23 Month Streak
45 Month Streak
Sessions listed
Sessions led
Sessions backmarked
Walks led
Sessions photographed
Reports written
📍Horsenden Farm UB6 7PQ
Support the local urban farm and orchard
Sun 21st Apr at 8:40am
Wed 27th Mar at 6:30pm
Tue 26th Mar at 6:45pm
Tonight's run from Ealing Broadway to Elthorne Park was led by the Fitness Leader in training, Steph Ducat! 🙌 The new GoodGym role allows TaskForce to undergo training to lead running, walking and cycling in a group. Seeing today's weather, we thought it should include swimming too. The evening was particularly damp, with nonstop rain. That didn't stop Christos, Sevan and Kash from joining Steph on the run!
On the way to the task, Steph warned us about the attacks from the ground (cars), water (puddles) and air (umbrellas). When we arrived at the park, Kash cracked the hurdle of opening the tool container. Armed with wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, and reference photos from the ranger, we located the woodchip piles that needed levelling out and migrating further from the path.
We started with the most obvious job: flattening the smaller woodchip heaps. We spread the woodchip, creating a sort of carpet over the nettles. Later, we wheelbarrowed the rest of the woodchip towards the edge of "the carpet", creating a woodchip highway. In the darkness and rain the result seemed pretty decent. We didn't have time to tackle the last pile, so we packed the tools and ran back towards Ealing.
Next week has more wheelbarrow work for us: helping the community of Blondin Allotments distribute compost. Sign up now. Hopefully, the rain will stop by then and the evenings will get lighter after the time change 🤞
Tue 26th Mar at 11:07pm
Wet wet wet but this didnot stop us!!Thanks for the training session.
Sat 6th Apr at 10:00am
Support the local urban farm and orchard
Read moreSun 24th Mar at 11:00am
Ealing Report written by Sevan
Steph and Sevan resisted the hearty breakfasts on offer after Acton Junior parkrun to instead help Mrs M tidy her garden. It was Sevan's second visit, after tidying, chopping and climbing ladders last month.
Mrs M's daughter cares for her mum, so had a list of tasks ready for the GoodGymers that she didn't have the time for herself. The garden was becoming overgrown with ivy, which was to be trimmed back and the bamboo shoots were shooting up and crowding around the washing line, meaning it couldn't be used. There were a couple of other problems to solve, getting the back gate to close (spoiler alert, this was due to ivy too) and similar to Sevan's last visit, cutting some climbers, in particular the branch that was winding itself up the cable to the TV antenna.
Steph took the lead clearing ivy from the back fence. He found that the gate wouldn't open because the ivy had grown around and through the door, including binding itself to the hinges. Once removed, Steph gave the rest of the dangling ivy a haircut, while maintaining Mrs M's privacy.
Meanwhile, inside the garden, Sevan was trying to find the right bamboo shoots to cut to give the washing line enough space and still maintain the screen between Mrs M and her neighbours. After some strategic chops, he moved on to the internal ivy problems, then at the end, climbed up a step ladder into the branches on the pergola. He was trying to free the antenna cable without cutting the cable itself 😰. With that last job safely completed and normal TV service continuing, they left Mrs M and her daughter to enjoy the garden in the afternoon sun.
Sun 24th Mar at 8:40am
Ealing Report written by Sevan
Joanna was so excited this morning that she'd woken up as a football! QPR were visiting Acton Junior parkrun, which meant lots of children, as many as would normally take part in the summer months. After Joanna's call for help with the event, lots of GoodGymers came too. 13 of them, plus a group from parkrun Poland!
No one was really sure what to expect and it all looked quite low key until Jude, one of the QPR mascots, appeared before the warm up. Not only did they show up, but they took part along with the other warm up leaders.
All around the course, our GoodGym volunteers were hoping to catch a glimpse of Jude rushing past them, on the way to a 4 leg powered Junior parkrun record (is that allowed?!). Michelle, Chris, Florian, Alan, Pippa, Steph Ducat and Johhny were all keeping an eye our from their marshal posts. It turned out that Jude was too old to run the course as they've been the QPR mascot for over 14 years, so only Chikako as the VI Guide and Harvey as the tail walker were out on the course with the runners. In the funnel area, we had Lucy, Kash, and Sevan, while Joanna led the first timers welcome.
Everything was going to plan as the 61 participants set off around the course. Then, half way around, Harvey seemed to lose his bearings and went off track. A little later, he was back on the tail of the last runner, or so he thought. A couple more minutes passed, then Michelle ran past trying to find Harvey. The boy who'd taken a loo break and was assumed to have dropped out was back in the parkrun. Cue confusion and Harvey returning to the other tail of the field.
After possibly the longest Junior parkrun ever, 31:51 with a pit stop, QPR had arranged for some fun at the finish. Jude was high fiving runners into the funnel, managing to confuse a few of them who stopped before the finish line. Then, there were some games to play and merch to be given out too.
After parkrun, some GoodGymers were seen wearing their new blue and white scarves as everyone went for coffee to congratulate Sevan on reaching 600 good deeds and to eat Michelle's fabulous lemon drizzle cake.
Sat 23rd Mar at 4:00pm
Camden Report written by Sevan
Kash and Sevan returned to help Ms V, over a year after their and GoodGym's first visit to her. She plans to move into sheltered accommodation and is working to reduce her belongings to only what she really needs.
