Seven GoodGymers congregated at Watermans Park in Brentford with one mission: to transform the park into the hottest music venue in town for the Friends of Watermans Park’s Summer Bandstand Concert.

This free community event brings together local musicians, singers and DJs every saturday in July, and before the first note could be played, there was plenty of behind-the-scenes Goodgym helping hands to make it all happen.

Sevan and Maxime decided there is no such thing as too much bunting. Fence? Decorated. Another fence? Decorated. Pagoda? Obviously decorated.

Meanwhile, Kash somehow managed to squeeze a workout in while decorating yet more bunting on yet another pagoda.

Breda, Michelle, Kymm and Jacqui became unexpected experts in the delicate art of gazebo construction. Thanks to a combination of shifting plans, strategic repositioning and the occasional “mind your fingers”, they successfully assembled gazebos… not once… not twice… but three times! If there's such a thing as a world gazebo assembly championships they would stand every chance of making it through to the knockout stages.

The goodgym crew made such quick work of set up this week that it meant more time for ice lollies before the concert got underway. No goodgymers performed this week, so the local community may have missed out on pitch perfect singing from the backing singers in red t shirts

It was more kitty then snippy at the start of our monthly session with HANGOT today. As we walked the tools from HANGOT's base to Osterley Lock Orchard, Steph and Andrew found a cat owner in distress. The pair helped the owner get back onto their bike and later, Melissa saw the cat and the human lazing by the canal 😺.

When the team got to the orchard, everything had shot upwards since their last visit 4 months ago and the ground was covered with nettles and brambles. Those needed to be cleared from around the trees and at the back, there was a damaged plum tree to take care of too.

Steph and Andrew went straight for the log moving task at the plum tree. It turned out to be some big branches that needed to be cut down to size and moved to the compost heap. With the help of some HANGOT saws, the dead wood and weeds were cleared and the tree patched up, with the hope that the tree will recover and continue to give fruit.

Melissa, Scott and Sevan roamed around the rest of the orchard, clearing rings around each of the fruit trees. They chopped, they raked and they moved the brambles, nettles and other weeds to the compost pile, completing their work on most of the fruit trees. Cutting away the rival plants meant that the trees could take all of the nutrients and rain (if there'll be any) that they needed from the soil, instead of having to share it with the growing blackberries.

Today was the last session for long time HANGOT leaders Mirjam and Frank who are moving out of the area. Mirjam was the task owner when GoodGym Ealing were introduced to the group and they've influenced how HANGOT has developed and thrived. The relationship with GoodGym was handed over to another HANGOT member, Clive, a few months ago and new leaders are now in place, but Mirjam and Frank's departure marks a changing of the guard at the orchards.

As it happened, the person who founded HANGOT 11 years ago came back to volunteer at today's session. As she and Clive caught up about the many changes and moments of luck and difficulty over the years, Clive was heard to say:

"We couldn't have kept going without GoodGym."

...and he said it because he believed it. Not because Sevan was sitting next to him.

If anyone tells me that burdock removal tasks throughout the summer can ever get boring, I'll ask them to think twice! Last Tuesday evening's session started like an action film, with three runners: Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash, galloping at race pace and adding an extra kilometre and a half to retrieve a mission-critical item for the evening: the tool store keys that Kash had forgotten at home. What this extreme heat does to our brains!

Fortunately, the legs coped better with the heat than some of the brains. The racing trio arrived only two minutes late, while cyclists Amy and Scott and walkers Yonas, Harvey and Richard were already waiting at the task. The action-film atmosphere continued as Kash navigated the site's complicated security system and finally liberated the tools.

Eight GoodGymers grabbed a pair of wheelbarrows, a couple of spades and a collection of loppers, then set off to face all the burdock in Elthorne Park they hadn't tackled at last month's session and which had had time to grow. Many of the plants had already started producing sticky burrs. Amy and Kash, with hair a bit longer than the rest of the group, could testify to that.

"Actually, those burrs don't stick to my hair. It's my hair that sticks to them." – Amy.

Hitching a ride in people's hair and clothes or dogs' fur is burdock's prime strategy for travelling long distances and colonising new territory. And that's not its only trick. A single plant can produce thousands of seeds, allowing it to spread rapidly and outcompete surrounding plants for sunlight, water and nutrients. That's why GoodGymers regularly visit Elthorne Park in the summer to keep its expansion in check.

This time, the ranger asked us to focus on the outliers - not the dense patches where burdock was already established, but the lone plants and small clusters threatening to spread across the fields and along the paths.

After clearing the path on the way to the main burdock patch, the team spread into smaller groups across the large field, venturing almost as far as the Bambi statue. Everyone did a tremendous job, greatly reducing the spread of burdock across the park. A special thanks goes to Yonas and Scott, who tirelessly wheelbarrowed the cut plants to a pile away from the main visitor routes.

It was Scott's very first GoodGym session, but you'd never have guessed it - he tackled burdock like a seasoned pro. Well done, Scott, and welcome to GoodGym! We're hoping to see you again soon.

After another successful evening keeping Elthorne Park's burdock under control, we're already looking ahead to the next adventures. This weekend we'll be back in Hanwell helping HANGOT maintain their community fruit orchards, and next Tuesday Sevan will lead us to Perivale to support Impact Theatre by sanding walls ahead of painting. We are hoping to see you there!