Seven Ealing GoodGymers ditched the Sunday morning lie-in routine to assemble in front of Greenford Park Community Hall for another session to improve the centre's back garden. The backyard used to be a storage space for the London Bike Hub, and when GoodGym visited for the first time, it was full of bicycles in various states: from fine rides needing just a bit of maintenance to wretched-looking frames that hadn't seen their wheels for ages. Over the past few sessions, GoodGymers greatly reduced the number of bicycles in the space, but bike-shifting was still on today's task agenda!

GoodGymers Sevan, Kash and Mira ran to the sessions while the others walked. Did I just mention Mira? She's our newest addition to the team, with a knack for DIY! Our sessions never require experience in any particular area, but we wouldn't say no to bringing practical skills - especially since today's task called for painting.

While Diana, Gaby and Mohamed followed John, the task owner from GPRA, to carry, drive, drag or wheelbarrow old bikes to store them at John's allotment space, the remaining GoodGymers stayed with GPRA members Emma and Heather to further clear the backyard and make enough room to paint old wooden benches. Not seeing the bike squad returning for a while, Sevan set off for a rescue mission.

Mira, Michelle and Kash swept and packed the dried garden waste that had not fit in the green bin last month. One of the benches was now within reach! With no paper nor time to do sanding, Michelle diligently wiped the wood with a cloth and was excited to paint a bench for the first time! Mira gave Michelle some pro tips before both dipped the brushes in the bucket of paint, which, despite all the stirring, felt quite gooey.

When the bike shifters team, eventually joined by Sevan and later Kash, returned from their expedition to the allotment, Mira and Michelle said they must have put about ten coats of paint. Although the paint available to the GoodGymers was quite old, the bench received a much fresher look and more protection from the elements. The yard looked tidier with fewer bikes and without plies of leaves and ivy.

We will be back soon at the GPRA Community Hall to continue with the transformation. Check out how the back garden looked when we started work on that side of the hall and see the difference our sessions made!

On a sunny Saturday like this, what could have been better than spending the morning amongst the lush green wilderness of Horsenden Hill? A recent report by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) found that spending 20 minutes in nature each day can brings incredible benefits to our mental health like reducing stress and anxiety and improving mood, self-esteem and confidence.

Members of WWF UK, Annie, Emma, Kat and Ferozah, visited Horsenden Farm as a part of their Prescription for Nature campaign to experience a GoodGym-style workout outdoors and encourage communities across the UK to do the same.

Not everyone has equal opportunities to enjoy physical activity in nature. For some communities being outdoors is not considered the norm, for others, barriers may involve access to transport or living in a nature-deprived area. Our special guest at today's session, Haroon Mota, the founder of Active Inclusion Network CIC and the Muslim Hikers group, actively works to empower the underrepresented communities to engage in the great outdoors.

The guests and nine GoodGym regulars met Elsa, a Friend of Horsenden Hill, who prepared a unique activity: a conservation-type task! Our job was to clear ash trees and brambles in the woodland area. How cutting back vegetation is supposed to help nature, you may ask. The benefits were twofold. Firstly, clearing the area of overgrowth was aimed at promoting the growth of grasses which would become habitats for various species, increasing the biodiversity of the hill. Secondly, we were making the feed for the Horsenden cows out of ash trees.

"The cows are going to eat wood? No way!"

Challenge accepted! We served lunch to the cows, a bull and a three-week-old calf by throwing the trimmings over the fence. And how they munched on those branches! Just like us on the pizza from Horsenden Loaf we treated ourselves to after the session!

Elsa was impressed to see how much space we cleared in 90 minutes, thanks to the power of teamwork. The session in the woods gave everyone a boost for the rest of the day. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with nature, meet new people and do something good.

If you want to join us next time at Horsenden Farm, sign up here!

It was not brambles, ivy or litter that were the main nuisance at Grove Farm today. Friends of Grove Farm had another problem to fix: a leaking pond! A pool of water at the bottom of the park's hill was surrounded by clay borders and one of the walls was reinforced with a fallen willow. Unfortunately, the dead tree fortified by clay was not doing its job to keep the water in. We don't know if the Paradise Fields beaver engineers were consulted about building a dam, but the GoodGym Ealing plumbing team got there first!

Three Friends of Grove Farm: Anna, Mike and Olena were joined on Saturday by a strong team of six GoodGymers. The job was to excavate some clay, and then fill the gaps that were causing the leak. We had an archaeologist and an engineer (a network engineer to be specific) on the team, which boosted our confidence about digging and constructing things. One team: Sevan, Simon, Mehmet and Mike were sent to mine for clay at the other part of the park, while the rest stayed at the pond. Gaby and Kash were digging the clay locally, eroding the top of existing walls that did not have to be as high, and Eliz, Anna and Olena did most of the construction work, patching the leaky pond barrier.

To make sure that the clay is properly compacted, our builders were performing a flagship GoodGym exercise - muddy mountain climbers (see how Eliz did it!). That routine was not only a perfect workout for the legs and core but also for nature. Which other gym has that on their offer?

The last ten minutes of the task was spent on cleaning the tools, followed by a short excursion to the wood anemone location. Cutting back all the brambles in that area in the winter paid off - we were dazzled by a wonderful carpet of white flowers against the greenery of the woodlands!

Wood anemones will be still flowering in the next two weeks, so if you are keen to see their beauty, join Friends of Grove Farm for creating habitats for slow worms next week or the conservation day in April.