we wrapped things up with a take on a relay: while one person ran, the others kept moving with various exercises – squats, planks, you name it. There was no time for a breather!

We finished with some well-earned stretches covered in dry grass. Join Ariane again for her first community mission this Saturday – it’s going to be a beautiful day on Chiswick eyot where there is plenty of balsam bashing to do and the fight against the mitten crabs continues!

Thanks to the photographers for the photos last night - it's a bumper week of pics!

Last night’s GoodGym session took us to lend a hand at Cultivate London, a charity doing vital work transforming unused urban land into thriving green spaces and training grounds for young people pursuing careers in horticulture and landscaping.

Cultivate London has recently had to relocate to a new site, and our job was to help them get settled in. That meant one thing - some serious heavy lifting! Our Tasks Included:

• Hauling office furniture up flights of stairs into a temporary cabin
• Shifting large furniture pieces into a huge shipping container
• Transporting heavy equipment
• Carefully moving plants and growing materials to their new homes

Given the stairs we had to go up and done countless times and all the lifting, it was a proper full-body workout!

We made a huge dent in what would have taken days for a small team to complete – and Cultivate London were really appreciative. Your energy and effort made a real difference!