On a hot Saturday afternoon in Swiss Cottage, two visitors from GoodGym Ealing, Sevan and Kash, enjoyed shade, cool water and Mrs G's soul and trance playlist in her back garden.

In return, they chopped away a patch of young bamboo plants that had come to Mrs G's garden out of nowhere and, since then, plagued the space, restricting the lady's access to the watering cans and outdoor water tap. Another nuisance in the garden was the rose bushes, which, although beautiful with the red and pink flowers, grew out of control and had to be trimmed and tied to the fence.

After raising and securing the fallen rose branches and packing and piling the trimmings, the two GoodGymers were done for the day and set off back to Ealing, leaving the grateful Mrs G to enjoy the transformed garden.

That's a beautiful building that Mr P lives in"

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"The lobby looks familiar"

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"I think we were here 2 years ago to help clear a writing desk?"

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What Kash and Sevan could see of the world around them woke up some long forgotten memories and sparked brain cells back into action. When Mr P opened the door, he looked vaguely familiar. His writing desk and where it sat in the hallway brought back more memories of Kash and Sevan's previous mission. Mr P couldn't do this in the same way he was blind. Through the mission, he showed off his own techniques to remember things from the past.

Today, Mr P wanted help sorting through a drawer of medicines which was apparently a very small task for the GoodGymers. It was impossible for Mr P to do this himself. He knew that the drawer was a bit messy without knowing what had happened in it. First though, he whipped out a roll of gaffer tape and asked for help with a broken bathroom tile. Kash snipped the tape and Sevan stuck it into place until the council and it's bureaucracy would get around to a longer term fix.

With the trip hazard sorted, it was onto the drawer. Mr P asked the team to tip it all onto the bed, then they'd sort through everything and put the important items back in the drawer. With the drawer empty, Kash noticed it could do with a clean. No amount of wiping would remove the thing stuck to the bottom and Mr P couldn't remember what it was. Probably cured cosmetics. Sevan grabbed the most useful tool available, a chisel, to remove the stain. While he chipped away at it, removing glued batteries and bits of paper, Kash made a start at grouping what came out of the drawer.

Kash found:

• Many bars of soap
• Deodorants, balms and lavender essential oils
• Cases for glasses (no longer useful for a blind man)
• Hearing aids and batteries
• Hand creams ("that's handy")
• Extension leads
• 3 bags of cotton balls (with some escapees)
• A bag of hats
• A pipe
• His marriage certificate ("oh, that's very important!")

Each item was described to Mr P, setting the cogs in his brain whirring. Sometimes the description was enough. The feel of items reminded Mr P of what some of them were and if that didn't do it, the smells could help. Anything that was past its use by date went straight in the bin.

The feel of items sometimes reminded him of what they were, other times the smells. Anything that was past its use by date went straight in the bin.

The small task turned into an hour and 40 minutes of sorting and binning. In the end, the drawer appeared much tidier which was pleasing for Kash and Sevan. Mr P's understanding of what was in the drawer was much clearer in his mind too, which was more important to him than how well organised it looked.

On a very hot Saturday, four GoodGymers who had been staying locally for the bank holiday weekend made their way to Grove Farm Nature Reserve. Some of them walked, and others used the opportunity to complete their main run of the day - a rather brutal 8km up three hills in the scorching sun!

Everyone was happy to find out that the task would be carried out in the shade. Giovanni, who came for his second GoodGym session, Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash, together with Livio and Portia, followed the leader, Mike, to the Whitton Avenue entrance to the park, where they took a turn into the wilder part of the green space.

The job could be summarised as "explorers in the service of biodiversity". The group was tasked with clearing the thick overgrowth to provide park rangers with access to the Japanese knotweed spotted deep in the wilderness. Japanese knotweed is a highly invasive, non-native plant in the UK that was introduced to Europe in the 19th century as an ornamental. Knotweed, commonly found along rivers and streams, where it easily disperses, poses significant problems to native ecosystems if left uncontrolled.

Our explorers ventured upstream the totally dried at this time of the year, Costons Brook, clearing the vegetation along the ditch. The victims of relentless trimming, lopping and sawing were brambles, nettles, ivy and hawthorn - all the aggressively growing plants that would come back in no time. The joint forces of Friends of Grove Farm and GoodGym were up against an invasive, non-native plant, so the sacrifices were necessary.

On the way, the volunteers spotted interesting species of fungi, which the LAGER Can member Sue identified as King Alfred's cake. If you ask me, it looked nothing like a cake, but King Alfred had lived long enough ago for the bakery standards to change completely.

Another intriguing and somewhat creepy find was a Sainsbury's bag, discovered by Giovanni, filled with discarded Barbie dolls. Had someone made a statement by rejecting the symbol of an unattainable female physique or just grown out of their toys, we'll never know!

We made tremendous progress clearing the overgrown ditch, removing larger logs and entire trees on the way, and safely navigating between two old trees that posed the risk of falling. However, the road to the knotweed is long and bumpy, so we'll need to come back in June to cut through the rest of the vegetation. Join us for the conservation day in June!

After burning through an impressive pile of woodchip in a single session in March at Lammas Enclosure Community Orchard, the bar was raised for GoodGymers: the woodchip delivery that followed almost doubled the size of the heap! We’d like to say that the number of GoodGymers at the Tuesday sessions also doubled. Well, we are not there yet, but last night we came with a strong team of eight to destroy the new pile, and - more importantly - refresh the path in the enclosure and the Forest School seating area by spreading fresh woodchip.

A range of runners, cyclists and walkers made their way to Walpole Park to help pick up the tools for the task. Sevan, who led the task, Conor and Kash ran from Ealing Broadway, Jo and James cycled, and Marie, Chris and Anna walked to the task. Marie made a big comeback after a break from GoodGym, combining the woodchipping session with plenty of walking for her step challenge - we’re sure she’ll smash it!

While pushing wheelbarrows offered a perfect way to get more steps in the day, raking and loading woodchip into barrows targeted different muscle groups.

”The shovelling is a proper upper body workout!”

With a dedicated team of GoodGymers hungry for an impactful activity, only the number of wheelbarrows available stood in the way of finishing off the woodchip pile. In less than an hour, a thick layer of woodchip was covering the path from the orchard gate to the circle of logs in the Forest School, which was also neatly surrounded by woodchip. Great work, everyone!

Next week, we’re heading 2km East of Ealing Broadway to tackle the litter haunting an alleyway between West Acton and Park Royal. Sign up now!