A short but sweet task tonight as we made our way along the Richmond riverside to the boathouses, where we were met by Trevor from the Richmond Boating Scouts. Seven of us were at the annual task of helping to give the arch doors a scrubbing, a sanding and a fresh oiling, ready for the winter ahead.

Block Party

Part one was to give the doors a sanding down. Chris, Liz, Lucy, Adam and Kate armed with sanding blocks started to scour away at the external doors, whilst Monica and Cathy gave the inner side a clean up, and dusted away the cobwebs.

Oil Be There For You

Once cleaned and sanded, we changed from sanding sponges and rags to paintbrushes and pots. Whilst the sun was setting over the Thames, we smothered the doors in teak oil from top to bottom. Kate was on quality control, with Chris and Adam making sure the high bits were painted (and kept a safe distance from Adam’s splash zone, following allegations he was a splatterer when it comes to the paint brush).

Just Let Me A-Door You

Within no time, we stood back to admire the freshly oiled doors, and then turned to admire the stunning orange sky over the water. Trevor thanked us for our efforts, and off we went into the sunset, a Monday night good deed teaked off.

An annual task for us that means a good walk rather than a run, delivering leaflets Richmond CVS to advertise their upcoming Trustee Recruitment evening.

The group met at the Tap as usual for an intro and a chat about some upcoming tasks before heading into surrounding residential streets to deliver the leaflets. Many hands make light work and within an hour all leaflets were posted, with time to admire some doors, front gardens, a passing fox and a hairless cat!

As part of the Great Big Green Week, GG Richmond helped out with volunteering at the weekly Junior parkrun at Moormead park in St Margaret’s.

Hi-vizzed up, three of us (Adam, Cathy and Lucy) joined the other volunteers to cheer on the mums and dads and 123 budding young runners as they made their way around the park twice. Adam and Cathy had marshalling roles, and made sure the children went the right way and also provided high fives and cheers to the kids running past, and Lucy was a timekeeper keeping count of the kids are they passed through the finish line.

We clearly did a superb job as there were PB’s all over the place, and within 25 minutes the kids were all finished, the cones packed away and we were off to enjoy the day.

This group run took us to the greatest Carolinian landscape in the world and a bat superhighway - Ham Avenues.

Here we came to the rescue of the European lime trees which were being troubled by nasty shoots aka "suckers" growing out from their trunks. These were no match for the GoodGymmers as we used loppers to cut them away.

It was a glorious evening for a gentle run/ walk along the river. We welcomed Joanna to her first GG task, celebrated Maena's birthday and took in Ken's local history knowledge.