Throughout Sunday, Sevan and Kash pressed on North, jogging from one community mission to another. First, Walmer gardens, Walpole Park second. What was next? Walthamstow? Not quite. Two adventurers stopped at Pear Tree Park, answering task owner Richard’s call to action. The rockery near the park’s future bistro had been overtaken by thistles, grass, and dandelions again! Moreover, the tenant of the park’s cafe, Diana, had donated bulbs to improve the car park and cafe surroundings in the spring, and those needed to be planted sooner rather than later.

The last-minute Pear Tree Park activity surprisingly brought not only two GoodGymers, but also five Ealing Greenwayers (a.k.a. Friends of Richard), which surprised the task owner himself! Most of the group started digging out weeds with forks at the base of the rockery and advanced towards the top to meet other explorers in the middle, Stanley & Livingstone-style. One of the Greenwayers was assigned a very important job of opening bags containing a few hundred bulbs in total, without a knife or scissors.

The task wasn’t without skeptics, who didn’t believe we’d manage to do any planting on the day, stuck with the weeding job. Thanks to the fantastic teamwork, we’ve planted clusters of mixed flower bulbs in the soil between the rocks, and even avoided digging out each other’s bulbs, which could have happened surprisingly easily with a little bit less coordination.

After several sessions at the Pear Tree Park rockery throughout last year, we cannot wait till springtime to finally see the flurry of colours emerging from the inconspicuous mound of rocks and soil.

The second day of Ealing Climate Week felt more like being on the set of an action film rather than taking a climate action. Fire? Check. Helicopters? Check. A small team of heroes? Check.

After a two-month break from joint sessions with Ealing Greenwayers, three GoodGymers arrived at Pear Tree Park to find charred stumps of a hedge that used to be a border between the newest park in Ealing and Perivale Park sports ground. The fire that broke out in July consumed all green parts of the hedge and the woodchip carpet our team had spread months before. Today's session with Richard and five other Greenwayers was to tidy up the debris and create space for the vegetation to be reborn like a Phoenix.

As the Greenwayers attacked the burnt stems and branches with saws, Sevan, Steph, and Kash were dragging and wheelbarrowing the charred timber to drop it behind the bushes. The team discovered that not all blackened wood was dead inside, so Richard decided not to cut down all the tree stems, hoping that they might revive.

While a decent action film doesn't necessarily need a twist, our story had one: twisting a not-burnt, but rotten tree, a part of a hedge close to the closed park cafe. Three GoodGymers diverted their attention from barrows to the leaning dead tree and yanked it off the ground. It took all three from the GoodGym gang to haul it away, so afterwards they came back to the wheelbarrows overflowing with burnt branches that needed emptying.

The peaceful atmosphere in the park was briefly disturbed by the sight of three tandem rotor helicopters sliding through the blue sky. Where did they go? No one could tell. But everyone knew who had the most sooty nose after the task, and this time it wasn't Kash.

Five GoodGymers met four Ealing Greenwayers near the Perivale Park Athletics Track for their last summer event this season. It was not a race or a competition. Two teams worked together against the ivy that had swallowed the fence between the track and the car park in Pear Tree Park. To make the job safe, the Greenwayers marked four parking spaces as out of order with a stretch of barricade tape and a few cones. That setup, together with Richard's Walpole Park Volunteer hi-viz, must have made us look like a legitimate force to be reckoned with.

A thick coating of ivy was covering everything: the fence, the soil, and even more layers of ivy - can you imagine that? We didn't even know where to start, but with a team of nine, we could begin in several places at once! Shears, loppers, forks, spades and saws were in action. Thanks to the team's relentless effort and Richard's mastery of ad-hoc tool-sourcing, an incredible amount of ivy was removed and wheelbarrowed into a hidden ivy graveyard behind a hedge.

"A totally superb Goodgym onslaught today, thanks so much. It will now be possible for Greener Ealing staff to tidy up and lay woodchip. We've made their job so much easier." - Richard.

We are taking a strategic break from the sessions with the Greenwayers for the remaining two summer months - but worry not! We may do an odd session to support Pear Tree Park by the River Brent - as we did later today, bashing the Himalayan balsam. We are also looking forward to reuniting with the Greenwayers in September, during Ealing Climate Week - sign up for the occasion now!

