I arrived at Mrs Z and prepared my translation tool to Urdu as mentioned in the mission guidance, but when the door was opened her daughter had come to welcome me and opened the side door the back garden. So no Urdu lesson for me today - maybe next time. Once in the garden I had a look as we were not sure what needed to be done, but we figured it out with her daughter. I needed to mow the grass, get rid of brambles and one section along the wall needed weeding and getting rid of unwanted items. I found the mower, but no power or extension lead. Mrs Z went on the hunt for an extension lead and came back with several small ones connected one to the other, but it would not reach the section of grass and not safe. So extension on extension was not the solution and told Mrs Z daughter we need a long extension on a roller to reach the grass and avoid it tripping. Once sorted, I cut the grass, got rid of the brambles and cleared the back section of the garden plus the plant beds along the wall. I collected 2 bags of greenery and as her house is along a street seems that people through rubbish over the wall. I collected rubbish and broken bottles from the garden.

This morning, after emailing part of the Oyster Junior parkrun team, I realised I actually wasn’t on the roster! Still, I decided to go along anyway .The Run Director usually finds something useful for extra volunteers to do.

I arrived early and took a short stroll to enjoy the beautiful autumn colours around the park. When I spoke to the Run Director, she admitted she’d had a busy week and had simply forgotten to add me to the roster. I helped her set up the course with cones and, as it turned out, I ended up being the tail walker since the volunteer who was supposed to do it wasn’t feeling well.

During the event, one young girl decided to stop partway through, and a little boy tried to take a shortcut to rejoin his friend — just the kind of small adventures that make every junior parkrun morning memorable! In the end, 53 junior runners successfully completed the course.

Shopping for Mr K including bin liners

What a lot to cheer about in Hounslow at the moment! We had some great racing, with Michelle, Beth and Jon all doing the Cabbage Patch 10 on Sunday, we got to welcome Breda who joined us for her very first session (great to meet you Breda!) and we have our upcoming 9th birthday celebrations in a couple of week - let me know if you've got any ideas about how you'd like to mark the occasion. What a lot of good stuff!

Our task for the evening was at Chiswick House, and so we met gardeners Chris and Kate at the gate and followed them into the very dark, very atmospheric grounds. We were led to two giant piles of woodchip, and our task was to shift it under the 300 year old cedar trees and their swooping branches.

With Halloween round the corner it was a very appropriate task - passers by must have wondered who the shadowy figures were dancing around the gently smoking heaps in the night!

The mulch has several positive effects - moisture control and keeping weeds down - plus is a great way to repurpose byproducts. It was also a fantastic workout. All that shoveling, shifting and raking proved to be quite the challenge.

Job done, it was time to learn yet another GoodGym specific new skill - the wheelbarrow pivot. What to do when you have a larger wheelbarrow to person ratio? Check out the photos to see our newly acquired knowledge and an impressive balancing act!

Next week we have potentially two tasks, both at local schools. If you could sign up here so we can take into account numbers and decide if we could manage both, that would be great!

If you're about this weekend and fancy a nice little mission on Chiswick eyot, I have just the thing!

Shopping for Mr K, including cloths

Today, Luis and I visited Ms H in Hounslow to help tidy up her back garden. Luis has supported Ms H on several occasions with other GoodGymers, and it was lovely to join him for this follow-up visit. We received a warm welcome from Ms H complete with tea and biscuits.

Our task for the afternoon was to clear a pathway that had become overgrown with moss, soil, and weeds. Working together, we methodically removed the weeds and loosened the compacted soil to make the path safe and easy to walk on again.

We were joined by Ms H, who chatted with us as we worked and shared stories about her garden. A friendly and curious Robin kept us company too, happily hopping around and helping itself to the worms we unearthed during the task.

By the end of the session, two thirds of the path had been cleared and the Robin had dined out on at least a dozen worms of all sizes. Ms H was happy with the result and hopeful of another visit to finish the job.