Last night we met at Oaken Grove pond where 2 volunteers from "friends of Oaken Grove" were already hard at work chopping down overgrowth and making a start on sludge removal. Jacqui from RBWM then brought us the equipment we needed to get going - it was a relatively simple task, relocate sludge from pond area to some overgrowth nearby. Simple but stinky, very stinky! All GoodGymmers that attended got stuck in (the mud), some with wellies in the pond area shoveling the sludge into buckets and others moving the sludge via wheelbarrow to the overgrowth. And repeat. A great upper body workout for sure! We came away rather covered in muck but it was good fun and an amazing team effort that made a real dent in the work that needs doing to the pond this year. We were also treated to a beautiful full moon and red skies which made for some nice photos. Well done everyone!

What a joyful sight to see so many red GoodGym t-shirts gathering for our group run/walk last night, and it was wonderful to be able to welcome newcomers Kay, Viv and Bernd.

It was a beautiful evening for our short walk or run along the pretty Thames tow path. 8 walkers set off first, with Nicola taking the lead. I warmed up and launched 4 runners with navigator Gillian at the helm, and then brought up the rear with 2 more walkers. We chatted about camping and it all felt very wholesome!

As well as the sea of red t-shirts, we were dressed in long sleeves and trousers, and Tony even had some special pirate boots, ready to venture into the nettley undergrowth and overgrowth at the South East corner of Battlemead Common.

Our task for the evening was to pull up more invasive Himalayan Balsam, which threatens native biodiversity if left unchecked, and seems to be getting taller by the minute! We know from previous sessions that this can be a hugely satisfying task, as the roots come up really easily.

Angela spoke for everyone when she said, 'This is my kind of weeding!'

Short roots, minimal bending down, and a saitsifying crunching noise as you walk (or jump if you're Nicola or Diya) on the defeated stems piled on the ground.

Battlemead seems an apt name for this area as it does feel like we are engaged in battle - albeit the jolliest, least lethal battle ever. We pushed forward on multiple fronts and gained much ground.

We also had one wounded soldier as Claire got a face full of nettles not once but twice! She was very brave and said a cup of tea and bed would sort her out.

We mustn't rest on our laurels. The enemy is growing stronger week by week. We found one plant already in flower. It had lovely, pink, sweet-pea like bells, whose prettiness is what got us into this mess in the first place, back when the Victorians introduced the plant to British gardens in 1839. (NB these are not the pretty pink flowers pictured with Juli. They are perennial sweetpeas, which are growing along the tow path and are not the enemy!)

We need to prevent the plant from flowering because according to the RHS, each flowering plant can produce up to 800 seeds. These can then be dispersed widely as the ripe seedpods shoot their missiles up to 7m away. If the seeds get into waterways then they can quickly spread even further. If any Taskforce members would like to list more balsam-battling sessions then that would be brilliant. There is still time to win at Battlemead!

Thanks to Yesim and Diya for photos.

Happy bird-day to us! This week marks 4 years since we launched GoodGym in Windsor and Maidenhead and it was brilliant to see a record number of GoodGym chicks and chaps at our celebratory group run/party. This evening's brood included 25 of us, the biggest number since launch night back in 2020.

Our evening was a fun mix of team games and an eggcellent task: filling knitted chicks and bunnies with chocolate eggs for Alexander Devine Children's Hospice Services' Easter fundraising campaign. As one GoodGymer from team 'Diya's Darlings' put it, we helped with 'reverse births for our four birthdays'!

A warm welcome to Didem and Amy, who were joining us for the first time. I warned them at the start that this 'group run' might not be 100% representative of our typical Wednesday evening, but maybe it was the perfect introduction to the weird and wonderful stuff we get up to?

There was loads of laughter, silliness and cheering, we did some walking and running round the park, we used litter pickers and hoops, hi vis and gardening gloves (in our relay game) and there was a lot of chocolate (although this time we didn't eat it as was part of the task). With many hands we blitzed the task super quick and made a difference for a local charity. There was also quite a lot of fancy dress and a healthy dose of competitive spirit.

Just a 'normal' GoodGym session then!

Something we don't normally do at GoodGym is have epic games of GoodGym themed Pictionary or 'Guess the GoodGym beneficiary' quizzes, which we did enjoy last night. However these games gave us plenty of opportunity to share stories about what we've been doing for the last 4 years, so hopefully it was a nice overview for newcomers as well as an opportunity for everyone else to reminisce.

The chick stuffing task was a cracking task, partly thanks to task owner Yazmin being so organised and bringing everything to the community centre for us, and partly because the chicks and bunnies were SO CUTE! Huge kudos to the army of skilled crafters, including a team of GoodGymers, who made these little characters.

Now you shouldn't count your chickens, but we couldn't play 'guess the number of chicks' without a count, so Yazmin and I risked it. The grand total was 356, which is worth a fantastic £1068 to the charity.

At the end of the evening I tallied up all the points from the various games and the final scoreboard read:

2 Awesome for this 30 points (although I regret not awarding Jess points for her amazing Victorian child meets washer woman fancy dress, so maybe that number should have been higher)

The Mighty Ducks 40 points

Diya's Darlings 49 points

The Regal Bunnies 58 points and the win! This team really shone in the Pictionary and pun rounds.

Having said that, I really think everyone who came along this evening (and who has contributed to our last four years) is a winner. We've now helped over 90 charities and community groups, venues and projects in our local area. We've done 5,375 good deeds in our local area, including 625 visits to isolated older people.

Winner, winner, chicken winner!

7 Goodgymmers answered the call for volunteers to knit or crochet Easter chicks or bunnies, which will each be filled with a creme egg and sold in aid of Alexander Devine Children's Hospice. At the time of writing, 29 have been completed, with maybe some more on their way before next week's deadline. Each will be sold for £3, meaning that we will have contributed at least £87 to this worthwhile charity. Well done to the team of Clare, Claire, Gillian, Jess, Nicola, Rosie and Sheila. Egg-cellent work!