Four explorers Kash, Sevan, Harvey and Steph Ducat set off and jogged after a coffee break to meet Professor Richard from Ealing Greenwayers in Greenford near the Jungle of Gurnell. Explorer Andrew was already there and we also had another French explorer Maxime who decided to adventure outside of his borough. The explorers braved the jungle of Gurnell in search of the fabled land Professor Richard mentioned at the beginning of the meeting: Eldorado aka the Balsam Field. The field was a treasure for the explorers, but it could not be seen from the trail path. Was this just a myth or would the intrepid explorers find their way to the holy Balsam Field? Armed with loppers, shears and slashers the adventurers battled their way through the impenetrable jungle to find their first treasure...a lime bike!! The jungle opened up to an open space with rocks, flowing water of the river and the famous Balsam Field that Professor Richard notoriously spoke about to the GG explorers. While part of the explorers kept clearing the highway to Eldorado, the others started removing the Balsam from the field. Another successful expedition for Professor Richard and his explorers - welcome to Eldorado!! Impact was gi-ga-normous : words from Richard

To ask why we do good is to ask why the brambles grow - it is in their nature. Brambles and nettles swallow old paths, woodchip gets washed out by rain and trampled by walkers, and mud comes back to obscure trails. And so GoodGymers and Greenwayers come back to keep the paths alive.

Speaking of great comebacks, Bryon and Christos both found time for some GoodGymming today between the joys of being dads. The award for the most unexpected return goes to Jules, who signed up while the other GoodGymmers were sipping their pre-task coffee at Oscars and still made it to the café herself. Well done Jules - that's the sort of surprise we like the most!

The team walked from Pitshanger to Brent Viaduct to meet Ealing Greenwayers: Richard, Sam and Jim. The objective was similar to those at many previous sessions at the banks of Brent River: make the riverwalk safe and enjoyable to all visitors. Were the activities repetitive then? By no means!

We were up to a lot of diverse jobs:

• Security - Jules and Richard cut through the wilderness to open the sides of the path and remove all the potential dodginess,
• Diving - Richard, Jim, Kash and Christos went skip diving to rescue a few paving slabs,
• Jigsaw puzzles - Steph Ducat, Sevan and a few others laid out additional slabs on the path to prevent people and dogs from walking on the mud,
• Bottomless barrow - Bryon and Sam kept topping up our wheelbarrows and buckets with fresh woodchip like there was no tomorrow!

There was, of course, wheelbarrowing and raking like at any other woodchip-focussed task. If you've done woodchipping in the past, you know the drill. If you haven't - maybe it's time to give it a try? Why not lend us a hand at the nearest opportunity in May?

In 90 minutes our 9-people team has completed revitalising the path - such a rewarding feeling to see it rejuvenated (and improved) at the whole length! We also got some shoutouts from the park visitors!

Next month we are up for another adventure in Pear Tree Park - bramble and nettle bash by the river. Sign up now!

A sunny yet windy Sunday had three GoodGymers rubbing their chilly hands against warm coffee cups at a cafe on Pitshanger Lane. After volunteering at Pitshanger Junior parkrun, the team was regrouping ahead of a walk to Pear Tree Park to help Ealing Greenwayers take care of the area around the now-closed park cafe.

For those Greenwayers who couldn't squeeze a run, walk, or cycle on their way to the session, Kash conducted a full-body warm-up involving many gentle joint rotations ahead of 80 minutes of edging, shovelling, wheelbarrowing, and raking.

Richard, the Greenwayers leader, outlined the task of improving the looks of the park's north border. First, the grass' appetite to spread had to be curbed, so the Greenwayers Sue and Ian were on the edging duty until one of the edging tools broke. Oops. That wasn't the GoodGymers this time! The other Greenwayers, Yi Shwei and David, initially joined the GoodGymers Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash in the woodchip transport department.

Everyone had a go with both shovelling and wheelbarrowing, apart from Kash, who had injured her foot the day before and decided to stay away from any attempts to increase her step count. But did she miss her workout? It couldn't be further from the truth. Kash was on endurance shovelling duty for the entire task and was the main cause of the erosion of a woodchip coast that day. Richard's endeavour was a reverse of Dubai's Palm Islands project. The team have been mercilessly reducing the woodchip pile coastline. Steph and Sevan served as heavy-duty trucks carrying woodchip away from the coast to create desert-like patches under the hedge. Initially, the dunes appeared, that later had to be raked to create a flatter landscape. By noon, a chain of beautiful oases was created of woodchip spread neatly between palm-like bushes. Or was it just a mirage?

We have two new Pear Tree Park sessions already scheduled for spring in April and May! We are hoping for temperatures a little bit closer to those in Dubai - but not too much! Join us next time for a fun and rewarding Sunday morning workout.