A last task before Christmas, working with residents at Homemead Care Home to spread some festive cheer decorating baubles with craft materials. 🎄🎄🎄

On a gorgeous wintry sunny Saturday morning, five GGers turned out for the last Ham Lands visit of 2025. Adam, James, Harrison Susannah and Alex were tasked with helping the Friends of Ham clear one of the beautiful paths in the Ham Lands, which were overgrown with brambles. Armed with choppers and other gardening equipment we set about this onerous mission, however, it is always surprising how much we get through in just a short period of time.
Once done, we were suitable looked after by Sharon and the Friends of Ham, supplied with festive mince pies, coffees and teas. If that is not an incentive for coming again, I don't know what is. Bramble On!

The rain cleared, making it a lovely evening for a riverside task! Three of us made our way down to our regular spot at the 3 Pigeons plot by Richmond Riverside, and it was especially lovely to welcome Cecilia to the task.

With our handy garden tools and a lot of “…is this a weed?”, we got stuck into the task. The dandelions were out in force, one even managed to break a trowel, but between us we managed to clear a good amount. It was great to chat and catch up as we worked our way across the 3 pigeons plot.

By the end we’d made a really good dent, leaving things much tidier and ready for the next session. We’ll be back soon to keep this little riverside corner nice and tidy.

It was a lovely way to spend an evening — fresh air, good company, and the beautiful Richmond riverside right beside us.

On a wet and damp Sunday morning 5 Goodgymers made their way to Marble Hill Park in Richmond. Setup for Mind RIchmond for another Festive Fun Run 5km. Putting up gazebos, tables, chairs and signs up. How many Goodgymers does it take to put signs up with cellotape? 5 of course: 1 supervisor, 1 sign holder, 1 cellotape master, 1 scissor crafter and 1 quality controller . All was up in no time and ready for the choir to sing songs, followed by a Go Mental warmup before a race at 11am which 4 goodgymers ran. Then it was time to put down and pack everything in the rain.

Eight GGers kept calm and braved the stormy weather in order to finish off providing a coat of paint to the INS hall way and stairs ahead of their Xmas celebrations.

Adam led Lucy, Africa and Jade on a rather chilly evening warm up and jog through the glorious Christmas lights of Twickenham, while others such as Ken, Suze, Chris and JP found their own way. Once arrived we were ready to roll and were kitted out by task owner Sarah with rollers and paintbrushes and we set about making a splash!

We were on a roll and just like that it was job done! Chris led the way with the washing up team and it was soon time to ease down.

As travel plans meant I would be unable to attend the December mission helping the Friends of Ham Lands, I decided to take a bit of time out of my Monday to lend a hand on their regular weekly session.

It was a larger group than the regular Saturday morning crowd and we were working on a patch of brambles tucked away in the woods. As usual the brambles were being a real menace and needed to be uprooted rather than just chopped back.

We used mattocks and picks to turn the earth and get at the roots, some of which were long and needed to be chased along until the root bulb could be found. But it was satisfying work and we made good progress before calling time for tea.

After a cuppa it was back to work for another 45 minutes and we kept pushing back the bramble tide. We filled sack after sack, all of which were emptied in a compost area not far from where we were working.

It was lovely to see the gang and wish them all happy holidays.