21, yes you read it correctly, 21 amazing goodgymers met at the Natures Haven Garden at front of Maidenhead Community Centre. Amy our lovely leader wasted no time in greeting us, introducing Claire C and Aleks from Nature Haven and explaining the evening’s plans before embarking on a well needed warm up session on this chilly November night.

The group divided up into a running and two walking groups, our destination was Waitrose where we donated to the Foodshare collection box.

Once back at the Community Centre the task was a continuation of our last visit, clearing more of a densely planted bank, so tools at the ready, muscles flexed, let digging commence.

Pretty soon there were whoops and cheers as root stumps were raised in the air in celebration as one by one they were liberated from the ground. As time passed numbers were randomly shouted out, 3,6, 8 !! these were the number of stumps dug out. The record was 11, and the dream team was Tony and Ben; there was nothing wooden about their performance!!

Bush-whisperer Kanika also deserves a special mention. She freed one stump by winking at it!

Mandy and Anne-Laure also worked ex-tree-mely hard in another part of the garden and after much pushing and pulling they became the proud parents of root baby twins.

Among us lesser mortals, moans and groans could be heard as we struggled to ease the root balls, who knew these shrubs had soooo many roots. Gillian was a trooper and never gave up, pulling and pushing at these pesky stumps.

And as our arms and legs tired we were rewarded with a snap and a pop, the roots came free, what a re-leaf!! another one bites the soil. We mustn’t forget all the work that clearing up gang did, depositing the roots and sweeping up all the debris.

All our hard toil was rewarded with very welcome cups of hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows. Thank you so much to Claire and Aleks for your kind hospitality.

With the happy satisfaction of completing the task, tummies full of hot chocolate and marshmallows and the faint odour of smoke in our hair we headed home. We wooden have it any other way!!