The GPRA Hall, which, a month ago, hosted a sustainable Baby & Kids tabletop sale (prepped with GoodGym's involvement), was ready for another makeover on Friday evening. The occasion was the Residents' Christmas Party the following day, and the hall needed a proper dose of sparkles, baubles, lights and balloons.

When Maria and Steph Ducat arrived early, they were immediately put to work at height by one of the organisers, who spotted the potential of the tall and fit duo to do the challenging job of decorating strings hanging from the ceiling. And she was right! By taking turns on climbing and holding the step ladder, Maria and Steph showed no fear and plenty of creative flair, putting up balloons and baubles up high.

Meanwhile, Sevan and Kash arrived at a perfect time to decorate the Christmas tree. The seemingly easy job of putting lights on the tree turned out to be a story with a twist! Two GoodGymers were spinning the tree clockwise to speed up the process until they came across a significant tangle in the wire and nearly relived their mission of disarming Ms H's fairy lights system. Just when they were close to untangling the knot, Sevan noticed that the cable had been torn and no longer connected to the plug! In a fortunate turn of events, one of the GPRA volunteers happened to be an electrician, who, after fetching the right tools for the job, safely fixed the problem.

With the energy supply problem solved, baubles hung on the Christmas tree and balloons on the ceiling, the GPRA Hall turned into a truly festive venue! The next stop of the GoodGym Ealing journey through the festive season is our annual church decoration at St Mary's, this time with the new vicar. Don't miss it and sign up for the 9th December evening task!

If the numbers of bulbs we have planted over the past few weeks is anything to go by, the borough of Hounslow is going to be soon bursting at the seams with spring flowers! It's great to think, as we run round Gunnersbury, Chiswick and beyond next year, that GoodGym helped fill the borough with tulips, daffs, narcissus and more.

Last night we were working outside Gunnersbury tube helping Abundance clear the raised beds of old grasses and lavender, and replant them with bulbs in fresh compost.

We started off with a short run down to the task, where we found that there was a vast difference in tolerance to the cold, wet conditions. While some of us sported several layers, from hat to Christmas socks, others took a more tropical approach in tshirt and shorts! Whatever our choice of December outfit, we all got stuck in to the job.

The air was soon filled with the scent of lavender as we carefully preserved the grasses and dug in new bulbs. First person to spot the first bulb up next year wins a prize!

Before long the raised beds were filled with the promise of spring flowers, so we ran off to our next spot for some balance and cardio based fitness. We started off with the one legged closed eyes squat test before moving on to a round of circuits, and finishing with a minute squat challenge. That soon warmed us up!

This weekend we have a mission on Chiswick eyot and next week we're going to be sowing cowslips at Turnham Green. Good luck to Pippa, Michelle, Jon and Will this weekend, racing everything from 5miles up to marathon - have a great one!

Rain did not stop play for a trio of Ealing GoodGymers, who showed up at Ealing Broadway on the first Tuesday evening of December for a very short run to Walpole Park and a classic winter task: woodchipping.

Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash made their way to the Walled Garden, where they excavated the old woodchip covering one of the paths between veg beds. They used the material as mulch and spread it on a large flower bed nearby. Clever! It wasn't their idea, to be fair, but the ranger's orders.

A couple of shovelling trips with a trolley and wheelbarrows to the other end of the park brought enough fresh woodchip to fill the whole path - that's quite a result for only three GoodGymers! In 2023, it took almost 4 times as many people to do that! What has changed? Well, primarily the location of the woodchip!

What has not changed was the wisdom of the philosopher:

Be woodchip, my friend. Empty your barrow. Be formless, shapeless, like woodchip. You put woodchip on a path, it becomes the path. You put woodchip into a barrow, it becomes the barrow. You put it in compost, it becomes the compost. Now, woodchip can nourish, or it can kill (weeds). Be wood chip, my friend.

We will be back soon to Walpole Park for more woodchip wisdom and making sure we finished the other path!