Three goodgymers headed to a small but highly important piece of grazing land today. The land owned by Eton College is designated as a SSSI, because of the presence of a rare and declining plant called the Pennyroyal. As a consequence, the management of scrub is highly important to enable the Pennyroyal to thrive. It grows in the halo of a damp divot in the ground in a unique habitat.

Our task is to support Nature Bureau to clear the scrub. The task involved working to load cuttings into wheelbarrows and relocate the eco piles into the lower field, south of the hedgerow/drainage ditch. We were supported by other local volunteers which was heaps of fun with encouragement from the resident wildlife.

It is a beautiful location we enjoyed pitch forking in and the weather made it a really memorable task.

A return to the Royal School, this time treated to beautiful views, welcoming company and home roasted coffee. Goodgymers enjoyed a cloudy / sunny afternoon helping the school in creating a reading corner for pupils and other important clearing tasks as we head into spring.

On arrival Julian, Jen, Patrick and Nic joined some of the PTA in deweeding and demossing a corner of the playground to prepare it for a new reading corner. Kanika, Diya and Kelley joined the rest of the PTA and started weeding a section of the far garden. When the reading corner team were ready to build the reading room, Nic and Jen joined the weeders to finish clearing the field.

Having made a great start to the tree planting at Sutherland Grange in the morning , Georgeta, Paul and Sheila continued the good work planting the remaining whips in the designated areas. By the end of the session, 100 trees had been planted, staked and protected, and we look forward to coming to see their progress in the coming years. It sounds like there will be plenty of opportunities to help out Wild Windsor and Wild Eton Wick in the coming months - watch this space! The amazing Green Hearts made by our talented GoodGym members were delivered to Claire, for display in Windsor Yards After saying our goodbyes, we cycled back to Maidenhead via the scenic route by Bray Lake, but against the wind, giving our legs a good workout!

Today's task was to help the Wild Windsor group prepare the ground ready for planting some tree whips in Sutherland Grange, a nature reserve and popular dog-walking spot in west Windsor. The group is keen to introduce more trees into the reserve. Georgeta, Paul and Sheila cycled from Maidenhead and Nic walked from home, to join 8 other volunteers at the site. After a comprehensive introduction to the area and task, we donned special green high vis jackets, and people were appointed to plant in 6 different areas in the reserve. The whips of 5 different tree species were handed out (Downy Birch, Field Maple, Rowan, Bird Cherry and Goat Willow), each specially selected for the ground conditions in the selected areas. We set to work in our appointed areas, slot-planting the whips and adding in stout bamboo canes and curly tree protectors to give them the best chance of survival. The trickiest bit was making sure the tree whips did not blow away in the windy conditions before we could plant them! At the end of this first session, we gathered together and replenished our energy levels with some chocolate lemon drizzle cake provided by Sheila. Then on to session 2!