Kash and Sevan started the task by turning paper girl and paper boy, moving documents from the bottom of a cupboard that Ms V could no longer bend to reach. The paper route delivered them to Ms V's bed to be reviewed later. Next, a cabinet full of folders was opened and more paper rounds took paintings to Ms V's bedside. Finally, a mysterious yellow bag was the last delivery, hooked out of a high cupboard that Ms V couldn't reach into herself.
Ms V, noticing Kash and Sevan's all black outfits and trail running bags commented
"You look like you're ready to go deep sea diving, Kash. So do you, Sevan" - Ms V
20 minutes had passed and Ms V was quite happy with what the GoodGymers had achieved for her. Kash and Sevan weren't though and asked if she'd like some help to work through the items stacked on and around her bed, which Ms V cautiously agreed to.
Ms V confessed to being a bit of a hoarder, who liked to keep record of everything. As they worked through documents, some as early as 1994 from her housing association were unearthed. These as well as other sensitive files went into a bag destined to become papier maché, alas, not to be formed into Tracey Island nor the GoodGym logo. Ms V's artistic tendencies only stretch to painting these days. Ms V explained why she was going to mash up the paper. She had a nosy, bin diving neighbour!
"The woman downstairs said that she knows nothing about me. That I'm a mystery to her, despite the fact I've lived here over 20 years" - Ms V
Those documents were the easy part. Photos and paintings were discovered, which needed more time to be reviewed. There were 3 art related VHS tapes too that Ms V wasn't ready to discard, even though she said that she'd never owned a VCR 😕. A few items were set aside for donation to charity and 2 books from Ms V's childhood, the Collins Magazine and Cynthia Asquith's Annual, brought back her happy memories of the books themselves and family members who had gifted them.
Sevan scored a small win by convincing Ms V that she could see colour photos of an elegant looking Zsa Zsa Gabor on her computer rather than keeping an old black and white photo, torn from a magazine. He also turned jeweller to assess a partial set of silver cutlery that had been left to Ms V, but according to its stamp, it was only silver plate so not worth keeping.
Kash and Sevan managed to dispose of a few items and to deliver a black bag full of old non-sensitive papers down the paper chute to the recycling bin. On the way to the tube, they reflected on how hard it was to let go of memories from the past.
"The other things are sentimental. If I had a scrapbook, I'd find it hard to part with too" - Kash
"All of our memories will be digital. They'll probably be lost to some data corruption before we reach that age" - Sevan
😢
Sat 23rd Mar at 1:30pm
Islington Report written by Kash
Mrs T met GoodGymers for the first time and was not sure what they were capable of. To test the waters, she led them to the back garden and gave them the most Zen task one can imagine: sweeping cherry blossoms.
"I swept them three times. And they will come back." - Mrs T.
It was windy (so windy that Sevan and Kash put their jackets on), and the petals kept dropping from the tree on the street and flying into Mrs T's garden. The GoodGymers were ready to sweep the petals anyway but were curious about what else they could do.
"Would you like the grass cut?" asked Sevan.
"Oh, I wouldn't mind that! I didn't know if you could do it" replied Mrs T.
Kash had a new power tool to play with, a lawnmower that reminded her of a stagecoach from Westerns. Later, that inspired her to act like a Wild West sheriff on the flowerbed. Mrs T admitted she didn't know much about gardening, so Kash decided to bring her own rule into play.
"Do you think it's a weed?" asked Kash.
"It's quite big, maybe it is a plant", said Sevan.
"I don't think it should be here. It doesn't look like a legitimate plant."
"You're right, it's quite ugly."
Kash went through the good, the bad, and the ugly plants and left the flowerbed rather bare. After Sevan raked the leaves and big petals, the bed resembled the Colorado Plateau Desert. Mrs T appreciated the tidyness.
"It is a great service, isn't it?"
Mrs T was delighted to get help after her gardener reached retirement age. She enquired about the possibility of future missions and whether the GoodGymers could trim the bushes and sweep the roof of her garage.
Sat 23rd Mar at 10:00am
Spring is certainly here! Glorious sunshine and wood anemones (which GoodGymers protected from brambles a month ago) at Grove Farm were the signs of the season of nature blossoming all around.
This Saturday session had two big things to mention:
and
All four GoodGymers had a good workout making their way to the session, either walking or cycling up the Sudbury Hill. At the top of the hill, an equally vigorous activity awaited! Ron, the manager of today's project, asked Friends of Grove Farm, Mike and Anna, to arrange some muscle to do some spade, fork and mattock work by the entrance to the park.
We came to dig up trenches, turn soil from the old mounds, remove bramble roots and put aside the rich, clay soil. All of that work was done in preparation for seeding a wildflower meadow in April. We found old bricks, bramble roots and tree roots. Sevan dug out a spoon, and after trying to bend it, both using his arms and the power of his mind, he concluded it had been made of a very strong steel, so he decided to keep the bounty!
After a tea and crisps break, the GoodGymers left Friends of Grove Farm to discover more treasure in the trenches they dug!
Sat 23rd Mar at 10:00am
Improve the biodiversity of the beautiful place for people to visit & relax
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