Last night, GoodGym Hounslow returned to Baron’s Ponds, turning an overgrown tangle into a future beautiful bluebell glade. A warm GoodGym welcome to Ealing member Scott, who joined us for his first session in Hounslow!

Baron’s Ponds sits in a historic corner of Gunnersbury, but, as nobody had been caring for it for some years, it risked becoming simply overgrown, derelict space. Thankfully, a passionate team of local volunteers stepped up to take over its care, aiming to increase biodiversity and sustainability.

We got straight to work pulling up and hauling away mounds of the invasive ivy. The volume of growth was immense, but we soon got stuck and started making a difference. A special shout-out has to go to Chris and Florian, who spent the evening fighting the good fight against a truly colossal, knotted ball of ivy. It was a real wrestling match — check out the photos for the unbelievable scenes and ultimate victory.

While we worked, Mark (the head of the volunteer team) filled us in on a bit of local drama. It turns out the pond is currently being plagued by a lone terrapin. This rogue reptile has been terrorising the local ecosystem, eating up all the frogs and other tiny pond creatures. Apparently he’s quite intrepid and frequently commutes between here and the main ponds at Gunnersbury Park. The ultimate plan is to safely catch and rehome him - unless he makes a speedy getaway first. 

With the ivy cleared, the area is one step closer to being turned into a blue vision come spring. Next week, we are teaming up with Wild Chiswick for more green-fingered tasks that deliver a real environmental impact. You can find the details here.

What a challenge at Strand on the Green School last night!

We arrived to discover a huge task ahead of us: moving 3 tonnes of bark and 5 tonnes of sand to different locations around the school. We were definitely up for the challenge, but agreed that our usual fitness session probably wouldn’t be required afterwards!

We got straight to work. Maxime, Michelle, Alanna and Fran took on the particularly hard task of shifting heavy bags of sand up the stairs to the sandpit. Heavy bags + flights of stairs = amazing full body workout!

Meanwhile, the rest of the group were showing off some impressive muscle with some excellent farmers’ lifts moving buckets, and shovelling and barrowing sand to different areas of the playground and nursery while wearing a fetching policeman's hat👮

Somehow we managed it all in record time! Originally thinking we’d have to come back next week to finish the job, but the the whole lot was completed in a single session thanks to amazing teamwork from everyone.

Clare, the caretaker, was really pleased with the result given how long it would it have taken one person. Huge well done to everyone for taking on such a massive challenge and getting it done together. And thanks to Lucy for the run report title!

Small committee tonight probably due to no cake day 😅😅🎂🎂. Of course not : holiday period so people are away or busy. Some of us did a small run the Harvard Hill, shortly to be joined by the walkers feon various locations. Tonight's task was to do some weeding but also some litterpicking. we found loads of empty cat food containers hidden in the bushes : the local seem to be having a feast. During the task there was a long funny conversation around badger as Augustin mentionned he spotted one after our race last Friday in Bushy Park. Did he really see a badger or was it something else. 🤔 Then it went to translating into French and depending on the tool you use you get different words like Badger(with a French accent) or Blaireau which is also a familiar or slang word in French. We all had a good laugh and did good progress with the weeding and litterpicking. Can you spot the badger in the group photo?🦡🦡