Arrived at Mrs H after a small rain shower(not much) and she had opened the gate thinking that cycled to hers. Not the case as walked there after my race, but seems she previously had the visit of Luis, James and Michelle so understand why she thought i would bike it. Today was cutting grass and Mrs H was happy to see me as thought we would not come if it rained...said if it had rained I would have done weeding as her garden also needs that to be done. So had 2 gardens to mow for the price of one : front and back. She was prepared as had long extension leads and 2 mowers but one was not working. The sun was out so it was a pleasure mowing in the sun and Mrs H took the opportunity to sit in the conservatory to get some vitamin D. She also got tea for 2 and come out to say have a break with a tea and some biscuits with me. 90 minutes in and grass cut in both gardens and started with some weeding on the path in the back garden. Lovely lady and super please with Goodgymers - she loves seeing us.

Third races in 14 days but the beat goes on and went all bananas 🍌 Half marathon in Kew Gardens, then London Easter Monday 10km and then finishing with thr Thames Towpath 10 miles today. Thames Towpath 10 miles with some strong winds but nice little run along the Thames. No medal at the end but also pint glass with a banana 😀 Good to see fellow GoodGymers cheering or would say volunteering : Michelle, Alan, Florian and Jon from GG Hounslow

Lovely walk to Miss M flat and she has the items that needed to be dropped at the local charity ready in front of her flat door. She just wanted one of the bags back so that she could use it for the next collection of items. I had 4 bags and and small basket. I took the 4 bags in one go which surprised Miss M and I was back in a dash with the bag she wanted in return. Small walk and run to the local charity shop Fara...Que Fara Fara!!!

The ladies at Fara are delighted with the items being dropped and getting use to seeing Goodgym dropping them off.

Miss M will be getting more visits from Goodgym as she loads more to be collected - great giveaway and clear out!

Today was the day for GoodGym's annual spring session in Elthorne Triangle with HANGOT. Like previous years, the aim was to prepare the fruit trees and walnut tree in the orchard to give the local community the best chance of picking some fruit in the summer. The difference this year was that the 10 amazing GoodGymers present blitzed through the task with half an hour to spare.

The session started with a GoodGym classic, mulching! Unlike last month's session with HANGOT, the wood chip was sitting at the top of the hill instead of the bottom, so today team had the slightly easier task of wheeling it down to the trees in need and spreading it around the trunks.

In the orchard, Mirjam, one of the long running HANGOT members, was giving GoodGymers and others lessons about the orchard. They learned some interesting facts about the weeds that the team were tackling:

"You can tell this is hemlock because of the purple splodges on its stems."
"Where you see it, there can be up to 7 years worth of seeds in the ground already."
"That means we need to catch it early, before it seeds, for 7 years to kill it off." - Mirjam

So all of the hemlock and burdock, no matter how small, needed to be found and chopped. Iram took special pleasure in slicing young burdock stems after being attacked by it at last month's task. Surprisingly, the team also learned that nettles are actually good for something:

"The nettles are good for increasing biodiversity."
"That will enable children to come to the orchard as an educational space." - Mirjam
"Do you mean educating them not to touch the nettles?" - Sevan

Despite the breaks taken for bad jokes, the team made fast progress. With the areas around the trees mulched and the unwanted weeds chopped, everyone was wondering what the next job was. There wasn't one. The team had ticked off everything on HANGOT's list in a hour, so they went early to a local coffee shop for today's social.

Great work everyone!