Equipped with head torches, working lights and a secret key to the park gates, the GoodGymers ran the streets surrounding Walpole Park and stopped in front of Pitzhanger Manor to regroup. At Rickyard's tool storage, they collected spades, mattocks, loppers, shears, thick gloves and additional assets: park volunteer hi-viz. Although no one should walk in the locked park after dark, the GoodGymers wanted to be perceived as... well, volunteers!

Chris, Sevan, Steph Ducat, and Kash returned to one of the spots where GoodGym fought off brambles last year. Some of the blackberry bushes grew back but seemed small and vulnerable in the winter, which made it a perfect time for a counterattack. Steph and Kash used their favoured weapon, the Mighty Mattock, while Sevan wielded his favourite Spartan Spade with a long shaft and an ample blade. Chris was paving the way to dig out the bramble roots, chopping the stems with Shadowy Shears. He has been very meticulous in giving the blackberries a proper trim.

"It's like I could be a barber in my other life."

The night was calm, windless and dark, with a crescent moon shining against the black, cloudless sky. Although serene, the night was not quiet. As the team worked right next to a pond, quacks and shrieks of water birds counterpointed the sounds of digging and pulling out the roots with effort. Suddenly, the GoodGymers heard the voices of strangers from the street behind the fence.

Chris walked up to a couple on their nighttime stroll. The pair was asking what on earth the GoodGymers were during at this time in the park. Chris used his diplomatic skills and years of GoodGym expertise to describe who we were and what activity we were engaged with. Kash came over and explained that Ealing GoodGymers at today's session were helping with park maintenance after dusk as they had day jobs and couldn't come earlier, then assured that their Tuesday evening sessions get less awkward in the summer. The passers-by turned out to be daily visitors to the park and thanked our team for helping keep their favoured park beautiful and safe.

With a small team we removed nearly 40% of the brambles covering selected patch and did our best to extract the roots, which in some places ran deep and were extremely stubborn. One area looked particularly wrecked, just like after a visit from a wild boar digging for his dinner!

Next week we are visiting a different park in our borough, Blondin Park, where a pile of woodchip waits to be moved. Sign up and join Steph in helping the park. Rewards? Feeling great (and hot chocolate)!

Together to offer help to others and improve the community without expecting anything in return. As part of these efforts, I participated in a volunteer activity to Care 4 Calais to Sorting and organizing clothes and shoes for refugees, which aims to meet their basic needs and provide them with comfort.

✅ This session focused on sorting men’s clothing first, with each piece classified separately according to size, along with sorting men’s shoes by the appropriate sizes.

✅ After the sorting process was completed, the clothes were placed in designated storage bags to ensure they are easily identifiable when preparing and picking up orders directly.

✅ Some bags specifically for travelers were prepared after the sorting and arrangement process. Each bag is a complete set that includes t-shirts, shorts, trousers, hoodies, underwear, and socks.

The goal of this sorting process was to facilitate storage and distribution, ensuring that the clothes are neatly arranged and organized, allowing for quick and direct access when preparing orders.

Ealing was lucky this weekend to enjoy the blue sky and soak under the shy sunshine of early Spring. After a busy Saturday, Sunday brought our GoodGymers another outdoor task, so great weather was appreciated by everyone. Continuing yesterday's trend, we had another visitor from GoodGym Hounslow: Kymm. Ealing was represented by the usual suspects: Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash.

John and Heather from GPRA welcomed us with tea and led us to the area at the back, which - even after our last task in December - still looked more like a bike graveyard than a garden. John wanted to challenge the status quo and proposed a plan of action to further clear the space off bikes. The spare wheels were to be slotted in between the old fence and the sturdy fence erected by the council. The interesting fact about the fence predating the council one was that the holes in it were taking almost as much space as the remaining wire!

While Steph and Sevan were assembling bike wheels into an art installation, Kymm spotted something blinking under the leaves on the paving.

- Is this a firefly?
- Do we have fireflies in London?
- I don't know!

The flashing object turned out to be a bike light - not as much a surprise as a firefly would have been!

The bikes occupying the space were not the only things the garden would have been better without. The GoodGymers scooped the copious amounts of leaves, creatively using a bin cover as a dustpan. When the green wheelie bin was full to the brim, the teammates took turns to jump or dance on the top to compress the contents*.

