With the Brentford Canal Festival in full swing, GoodGym arrived to help the organisers make the day a success. Maria and Sevan had been bunting the streets yesterday and were joined by Manuela who lives nearby. After a safety briefing, all 3 were asked to head towards Brentford Lock.

Maria had very enthusiastically chosen to litterpick along the River Brent to keep the walkways clean and she had a stash of bright orange bags to keep her busy. She cheerily added more steps to her day and found a lost wallet which was handed to the organisers for safe keeping.

Manuela and Sevan were trusted with being traffic controllers. Not for cars, for people. The bridge over Brentford Lock became a bottleneck each year. The stairs up and down were narrow and lots more people than normal were trying to cross it during the festival. Manuela and Sevan picked up some Stop-Go signs from the Canal and River Trust stall and gained a volunteer too as Pat from C&RT joined them.

The controller trio tried one approach. It worked but it was over-complicated, so caused big trouble. It actually made things worse than if they weren't there at all as bridge crossers were slowed down a lot and fewer were crossing, plus everyone was dependent on Sevan. They agreed to simplify and have 2 people controlling traffic, one on each set of stairs. Manuela and Sevan managed the flow of people going up and down their own set of stairs, which worked a lot better and they kept working this way until the end of the session.

"This is much better than last year. That was absolute chaos!" - Bridge Crosser

Big trouble averted.

After a few months, Sevan and Kash returned to Southall Tiny Forest to find it had really gone for it - grass and wildflowers everywhere, with the whole space feeling a bit more wild and untamed than before. The wildflowers in particular were doing well and added a nice burst of colour across the site.

Before getting into the planned citizen science, they were greeted by a less charming discovery: litter around the benches. Food packaging, bottles, cans, single-use vapes, and plenty of cigarette butts were scattered around. Kash also found an unexpected magic wand, which was briefly put to use to make most of the rubbish disappear (cigarette butts, unfortunately, proving stubborn even for magic).

With the area tidied up, they moved on to the main task: a wildlife survey as part of biodiversity monitoring. They recorded and counted insects across the site, including butterflies, various pollinators, dragonflies and ground dwellers like ants, larvae, and slugs. Some species were tricky to identify due to their speed and their general commitment to not being looked at closely.

Compared to previous visits, they noticed more butterflies and a greater variety of species overall, which was a positive sign for the Tiny Forest’s development. Findings were logged onto the Earthwatch digital platform before the two GoodGymers split and headed off to their next task.

On this very summery Saturday, nine GoodGymers joined Janpal and Ash at Western Road Urban Garden in Southall for a community day. As usual, our favourite Southall task owners left the most exciting, most technical and most physical tasks for our brilliant team!

The main task of the day was to pick up where we had left off during our previous sessions at the polytunnel and finish transforming the area around it.

Before we started, we got to see what had been happening on the path we created a couple of months ago on the less visible side of the polytunnel. Ash proudly showed us a new beehive that had been installed there and told us he had already tasted honey produced by the Western Road Urban Garden bees, harvested not long ago.

Janpal also gave us his famous tour of the urban garden, showcasing the many ways it supports the local community, from the vegetable plots and raised beds used by community groups and schools to the exotic produce grown in the polytunnel, which is supplied to local food banks, where fresh fruit and vegetables are often among the hardest items to source through donations.

The tour was especially valuable as we welcomed not one, not two, but three new joiners: Keise, Barnaby and Mandeep. With gardening backgrounds ranging from years of farming and flower-growing to complete gardening beginners, they all quickly got stuck in. Alongside regulars Sevan and Steph Ducat, and the legendary walking duo Danny and Kat - who had already covered 10 kilometres before the task even began - the team got to work. Together, seven GoodGymers tackled the main task, battling through hard, dry soil to remove weeds and the old membrane before laying a layer of terram (stellar work on that, Kat, Mandeep and Keise!) and finally covering the area with woodchip, laid at speed by Sevan, Barnaby, Danny and Steph.

This left Freya and Kash to take on a very different task: digging and moving dried mud. However strange that combination of words may sound, it was needed to reinforce the base for a new water tank. As Janpal and Ash explained, they have been struggling with water pressure at the urban garden, and watering the many plants during such hot weather has become a demanding task that Janpal has had to undertake every other day. To help solve this issue, we had previously assisted with digging the hole for the foundation for new large water tanks that would be installed.

Freya and Kash spent most of the session filling the sides of the frame with soil and securing the area by pegging a membrane around the edges. Along the way, they had great fun putting a landscaping tamp into action and discovering that it's slightly larger and heavier than the ones used to make an espresso.

To get ahead of the water tanks' installation, Barney and Keise took on the satisfying task of smashing bricks and other construction debris unearthed during previous sessions into smaller pieces. Far from simply letting off steam, they were creating ballast for the concrete base that will support the new tanks. At Western Road Urban Garden, nothing goes to waste!

As always, the GoodGym team was treated to the generosity of Southall Community Alliance and enjoyed plenty of fresh fruit, along with some amazing samosas freshly baked by a local shop that Janpal had brought along.

Before leaving Western Road Urban Garden, we completed one final task: emptying a small water tank by abundantly watering the plants in the polytunnel. We then helped Ash fix the filling mechanism and secured the tank with wedges to level it properly. What a fulfilling Saturday morning it was!

We're now getting close to the final stage of installing the new water tanks, which will involve a bit of concreting and hands-on engineering - no prior experience required! The project will make a huge difference, helping Janpal and Southall Community Alliance tackle ongoing water pressure issues and reducing the need for time-consuming manual watering during the summer. To help the polytunnel produce survive and thrive through the hot months ahead, we'll be scheduling this task soon, so watch this space.

