Do you know how many hidden gems are waiting to be discovered in Ealing? Some of them are hidden right in plain sight in the heart of the town! Four new Ealing GoodGymers who joined in the last two weeks uncovered one such place during our Tuesday evening session in August.

We welcomed Sasha, who joined us for her very first GoodGym experience, and Dora, who had actually got involved with us unofficially a few weeks ago. Both of them opted for a short run led by Sevan to pick up the tools from Walpole Park. Conor, Steph Ducat and Kash also met at the Ealing Broadway station for the run.

Alana and Janet, who returned for more GoodGymming after kicking off the adventure at last Wednesday's session, walked to the park together to meet the runners, the cyclists Maria and Amy, and Freya, who made her way directly to the task.

The next stop, after the tool pickup, was the Lammas Community Orchard and Wild Play Area, also known by other names.

"Welcome to the Garden of Eden!" - said Trevor from Ealing Transition, the host of today's task.

Trevor told everyone the story about the orchard, which used to be one of the tennis courts in the Lammas Enclosure between Lammas and Walpole Parks. In 2011, local children planted fruit trees on the tennis hard court surface - and it worked!

"Nature is very resilient." - Trevor.

Today's task was orchard maintenance, including cutting back brambles and pruning the fruit trees. The important part was to recycle the cuttings as material to fill the gaps in the orchard's outer fence, and to make the space safe, but not too manicured.

"Nature doesn't like neatness." - Trevor.

Although we clearly had a preference for rewilded space over sports grounds, the surviving tennis facilities have proven very useful. Janet and Maria were able to source the water for their cans from the tennis club and top up the wildlife pond.

The unexpected attractions in the orchard were a branch with desiccated plums, praised for its beauty, and a crab apple tree - a perfect background for the group photo as it had the most fruit.

"It has so much fruit because no one likes them. They are very bitter." - Trevor.

The evening tasks aren’t over yet! This Thursday, we’re heading to Southall for a walking task. There’ll be no running involved on the night itself, but we’ll be spreading the word about a new beginners’ running programme and helping local people discover a new way to get active - sign up now!

Next Tuesday's session will be led by Steph, who will take us for a short run or walk to St Mary's Church to help remove the weeds from the churchyard garden - register here!

Mr C of Camden had a small garden at the back of his ground-floor flat, but was no longer able to maintain it after losing mobility in his left arm. The garden slowly became what seasoned GoodGymers would call a jungle. It was abundant in brambles, ivy, bushes and lost footballs, but lacked sunlight and room to move.

The space was dominated by an overgrown buddleia surrounded by walls of ivy. Clusters of thick brambles filled the gaps between the branches. On the left-hand wall grew something that could have been a sort of vine - Dutchman's pipe, perhaps? It had thin, dark stems and long, flexible branches capable of climbing walls and other plants. When Kash attempted to pull it, several metres of vine fell from the sky, while another few metres still clung to the ivy growing over the wall, giving the impression of the beanstalk from Jack and the Beanstalk.

Sevan collected most of the footballs in a single place, wondering why no children had knocked on Mr C's door, saying:

"Please, Sir, can I have my ball back?"

In 90 minutes, a remarkable transformation took place. The buddleia shrunk, the brambles disappeared, and sunshine finally shone into the garden. The GoodGymers didn't know what would happen to the footballs, but Mr C certainly had at least some of his garden back.

A last minute change of plans meant that Kash, Maria and Sevan found themselves at Acton Junior parkrun for the second week in a row. Kash and Sevan had found spots on the roster as marshals and Maria took the usually chilled out role of funnel manager.

Today there was some minor trouble in the funnel as the 39 finishers passed through. Two parents disrupted Maria's morning as they joined their children in crossing the finish line. Two runners too caused problems after a sprint finish, leaving Maria to work out who crossed the line first. That was only one of the photo finishes today with 3 pairs of runners crossing the line within a second of each other. What a close, competitive, friendly group of children.