We had the BAFTAs back in March 2020 ( https://www.goodgym.org/v3/profile/anita-capewell ) but this year, this time , we were back in Beuccleuch Gardens, Richmond for the Academy Awards. All was not quiet on the Thames River Front for our 13 March 2023 ‘second Monday’ monthly group run . GoodGymers ran, walked and cycled the tarmac carpet to reach our sponsored plots in Buccleuch Gardens for a task-studded evening of gardening glamour.
A fantastic turnout meant that GoodGym Richmond were able to be ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once ‘ and in under an hour we managed to: Cover the Canarian Palm’s in front of the Arcade to protect them from Frost; Complete the leaf sweep-up at The Arcade; Sweep and Weed around and about the Three Pigeons Plot; and plant cornflower seeds. GoodGym Richmond’s Canine friends have already shown remarkable form when it comes to predicting Oscar winners ( Molly the dog was promoting The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse way back in July 2020: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/profile/anita-capewell ) and tonight’s guest star, Boots the dog, charmed her way into everyone’s hearts and is tipped for future run report fame.

The Friends of Ham Lands welcomed 6 cheery GoodGymers (and Hunter the pooch) on a much brighter and drier Saturday morning than was expected for a second go at the brambles along the pathway we worked on last month.

It’s always great fun to get together with the FoHL and help them with their ongoing efforts to preserve the green spaces of the Ham Lands for the benefit of walkers and local residents. This time, Sharon brought along a couple of boards showing an aerial photo of the area in 1944 and a map from 1841, when the topography of the area was quite different from today.

We were armed with loppers and shears and headed out along the path in twos and threes, cutting back the brambles and gathering them in large canvas sacks, all the while catching up on each other’s news and the events of the moment.

Those brambles can be nasty and the murmur of chat was punctuated by the occasional “ouch” (or a slightly less polite term) as several of us received our scratch of the day, but these didn’t spoil the merry mood as we did our bit for nature to get the weekend off to a good start.

The prospect of a visit to the Swiss Bakery helped our motivation and we soon settled down to excellent (tiny) coffees and delicious flammenkuchen and quiche as reward for our efforts. Guten Appetit!

Next visit to the Ham Lands is on the Easter weekend so we will be updated soon on whether this will affect it. Keep an eye out for changes to the listings!

Despite the rain and yellow weather warning, a couple of diehard runners met at Richmond and ran to Petersham Common where they met the rest of the crew.

Ken gave us a brief introduction to the task of planting native hazel and common hawthorn trees as part of the 25,000 understory songbird habitat restoration project in the woodland. We were planting in an area that only had ivy on the ground and then an upper canopy of trees and we were there to create bird blocks for nesting habitat and foraging areas that will form the understory. It was challenging digging on the slope in the rain but we managed to plant a total of 89 trees in 40 minutes before we set off into the night on our return run and journeys home with a big thank you from the Petersham Common Conservators.

It was great to be back at the Petersham and Ham Sea Scouts this morning for a vigorous bit of doing good. After a couple of GPS issues we all made it there and started the session carrying planks of wood to the site of the “treehouse”* which was under construction in the area to one side of the of the main driveway.

Once we had moved 22 very long planks, we were given our new orders. The main job of the day was to dig out a section of earth at the back of the site to prepare it for gravel to be laid at a future date.

Initially we filled 5 sacks with soil and stacked them to one side for later use, then we got going in earnest on filling wheelbarrows and moving the soil to the other end of the lawn area close to the fire pit and pizza oven. The work was hard but gratifying and we enjoyed seeing our progress at both the digging and depositing sites.

Soon enough we were given an additional task, removing the holly tree at one end of the digging spot. This provided a lot of fun for new starter Danya (on her first mission) and JP, while Anita stepped in to help chop up the tree once it had been removed.

Cups of tea were brought for the workers and we carried on with the spadework, digging with gusto and filling the barrows at blistering pace. We even found time to dig out the footpath sign - which was much harder than we initially thought! Eventually it was time to go and the chat turned to weekend plans and the inevitable discussion on the best pun - this report’s fine effort coming courtesy of Anita.

A very warm welcome to Danya who we hope to see at another mission vet soon.

*Not in a tree. So not really a treehouse.