On a Friday night in Brentford, 4 GoodGymers arrived at the Digital Dock at different times. The departure schedule from the dock meant that they boarded and set sail on different flagships, which took them to parallel buntiverses.

Sevan set sail with 2 other voyagers whose flagship docked at the piazza, next to Sevan's favourite Brentford coffee stop, Flagger & Heart. Their first task was to put 4 lengths of bunting around the perimeter of the piazza. They looked for hooks and eyelets which no longer existed in this buntiverse. Instead, they made creative use of some drain pipes and light fixings to string 2 rainbow lengths between the buildings.

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Kash and Maria's later departure paired them up with another volunteer, Deborah. Their flagship weighed anchor in another buntiverse on the High Street. The GoodGymers were naturally drawn to gazebos that were being erected, but the whole point of a buntiverse is to give GoodGymers endless bunting related tasks. Untangle, put up, take down, retangle, repeat. Perpetual GoodGym fun. Much like the Hotel California, you can flag down a bus, but you can never truly leave. There's only temporary bunting reprieve.

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Sevan's team moved to the Brentford sundial where he learned that in the buntiverse there was no time (or there was no shadow on the sundial, at least). His watch was still working though. The bunting opportunities looked poor here, but Sevan had a vision that no one else could see. Climbing high into a tree, he managed to get the string across a busy path without strangling any of tomorrow's festival goers, eventually, once the bunting was taught enough.

"Story of my life. I thought it was going to go higher then it drooped down." - Volunteer

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Brenda arrived in Kash and Maria's buntiverse where there were also issues with slack lines. Brenda made sure everything was tight and true while Kash and Maria were going up and down ladders, tying knots. As well as ladders, Kash was asked to go over a chicken, which made her do a double take until someone explained that there was a Kentucky Flagged Chicken sign directly in the bunting's path.

Soon after, the GoodGym trio and Deborah reached the end of their line at a bus dock and flagged down a service back to their normal universe.

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Sevan too was close to completing the tasks in his buntiverse. After completing a stretch of bridge bunting, then marking a trail to the local art gallery, he also found himself at a bus dock as a return service appeared.

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Back in the real world, before they headed back to their normal lives, task owner Sam was full of praise for the GoodGym team's efforts:

"If you weren't helping us, we wouldn't have finished at 7. We would have still been here/in the buntiverse for hours more."

For each of the GoodGymers, the buntiverses will keep a hold on them and, when the time is right, will transport them back into worlds that worship fabric triangles.

Are four GoodGymers enough to let 400 Acton households know about a free community day on The Mount in July in an hour? Certainly! But let's start with some context. Action West London received funding to bring local people together, raise awareness of community safety, and connect residents with organisations that can support their wellbeing. To do so, they organised the community day and needed GoodGym's help to spread the word by posting leaflets through letterboxes.

A group of flyering experts, Conor, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash, met in Acton near the famed Pokopia Garden to beat the odds and distribute all the leaflets they had received — in 60 minutes or less. Steph and Kash ran from Ealing Broadway, Conor walked to the session, and Sevan even squeezed in an extra evening mission ahead of the group task. What a legend!

For all four, the 3km walking task was exactly what they needed after their workdays to clear their minds. GoodGym took them into a magical world of adventures where, to complete their quest, they had to face a variety of beasts: invisible dogs barking suddenly behind doors, foxes and cats of varying levels of wildness, including tigers and lions. Check the photos if you don't believe me!

The GoodGymers even ventured into space, where Steph handed over leaflets to alien children who were super excited about the prospect of face painting and a bouncy castle at the upcoming event — again, the proof is in the pictures! One hour was enough to get the job done and dusted, and the residents of Derwentwater Rd, Stuart Rd, Newburgh Rd, Chaucer Rd, Spencer Rd, Woodhurst Rd, Shakespeare Rd and Myrtle Rd were informed about the community day — at least those without a "No junk mail" sign on their letterboxes!

If you fancy coming along for a task in Acton on another date, check out one of the fortnightly sessions at the Pokopia Garden. Next Tuesday, we're venturing to Hanger Hill for an evening of citizen science — it's really easy, and anyone can get involved. Check out the session details here.

Jokes and laughs were not what Sevan was expecting from Ms A as she explained how she ended up asking GoodGym for help. She was very chatty and good humoured as she explained that she'd gone from:

1. Being in the military; to
2. Having a back problem; to
3. Having her spinal cord severed while operating on her back; to
4. Finally, years later, developing a serious brain tumour

Despite those setbacks, Ms A went against the grain and was very positive about her situation. She wanted to make the most of her life rather than resigning herself to being disabled and stuck indoors. She realised that others were much worse off than she was.

Ms A's medical conditions meant that she had trouble moving heavy or bulky items and over time, her trusted neighbours who helped her had moved away. This meant that she didn't have anyone to take bags out to the communal bins as Ms A said that the council didn't offer her any support.

When Sevan arrived, he found 12 bags in the hallway filled with packaging and 6 more filled with food waste in the kitchen. They'd slowly built up over a few months. They were all moved outside the flat while Ms A chatted away about her life, her medical conditions and the history of the local area, having lived around Ealing for most of her life.

Once Sevan managed to stop chatting, moving the bags only really took 15 minutes as he took away a few at a time. When Sevan mentioned that he needed to take some photos for the report, it was another chance for Ms A to crack a joke.

"Oh no, everyone will wonder why I drink so much Actimel!"

Luckily the communal bins were empty, so as Sevan filled one all the way to the top with Ms A's 18 bags. This meant that Ms A's Actimel habit was hidden away in the metal container, unable to be seen by others