Kash and Sevan were back at Mr R's for some fast flipping. After turning his medical mattress over in September, it was now time to do a back flip and put the original side back on top. Mr R had stripped the bedding off, so 3 minutes after they'd entered, they were wishing Mr R well and running off to their next mission.

On another toasty mission, there were many smaller tasks that Mrs M needed help with in her back garden. Jobs that she used to do herself and more recently couldn't as she was too tired or unsteady on her feet.

First, Mrs M asked for 2 dead plants to be removed from their pots, some daffodils that hadn't flowered this year to be cut back and to trim and tie back and overgrown shrub. These 3 items were quickly completed, so was there anything else to do?

There were 2 roses to dispose of and some weeds and invasive plants to pull out. Again, Kash and Sevan worked through these too. Was there anything else?

"There is one non-gardening job that I need help with"
"Did you see the For Sale sign outside the house?"
"An estate agent put it up early this morning"
"I'm very angry. My house is not for sale" - Mrs M

Sevan grabbed some secateurs and snipped the fake sign's cable ties, wrapping up today's tasks.

Another unusually hot weekend in May, another trip to Southall for GoodGym Ealing - this time to Western Road Urban Garden to help Southall Community Alliance with planting exotic crops ahead of the season.

The garden was visited not only by six GoodGymers but also, unexpectedly, by three police officers on patrol. While the GoodGym team started preparing the veg beds and erecting trellises for beans and gourds, the hosts Janpal and Ash gave the officers on duty a comprehensive tour of the food-growing space. And there were novelties since our team last visited the garden - a new beehive had been built behind the polytunnel, with dozens of stingy pollinators already getting busy around it!

On such a hot day, many would choose an indoor task in the shade, rather than digging weeds and shovelling compost in full sun. It wasn't the case at WRUG, where the only place that counted as indoors was the polytunnel. While the early arrivals, Maxime, Sevan and Kash were responsible for preparing the outside raised beds, Ash was assigned to help Janpal construct trellises. After almost an hour (with breaks, of course!) of roasting in the 44°C "oven", he developed such an engineering skill in trellis building that his capabilities were sought for outdoors, at the raised beds, freshly weeded and topped with compost. Ash swapped with Kash and Sevan, who, together with Lena, entered the polytunnel for the planting phase. Meanwhile, Ash taught Harvey and Maxime all his trellis know-how, and all three got to planting in the raised beds.

It was a special session for Ash, as he not only survived the polytunnel sweat challenge and spread the construction knowledge, but also hit a milestone of 25 good deeds - halfway to the black T-shirt!

The crops planted today, including many South Asian staples, were:

• Snake gourd
• Bottle gourd
• Kerala
• Pumpkin
• Melon
• Tomato
• Red bell pepper

As usual, Janpal prepared a feast for the volunteers, with plenty of ice cold water to keep us hydrated, bananas, strawberries, tangerines, giant blueberries, and staple samosas. Breaks in the shade with refreshments in reach definitely helped the team keep going!

We should see the fruit ready for harvest in a couple of months! Meanwhile, we are planning another community day at WRUG in June to prepare space for additional water storage at the garden. Sign up now!

For Kash and Sevan's 4th missionversary 🎂, like their first mission in 2022, groceries were involved and they were helping an old favourite, Mr G.

Mr G had a few new issues since last week's shopping mission and the most important one was that everything was disconnected from his home broadband. His provider switched out his router a few days ago and didn't connect any of his devices to the new wifi. As well as Mr G's wifi being out of tune, so was his hearing. Everyone had to shout to be heard by him, making all attempts to communicate pretty noisy.

On the upside, Mr G had also had an epiphany (or maybe a dis-cod-very) during the week. Why did he keep buying salmon that he didn't like when he really enjoyed cod? He got out a pen and a white label that he stuck over the salmon packaging and got Kash to write "fresh white cod" neatly in its place. It would do until he got around to making a new bundle of labels.

With the shopping list fishnished, Kash and Sevan set off to Sainsbury's and spilt up to get a few of Mr G's favourites and some new additions, including tortellini. They found everything except the often-out-of-stock ciabattas, buying some panini bread instead. As it turned out Mr G had recently decided that paninis were the better of the 2 so, this turned into a happy coincidence.

Back at Mr G's, he was very happy with his haul of cod, both breaded and natural. Kash helped pack some groceries away while Sevan explained the magic of tortellini and that it can easily be cooked from frozen. Another amazing dishcovery for Mr G this week.