A happy return to Petersham & Ham Sea Scouts last night where scout leader Russell, surely one of the hardest-working scouts ever, had tasks ready and raring to go for us!

The group started with an intro and marathon congratulations for Steph Ducat and Adam, as well as Susan and Sarah who were getting some well-deserved rest in! It wasn't a sunny evening but the Richmond riverside has its own charm for a 2.5km run to the scout base.

Russell introduced us to the cycle of driftwood that comes in on the high tide and rips up the plants and growth in the wooded area. One group collected large pieces to add to the bug houses and get them out of the tide line while the other group emptied the woodshed of last year's dried out driftwood to be used for kindling at campfires. Next time we will be collecting the smaller piece from the grounds to go into the woodshed to dry out for next year!

Bugs aplenty and lots of heavy-lifting action made this a lively workout before a run back into Richmond town centre. Join us on Sunday back at the Scout base to help with the next stage.

The GoodGym crew were thrilled to join the Achilles International all abilities sports charity in Battersea Park for their amazing pre-London Marathon meet up in Battersea Park. We had runners visiting from the New York, Melbourne and Belgian chapters arriving for race day, along with our weekly attendees and friends and family. The energy was electric, and we thoroughly enjoyed our newly developed run location (big wide drives, loads of fellow running enthusiasts- we might have some potential new guides!).

Well done to Audrey and Luc for joining us for their first Thursday session.

And good luck to Andy and Andrew on their race on Sunday!

https://www.achillesinternational.org/

Our next session will be on Thursday 25th April, at Stratford Olympic Park:

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-olympic-park-stratford-route-76bc23e4-2512-4471-8eb1-ad848b322de8

After a short hiatus over the dark winter evenings, we were back for our first visit to Chiswick House and Gardens to lend a hand last night.

This amazing local space is run as a charity and free for people to enjoy, but the team have a lot of work to keep it as safe and welcoming as possible. So, after a warm up, we ran the short distance tot he estate garden and met Chris, the lead gardener, who had a very exciting job for us to do.

As we pushed our barrows over to the site in question, we got to know Vivien, who had joined for her first session - welcome to the group, great to meet you! We arrived to find several logs and a big pile of leaves and branches. The task for the evening was to build a hibernacula - in other words, a safe habitat for amphibians, hedgehogs and other creatures which increases biodiversity.

The first step was to dig a big old hole - or as it controversially became known, a shallow grave! Then we lowered the trunk into the pit, and started loading it up with smaller branches. meanwhile posts were being hammered in a circle around the hole, before weaving the leaves and twigs round them. have a look at some very impressive before and after pics!

After all that work we created one successful hibernacula and still had time to knock out a intense tabata section. Sorry about my notes disappearing half way through! Frogs, power lunges, shuttle runs, and half burpees were all executed with great form, well done everybody.

Next week we're back to a local church to help with a tidy up outside, hope to see you there! Don't forget we also have our weekly visit to help out at Hounslow community foodbox, and an upcoming green area tidy up - there's plenty to get involved in!

All the very best of luck to Steph who is running the marathon on Sunday, and to all those supporting on the day.