Despite all the efforts put into the wild hopping, the wheelie bin was not bottomless, so Heather went to fetch her green bin along with the cutting tools for GoodGymers to deal with the spiky branches found between the bikes. New equipment inspired our team to cut down the ivy, which in counter-offense threw some pollen into our eyes!

We finished when Heather's wheelie bin was full and all the bikes were stacked on one side. The next step might be disassembling one of the bike racks or maybe painting the garden benches. Watch this space for another session at the GPRA Hall!

* No wheelie bins were injured during this GoodGym session

Sunny Sunday afternoon and I was off to Mrs S, which I already know as both Sevan and myself went their previously to do the back garden. This time I was on my own and google maps did not make me go through fences or walls as it did last time. This time I was there for the front garden which was in the sun. Mission was to get rid of the weed and do some trimming. On arrival i checked our the front garden and no trimming needed. Only weeding and also noticed all the moss on the slabs and wall separating Mrs S garden and her neighbor. Also noticed a lot of leaves, which was coming from the main street trees. The leaves not only were they in the garden, but also near the front window in what looked like a flower bed and also in the drainage where the pipes came down from the roof. This was not the wall of fame, but the wall of moss...the dark side or should I say the moss side?! Armed with a metal brush, I took all the moss out that was in between the slabs and also on the wall. Weed taken out from in between the slabs and on the side of the brick wall. Removed all the leaves and rubbish that was blocking the drainage system and the flower bed". At the end no more leaves, rubbish, moss and weed. Mrs S came out and I don't know how many times she said "Thank you". She took the tools into the main entrance and offered me biscuits which I could not refuse as did not want to upset her as always offers us something and we dont take anything. Left Mrs S after a small chat and I disappeared in the ray of the sun.

Horsenden Farm is like a neutron star of West London - its gravity pulls in the GoodGymers from areas near Ealing and they just cannot escape its allure. This Saturday the farm stole three people from GoodGym Hounslow: Gus, already a Horsenden regular, and two quite new adventurers: Pezhman and Maxime.

Maria from GoodGym Ealing was another novice to the most popular Saturday session in the area. Gaby and Simon were well acquainted with the farm, meadows and woodlands of Horsenden Hill, but new to the volunteering days. Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash on the other hand, have seen all the animals, tried all the pizza flavours and kept the farm in motion almost every month, moving all sorts of things that needed moving: from unglamorous soil and manure to heavy objects like safes and logs.

Today's task was on the heavy-duty side. Nick, being in charge of volunteers while Elsa was away, thought GoodGymers might be perfectly suited to remove wood and fence panels from the area that was going to become an enclosure for fell ponies - the newest addition to the farm!

"When the ponies arrive, they will be helping us move the logs from the woods." - Nick
"What the GoodGymers will be doing then?" - Kash
"You will ride the ponies!"

The fence parts were to be stacked against one of the sheds (the one that still had some space behind it). There was one problem: the panels were very big and very heavy, also awkward to carry with hardly any grip. Pezhman came up with an idea to use ropes, which was trialled. Eventually, the most utilised tools were muscles and brains. Once all the panels were miraculously fitted around the shed, leaned against three walls, the heaviest log made its way out of the future pony enclosure on a wheelbarrow.

The GoodGymers completed the challenging task with 30 minutes spare (before the pizza oven started!). No one felt like sitting down and relaxing - that part happens at noon! Nick offered our team a bonus task: wheelbarrowing woodchip from the car park and dropping it alongside the greenhouse. That kept us busy until the pizza gods summoned their priest to fire up the oven and feed the hardworking folk.

That is the way of Horsenden, the ritual that happened regularly in the past and will happen again in the future. Make sure you are a part of this tasty and rewarding future and sign up for the April session now!

Sevan and I are not new to this task as we had last year's experience. Wait for a car to show up at the front of the church. Carry bags and packages to respective tables arranged inside the church. For Beata, it was her first time, but she fit right into the task.

I took a side quest of helping an old lady post a story on her Facebook, after 10 minutes of struggle, we gave up and posted it on Instagram instead.

The weather was foggy but better than last year's rainy task. It was a chill morning and after helping out few charities take their bags to their allocated tables, the task came to an end. Sevan ran off to Horsenden for a few more tasks and Beata & I vanished into the smog.