Busy Saturday evening on the Strand and today 4 Goodgymers joined forces to serve frsshly cooked pasta with veggies. 2 of the goodgymers went bananas!!!Guess who? Yes today we had bananas and apples to be given out. To top this we also handed out bread 🍞 and water bottles. Another great session with Gurseva and loads of happy people with full stomachs.

Back for my weekly social visit with my second coach Mr T. I was welcomed by a box with a skeleton in pieces. Not a real body !!Mr T loves Halloween and is into horror films so asked if i can help him get the skeleton out of the box and put the bones together with him. Bone in 5 minutes and he is getting ready for Halloween. We then talked about famous or known horror films. He told me what he sets up for Halloween including the trickle treats. Lets see what else comes out in the weeks leading to Halloween.

Been at Ms P previously for weeding and also know this is cat territory in her back garden...they use the flower beds to drop " special gifts". Today was no different!! I know Kash and Sevan were here recently, so had just to finish weeding in one of the flower beds and brush the court yard and leaves falling from the neighbours fruit tree. I also had to pick up rotten fruit. As per usual Ms P asked if I could remove the cat gifts, which I did. Then went to the front garden to remove the weeds and sweep the small area of the house. No Winnie the Poo but weed a Poo. Am sure the cats will be back and Goodgym too in the near future.

The September conservation day at Grove Farm was a welcome break from a four-session streak at Coston’s Brook, where we had successfully located one of the invasive Japanese knotweed clusters. After our previous captivating escapades in a narrow, overgrown ditch, we moved our operations to an open meadow that needed cutting back.

Nettles, the edges of bramble clusters and dried plants all had to go, ideally cut into scallop shapes, as nature, according to Mike, favours scallops over straight lines. Mike, the lead of Friends of Grove Farm, got to test his newly acquired scythe and scything skills, sweeping through the meadow like a reaper. Meanwhile, fellow Friends Suzie and Joe, along with GoodGymers Scott, Steph and Kash, used hedge trimmers, rakes and forks to trim the meadow and move the dry cuttings under the tree cover to reduce the fire risk. The team was lucky to be joined by two young new volunteers, who quickly learned how to use loppers to cut back the thick brambles.

The next step for the trimmed meadow will be to sow a mix of a special type of grass and wildflower seeds. Maybe we’ll even get to do it at our next session. Sign up to find out!

Another great session at Paddington Rec Track: loads of VI Runners and guides tonight. was it because there was a picnic after the session or the chocolate cake that birthday boy Breandan brought tonight? We will never know! We formed our usual circle at the track, introduced ourselves and said what each person wanted to do tonight. This is the circlenif trust as both VI Runners and Guides put their trust in each other. Welcome to Ryan for his first guided run and he took the challenge of being shadow to Tom who does nearly 10km with a 400 meter finish sprint!! Well done. Then Lucy didnt just stick to guide running : she joined his small group of 5 for a fitness session with running involved - hats up to her. Veronika, Maria, Harvey and Steph Ducat teamed up with a VI Runner to run around the track. After a great session most of us stayed for a small picnic near the track.