After a community session at GPRA community Hall, Kash, Sevan and Steph Ducat jogged towards their afternoon mission at Mrs N, but stopped for lunch. It was not lunch but a feast : loads of food for a good price - we left the table with some takeaway as it was so massive. The 3 full belly goodgymers needed to burn their huge lunch off!!!We arrived at Mrs N who replied to the ring bell but the 3 were surprised by Mr N from the side who led them to the massive garden where weed were just uninvited guests. Mr N was not only working his day job, but also has been looking after his wife who has had an operation about 2 months ago. Their garden had decided to party and go wild : grass, brambles and weed had taken the garden to the next level! Mr N was already busy in the garden and had several tools available for the Plantastic Voyage that him and the 3 goodgymers were going to experience for 90 minutes. Garden State of Mind was to eliminate the weed, brambles and the grass. Sevan took loppers and secateurs, while Kash took the strimmer which keep wanting attention(strings attached?), Mr N the lawnmower and of Steph took his preferred weapon the scythe. We moved in formation : the scythe first, followed by the strimmer, then the lawnmower and the finishers were the loppers/secateurs. The plantastic Beasts walked all over the uninvited guests - 2 massive bags of greenery were filled. Mr N provided nice ice cold water bottles to all including himself as worked as hard as the goodgymers. We were also told and noticed that the Foxes were coming to party too in the back garden : they will probably be shocked by the changes that happened today in the Garden of Eden-tity, Green Thumbs Up to all four and we are sure Mrs N will be very happy to see her garden

It was our fifth session for Greenford Park Residents Association Community Hall and the fourth one that included transporting bikes. Will those bicycles eventually go away?

We started the journey of transforming the hall's backyard in December last year. Back then, we could not even take a good "before" photo of the space as dozens of bicycles blocked us from entering the area.

It was incredible to see the final step of clearing the bike graveyard today and completing the painting (at least the first coat!) of the second wooden bench that had been buried under the heaps of bikes.

The bicycles belonged to London Bike Hub, a great initiative aiming to restore as many bicycles as possible for the community. They used to store the pre-loved rides and bike parts at the back of GPRA Hall. Now was the time for the association to reclaim the space and start using it for tea parties and outdoor events. Ash, Christos, Sevan, Steph and Kash were there to make that happen. Under the watchful eye of task owner John, they followed his vision of a bike-free space with two renovated orange benches ready to welcome visitors.

After 90 minutes of dismantling two large bike racks, using creative ways to get the wheeled and wheel-less cycles up the hill to their new home, sweeping paving slabs and painting a bench with old, orange-tinted wood protector, the promised land of tea parties has emerged. It was astonishing to see such a clear, spacious yard, especially in comparison to what we had first encountered in December!

We cannot wait to hear from John again about the community activities planned in the garden... or another job to fix the paving slabs - we are not too fussy!

This Sunday morning task at Cuckoo Park was the last of this May's Wildlife Surveys in Ealing Tiny Forests. Steph and Kash introduced Andrew and his girlfriend Debbie to the nitty-gritty of scouring the area for insects, and then everyone launched into... deep focus.

🦋 Debbie, not discouraged by the stories of previous butterfly surveys' findings, spent 15 minutes with her eyes peeled for the colourful wings, yet the final butterfly count this year remained zero!
🐜 Steph taught Andrew the ways of the underworld - in other words: the world of ground dwellers. The duo spotted plenty of ants and larvae under the biodiversity tiles. Interestingly, two of the tiles seemed to be misplaced. Foxes?
🐝 Kash found a small patch of flowers at the edge of the Tiny Forest and observed it closely - as a result, she recorded two bumblebees and a fly in her pollinator survey.
🚮 Steph, always ready for a spontaneous litter pick, at the sight of rubbish at the Tiny Forest, pulled out his foldable picker and a rubbish bag, then did a litter blitz around the site. It looks like the wooden benches in the "classroom" area attract not only the lovers of nature but the fans of Coors beer as well!

The community mission concluded the Wildlife Survey this season. We will return to Cuckoo Park in the future to see how the biodiversity develops over time. In the meantime, we'll surely pop in with measuring tapes to help scientists calculate Tiny Forest's trees' capacity to store carbon.