A mild July morning saw seven volunteers assembling for a conservation day in beautiful woodlands near Sudbury Hill tube station. There were four GoodGymers and four Friends of Grove Farm. Wait, where are my maths skills? Here’s a secret: the leader of the Grove Farm volunteer group, Mike, is also secretly a GoodGymer! And with his determination and skills, we can count him as two people!

Sevan and Steph warmed up for the session with uphill runs ranging from 8 to 10km, while Kash did a 30 minutes walk and hopped on the picturesque part of the Piccadilly line.

Today's task was to clear brambles, bushes and even trees that had started to overtake the pavement along the lane leading from the Sudbury Hill tube station to David Lloyd sports centre.

Loppers, shears, hedge trimmers, a saw, a litter picker, and 14 eager hands were all that was needed to clear the excess vegetation and rubbish and throw the cuttings (not the litter!) on the existing dead hedge. But was it all the clearance that the GoodGymers did that day? Well, with warm, summer weather encouraging our team to wear shorts and t-shirts, Steph, Sevan and Kash ended up pulling out the thorns from their shoes, socks, knees, toes, hands and arms throughout the rest of the day!

Despite a few scratches, the session was very satisfying. We are already looking forward to the next conservation day at Grove Farm in August - sign up with us now.